BBC Radio Scotland broadcaster Lesley Riddoch has become the latest top name on the bill for Scotland’s newest – and “most boutique” - book festival later this month.

Conversations @ the Edge, the inaugural Book Festival on the enchanting Isle of Colonsay, will assemble some of Scotland’s finest authors for an unmissable weekend of events on 28-29 April 2012.

Nestling west of Jura in the Inner Hebrides, Colonsay is fast becoming a genuine ‘Festival Island’.

The new book festival joins a highly successful annual folk festival (CeòlCholasa, now in its 5th year) and the three-week Festival of Spring, which started in 2011.

The first ever Colonsay Book Festival will welcome a star line-up of some of the nation’s greatest writers, including Scotland’s Makar Liz Lochhead, internationally acclaimed author Alexander McCall Smith CBE and James Robertson, winner of the Saltire Society’s Scottish Book of the Year for And the Land Lay Still.

Joining this august trio will be leading historical novelist Margaret Elphinstone, award-winning short story writer and poet Sophie Cooke and one of the UK’s most popular poets, Kenneth Steven, who also writes books for adults and children.

Each of the writers will be reading from their most recent publications, as well as discussing new work. The final session of the weekend, Conversations @ the End, to be chaired by journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, will see all the authors coming together to take questions from the audience, which should provide some interesting exchanges!

On the Saturday evening, there will be entertainment from well-known writer and songsmith Robin Laing, who will share his love of – and sing about – whiskies.
Conversations @ the Edge is the brainchild of a group of passionate Colonsay booklovers, who were keen to augment the island’s burgeoning festival calendar with a literary event.

Home to 120 inhabitants and boasting some of the most spectacular beaches in Scotland, the Isle of Colonsay is justifiably famous for its stunning scenery, its diverse flora and fauna and its fascinating history and archaeology.

Tickets for the Colonsay Book Festival are still available, either by email at colonsaybookfestival@hotmail.co.uk, or telephone: (01951) 200067. A weekend pass is £40, individual events are £8. Tickets for the Saturday night whisky tasting with Robin Laing will be available on the door and are not included in the weekend pass.

For press enquiries, please contact Katie Spence.