Borders Book Festival returns to traditional home

The Borders Book Festival is back at its traditional time of year and venue

The Borders Book Festival has returned to its traditional home for the first time in three years.

Events are back at the Harmony Gardens in Melrose and will run until Sunday.

Last year the event was held at Abbotsford House in November, having been effectively cancelled in 2020.

Organisers said they were delighted to welcome back the audience they had "missed so much" since they were last in the town.

Among the events on the opening day is a talk by Sir Jackie Stewart about his life in aid of the charity he founded, Race Against Dementia.

Also appearing will be Borders actor Jack Lowden along with novelist Mick Herron to discuss the spy thriller Slow Horses.

Sir Jackie Stewart is among those taking part at this year's festival which runs until Sunday

There are more than 100 events from Thursday to Sunday, with guests including Joanna Lumley, Miles Jupp, Val McDermid, Jack Dee, Esme Young and Clive Myrie.

Festival director Alistair Moffat said they were delighted to be back.

The winner of this year's £25,000 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction will also be announced.

It will be chosen from a shortlist of four books - Colm Toibin's The Magician, Andrew Greig’s Rose Nicolson, Amanda Smyth’s Fortune and James Robertson’s News of the Dead.

Alice Tarbuck, literature officer with Creative Scotland, said it was great to see the festival return in a "hopeful celebration of the power of storytelling".