By the time of its seventh festival in 2010, the Borders Book Festival has grown into a national, UK, event. For four days in June in the stunning setting of Harmony Gardens in Melrose, it will stage the announcement of two of Britain's major literary awards. The inaugural Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction is sponsored by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch and will given to the best novel of 2009, and the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Scottish Arts Council Scottish Book of the Year will go to one of a shortlist of four.
The first time the Book Festival was staged, in 2004, it was little more than a pilot. Four authors came to the Wynd Theatre and fewer than 300 people came to listen to them, filling almost every seat in the tiny auditorium. By 2007 the festival had moved to Harmony House and Garden, the National Trust for Scotland's stunning Georgian property in Melrose, and in 2009 audiences had rocketed to more than 8,000.
The level of interest and attendance is all the more impressive because the Book Festival takes place over only four nights and three days at the end of June each year. But it is the sheer world-class quality of the writers who come which has driven this extraordinary expansion; Michael Palin, Germaine Greer, Ian Rankin, Iain Banks, Bernard Cornwell, William Dalrymple and many other bestselling names have come to Melrose at midsummer to talk to enthusiastic audiences.
Running in parallel has been the mushrooming of a Schools Gala Programme and a brand new Family Book Festival. These have attracted thousands of children, their parents and teachers and it forms part of a strategy to build audiences and readers for the future. The Borders Book Festival has been solidly supported by Scottish Borders Council, the Scottish Arts Council, EventScotland and many local businesses. And it seems set fair for a bright future.
