Sunshine, huge crowds, flowers in full bloom, wine, but most of all wonderful author sessions made the 2010 Borders Book Festival the best ever. No hyperbole, no doubt. From the moment Jim Naughtie opened with a superb lecture on the new political landscape, completely overturning the conventional view of the election and its consequences, to Donnie Munro’s lyrical and energetic concert, the festival flowed like a golden river. There were too many highlights to list them but the making of literary history with the award of the inaugural Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction at Abbotsford to Hilary Mantel was undoubtedly a landmark. Tam Dalyell gave the prize, Richard Buccleuch sponsored it and Jim Naughtie accepted it on behalf of Hilary Mantel.
Each year we make a rod for our own backs by upping standards, numbers and the range of the programme and 2011 will need to be astonishing to top what happened in Harmony Garden.