SHE'D been feeding the multitude (the media) not with fishes and loaves, rather with bacon and maple syrup on mini pancakes, in the Signet Library in the morning, revealing the programme for the Book Festival (August 9-25).
And here she was, the event's director Catherine Lockerbie, mid-evening the same day in the Balmoral's Palm Court, discreetly downing a deserved gin and tonic.
It's one helluva beast of a programme. All of 800 authors who'll bring some 200,000 bo
okish folk into Charlotte Square Garden over the 17 days.
Catherine, this will be your seventh year in charge – you've got broad shoulders but this time haven't you taken on too much, I wondered.
"I think not. And I hope not. Every year I vow I won't involve so many authors next time but I can't help myself. There are so many brilliant authors, so many brilliant books, and so many of them ask to come back.
"It must seem like a physical impossibility, 800, but my staff and I, we'll make it happen.
"Once it's all over, I'll snatch a few days away before we start on the 2009 festival. It's like painting the Forth Bridge."
When she swans off for a day or two, presumably she'll curl up somewhere with a good book.
You're right, Tam Wrong about the Falklands and the Belgrano. Right about MSPs. Tam Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow until he retired three years ago, thinks they are surplus to requirements. And so, who needs Holyrood?
A lot of us would like to see Tam fight the good fight on this one, pin MSPs on the ropes, saving taxpayers a fortune, and having the relentlessly ridiculed Parly building converted into a hotel for Polish workers.
Bully for Tam. I thought that, at 75 , they might put him out to hunt with the hounds at Linlithgow. Pity he got into such a fankle over the Belgrano, justifiably torpedoed by one of our subs. For me, the only real blemish in his political career.
Afterwords . . . . . songs sung blue by Neil Diamond at 67: "When I'm writing I am truly solitary. I remove myself from the world. But that's not really me, I need people. I am very social. I love hanging out and when I have the chance I go overboard, I'm a clown." Caroline, so sweet, enjoys a good laugh, too.
The full article contains 402 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
