HIGHEST PRAISE FROM SCOTLAND’S MAKAR LIZ LOCHHEAD FOR FIRST EVER COLONSAY BOOK FESTIVAL

Scotland’s national poet has declared the country’s newest – and arguably most boutique – book festival to be “simply the best”.

The glowing accolade from Liz Lochhead in the inaugural Colonsay Book Festival’s ‘visitors’ book’ comes as organisers look back on an enormously successful first event over the last weekend of April.

Liz Lochhead said: "To say this is a BRILLIANT festival - simply the best - is not to say too much. …I'm going to become one of those Colonsay recidivists, D.V. Thank You!"

Conversations @ the Edge, on the spellbinding Isle of Colonsay, enticed some of Scotland’s finest authors for an unmissable weekend of literary events in a stunning setting.

The first ever Colonsay Book Festival showcased 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.

They were joined by 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.

Dilly Emslie, Chairman of the Colonsay Book Festival, is already working on plans for the next Colonsay Book Festival in 2013, together with her fellow book festival organisers. She said: "The inaugural Colonsay Book Festival surpassed our greatest expectations. Wonderful talks by first-class writers, received by an enthusiastic and appreciative audience. And of course the weather helped. Colonsay never looked more beautiful."

Margaret Elphinstone said: "This has been a terrific festival. I'm very privileged to be among the first authors to come to the Colonsay Book Festival. It's been a great atmosphere, with much good talk, lively debate, and it was a huge pleasure to hear the other authors."

Alexander McCall Smith said: "This was a wonderful start to a literary festival that I am sure will become one of the most enjoyable festivals on offer. Everything worked so well and the atmosphere was extraordinarily friendly."

Photos and a review of the Colonsay Book Festival can be viewed online courtesy of the island’s cyber newsletter, The Corncrake: www.colonsay.org.uk

For press enquiries, please contact Katie Spence.