Lockerbie closes the book on festival to write a new chapter

CATHERINE Lockerbie, the woman who transformed Edinburgh's Book Festival from local event to international success, has announced she is stepping down from her role as director.

Nine years after she took over a festival with no money, three employees and one computer terminal, she leaves to pursue a career as a consultant with literary and cultural organisations.

She leaves the festival's reputation at an all-time high, with both ticket sales and sponsorship defying the recession to push ahead of last year's levels.

"In nine years, we've come so far in every way," she said yesterday. "Organisationally we've really matured, to the point that we really know how to get it right, to deliver an immensely complex operation and make it look seamless. My successor is going to inherit a truly world-class team, a robustly vibrant organisation in great spirits and the best possible shape.

"It's not healthy for a festival to become synonymous with its director nor indeed for a director to become synonymous with her festival. Now it's time to move on, for new energy and ideas – both for the festival and for me."

Although Ms Lockerbie said it was still too early to give details of the consultancy projects she will work on, she hinted that they are likely to involve working alongside some of the organisations she has already either helped to set up or worked alongside with the festival.

"Nine years ago, there was far less common purpose between Scotland's various literary organisations and less understanding by the government of literature's importance than there is now. I'd like to think I've played a part in that.

"There's a certain momentum in Scotland's cultural life right now and I want to be able to help move it forward."

Ms Lockerbie, who was on medical leave from her job before she stepped down, said that the only good thing about being ill was that it afforded her the opportunity to take stock of what she'd achieved and think about what she wanted to do next.

"The high points? Sadly but also poignantly and magnificently, they'd have to include some of the last appearance of such titans as contemporary literature as Harold Pinter and Muriel Spark or – via a live link to his Massachusetts home – Norman Mailer.

"But there are so many more, from our own first publication last year of Lights Off The Quay – a marvellous collection of specially commissioned new work by AL Kennedy, Janice Galloway, John Burnside and Don Paterson – to truly wondrous events with great writers such as Amos Oz, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood. Or every excited child's face going in to see JK Rowling.

"I've gained immeasurably from my time at the book festival. Yes, it was all-consuming, but I'm very proud of what our team and I have achieved."

Although leaving her job was a big step, she said, it will always have a special place in her life. "What I've done for the festival won't be lost. It will be there in the future in some form – not least the fact that through it I have developed relationships with literally thousands of authors, along with publishers, and cultural institutions."

Among writers, Ms Lockerbie's commitment to the festival's internationalism and to widening its accessibility is widely admired.

Carol Anne Duffy, the Poet Laureate, said: "Catherine has established the book festival as the finest of its kind in the world. She has been a literary director of integrity, vision, compassion and inspiration and writers and readers everywhere are in her debt."

Margaret Atwood, who will be launching her new novel at this year's festival, added: "The incomparable Catherine Lockerbie is – well, incomparable. Hooray for her, and may the wind be always at her back."

Lockerbie's festival is a hard act to follow

WANTED: person to run world's biggest book festival.

Must be well read – not just in Scottish, British and world literature, but also in history, philosophy, science, politics, economics, etc. Must be intellectually adventurous, challenging, prepared to take risks on the kind of writers, still unknown, who will be tomorrow's superstars.

Must be unflustered at all times, have a diplomat's charm, a socialite's address book and an evangelist's eloquence. Must be capable of running a business with a £1.5 million turnover.

Must create a festival that, year on year, remains the best celebration of writing in the world.

They don't put it quite like that in the job application form that went on the Edinburgh International Book Festival's website yesterday, but if they are looking for someone like Catherine Lockerbie, that's what they need.

I'm biased. I was her deputy for the ten years she was literary editor of this newspaper and both enjoyed her company and admired her intellect throughout that time. To paraphrase Brian Clough, I'm not saying she's the most intelligent woman I've ever met in my life, but she is in the top one.

A Lockerbie book festival (as we shall now learn to call them) wasn't always about the number of people coming through the gates of Charlotte Square – even though in her tenure those numbers more than doubled. TV comedians and assorted celebrities with books to plug were, in her reign, never automatic invitees.

Win a Nobel Prize and you would stand a far better chance: Lockerbie had ten of them in her festivals.

But although writers such as Al Gore, Gore Vidal, Alan Bennett and Salman Rushdie grabbed the headlines, Ms Lockerbie's commitment to lesser-known names who make up 80 per cent of the programme was no less intense. All got the same fee; all shared the same status.

Whoever her successor is, they have a hard act to follow.