Borders Book Festival ticket sales surge

Ticket sales for the first week of the Borders Book Festival have been the strongest in its history.

The programme for the event, which takes place in Melrose from 16 to 19 June, was launched last week.

More than 5,000 tickets have been sold already with a number of high profile events sold out.

Director Alistair Moffat said the "record breaking" start showed that book festivals were "bucking the trend" of the economic downturn.

The figures are the best ever for the event which started eight years ago.