About Dumfries

Dumfries is a small farming town in South West Scotland best known for the fact that Robert Burns lived and died there, the bicycle was invented there and J.M. Barrie and explorer Joseph Thomson (no relation apart from the fact that we are all "Jock Tamson's bairns") also lived there for a while.

The local football team is Queen of the South whose claims to fame are that they are the "only team in the Bible" and that they were the first British team to win an international trophy (I'd want proof of that).

Musician (and my hero) Richard Thompson's father's family is from Dumfries, his surname having acquired the erroneous P due to a mistake made in a nameplate for his grandfather's house. To my eternal shame I once unfairly slagged him off - RT, not his grandfather - in a piece for the local paper. It's a cringe-making regret I carry with me to this day.

Apart from that, Dumfries was once voted the best place to live in Britain. As my older sister said at the time "they didnae ask us".