East Fortune by James Runcie

 Thursday 30th April was a beautifully sunny evening in St Boswells and we were lucky enough to be hosting an event for James Runcie, talking for the first time in public about his new novel, East Fortune.

David Robinson, books editor of The Scotsman, introduced James and his novel to our audience and the two discussed the issues at hand - what it is to be parented, to be a parent yourself and to be middle class and middle aged (James' words, not mine).  There were lots of questions about the relevance of James' illustrious upbringing (son of former Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie) to his writing, and many entertaining stories ensued about this and his other career as a highly successfull documentary maker.

As the evening drew to a close, David Robinson gave us his summary of East Fortune and the evening at Mainstreet:

"Family life in all its multilayered richness

Love in all its aspects

Both profound and comedic Scottish novel"

"If the first "grownups'" night at Mainstreet Trading Company is anything to go by, Borders booklovers are in for a real treat. They might also make the job of chairing author events easier too. The great delight for me in chairing the event with James Runcie was that the audience was so avid to ask him questions that I didn't need to ask him the ones I'd prepared myself. Such an engaged, interested audience is every writer's dream - and it looks as though at St Boswell's they'll find it!"