Oh dear, it’s all over for another year. Porridge and auld claes from Monday, dull, dull, dull. The sense of anticlimax is much greater than in previous years for one simple reason. 2009 was the best, the most fun festival we have had to date. The weather was OK, the writers fantastic, the crowds enormous and the problems small. If the success of a festival can be judged by the width of the director’s smile, which stretched from here to Canada, then it was a huge success. We began with the wonderfully articulate and fluent Joan Bakewell, on to Michael Palin in sparkling form, Gervase Phinn and Jackie Kay delighting their audiences and ended with the beguiling charm of Bill Paterson and the musical wizardry of Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain. The wrap party went on into the wee small hours when an exhausted festival staff finally dropped and went to bed. A fabulous four days. Our sole problem is – how do we follow that? Having made a big rod for our own backs, we have to come up with an even better programme for 2010. What a thought!
A big thanks for everyone involved, to Paula Ogilvie for tremendous hard work and attention to telling detail, to Orna Mulrooney for running the festival as it happened, great job, and to Francis Hamilton for being calm and reassuring throughout. The temporary staff were excellent and the National Trust for Scotland very tolerant. It was a good one, well done all!
Alistair Moffat, Director
Latest News from Borders Book Festival
Christopher Lloyd's new book isn't really a book at all. What On Earth Happened is more like an encyclopaedia, an extraordinary tour de force around the history of the planet, life and people, from the Big Bang when it all began up to the present day. An alternative title might be All About Everything.
This is not the kings, queens, battle and dates sort of history but the kind of thing that explains what we all see around us all the time. Christopher is a wonderful communicator, fizzing with amazing facts, the sort of thing which turns up in subsequent conversations prefaced by "Did you know....?". Adults as well as children will be riveted by his extraordinary view of the history of the world. A truly unmissable event.
Read more about Christopher Lloyd's appearance at The Borders Book Festival...'