Boswell Book Festival draws in the crowds with another successful year
Crowds flocked to the Boswell Book Festival as the world's only festival dedicated to biography and memoir was held at the weekend.
Audiences were treated to a star-studded line up with the likes of Chloe Dalton, Helen Lederer, John Suchet and Wayne Sleep taking to the stage at Dumfries House near Cumnock.
Sold-out events featured Rupert Everett in conversation with Fiona Armstrong about his book, The American No, and Pam Ayres - one of the UK's best-selling poets - with her book Doggedly Onward.
A rare opportunity for tours of Auchinleck House, the family home of James Boswell, were also snapped up.
Dom Joly took audiences on a tour of conspiracy theories around the globe including the funny and the quirky but also attempting to understand what makes people so drawn them.
Ayrshire was at the heart of the festival - named after Auchinleck's James Boswell, the father of modern biography.
Kilwinning author Andrew O'Hagan brought the house down in a riotous keynote that celebrated the dialect and humour of Scotland.
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Rob Close and Gillian Hope gave an insight into the lives of soldiers from Ayrshire and Sanquhar on the front lines during World War 1 on the weekend that the 80th anniversary of VE Day was commemorated.
The history of witchcraft and the persecution of 'witches' in Scotland was highlighted by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi alongside their book, How to Kill a Witch: A Guide for the Patriarchy.
Events for all ages were a plenty on the Saturday and Sunday with Alison Galbraith, Alan Dapré and Vivian French entertaining as part of the Boswell Children's Festival.
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That's sequences like: 1,2,3,4,5 5,10,15,20,25 2,4,6,8,10 But picking "weird" combinations is a surprisingly common tactic, says David. "If you think something is a weird combination, it's likely that other people will think it's weird too, and will likely pick that combination too. "That's because your brain holds onto anything that fits some kind of pattern." The key is to avoid number patterns, he says. A lucky dip really could be lucky What better way of avoiding number patterns than to pick a lucky dip? This is when the numbers are randomly selected for you by a computer when you buy a ticket at the till. David says: "Humans are notoriously bad at picking random numbers. "So it's likely that your attempt at picking five truly random numbers will probably fail. "The key is not to be biased towards any number." Join a syndicate A lottery syndicate is when a group of people put money into a pot for lottery tickets. There will be one person in charge - called the syndicate manager - who is in charge of buying tickets and sharing out any winnings out among the group. The syndicate manager will need to register the group with the National Lottery and list themselves as the person in charge. Playing with a group could be a good way of boosting your chances of winning, as Simon, from The National Lottery operator Allwyn UK, explains. He says: "If you join a syndicate of 10 people, then there's 10 tickets and 10 chances of winning, so there's clearly a greater chance of winning compared to if you just bought your own ticket. Simon advises players in a syndicate to draw up a list of terms and conditions that they all must agree to and sign. He adds: "If there's any confusion or complications down the line, then you can refer back to the agreement and then everyone knows where they stand. Of course, the biggest downside to a syndicate is that you will have to split the pot among the whole group equally. So if you played in a group of 10 people and you won the £131million jackpot, each person would walk away with £13.1 million. Of course, that's still big winnings to walk away with, but it's certainly something to consider.
