Scottish poet and author Jenny Lindsay says she was hounded after she began to question aspects of gender self-ID and how it had been weaponised by some to destroy the lives and careers of gender-critical feminists. Now she's fighting back, finds Kevin McKenna

On the last day of the Wigtown Book Festival, a significant cultural event is about to happen. This fiesta of books and authors, deep in the folds of rural Galloway has been punching well above its weight for many years and has become one of the UK’s most appealing literary events. It’s known for the quality and range of its guests and for the warmth of the welcome they receive from Wigtown’s residents.

Today though, something important is happening which raises Wigtown’s esteem to a higher level. Today is when the poet, author and journalist, Jenny Lindsay will appear at noon in the County Buildings. In a sane world, Ms Lindsay’s appearance here would be no cause for special attention.

She had a stellar career as a spoken word poet and had built an equally high profile as an event organiser, platforming artists who might otherwise have struggled to find an audience. Book festivals are where she should be. That was before she began to question aspects of gender self-ID and how it had been weaponised by some to destroy the lives and careers of gender-critical feminists.

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For six years or so, Ms Lindsay and many other gender critical feminists have wandered in an eternal literary winter, excluded, cancelled and hounded from all arts events and the venues which host them. Her appearance at Wigtown is the first by a gender critical female author at any book festival in Scotland since 2019 when her detractors first began to target her.

During this time, she and other gifted authors have had salt rubbed in their wounds by the appearance of some barely literate imposters who, having participated in the hounding of their betters, gleefully piled in to take their places. At this........

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