Barley seeks cream of the crop for his debut festival

Published on Saturday 17 October 2009 11:15

A LEADER ejected from his high-profile job who goes on to have spectacular success in his later roles. Not a description of Nick Barley, the new director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, appointed this week just a month after being made redundant from his post as executive director of The Lighthouse architecture and design centre in Glasgow – though no doubt he'll be hoping that will turn out to be his story.

It's actually the tale of the lead character in his favourite book, The Damned United, a fictionalised account of Brian Clough's troubled 44 days as manager of Barley's team, Leeds United, back in the 1970s. Of course, Cloughie went on to glory days at other English top level clubs – at the moment, though, 43-year-old Barley says he's just "slightly terrified" at the thought of matching his predecessor's record. Catherine Lockerbie, who quit this summer after nine years at the helm, built the August festival up to be the biggest in the world. "It will be very difficult to live up to that," Barley admits.

North Yorkshire-born Barley moved to Edinburgh from London six years ago – his wife, Fiona Bradley, is director of the city's Fruitmarket gallery. The family live in the New Town and Barley says they particularly appreciate the quality of life in the city compared to their former home in the UK's capital. It also means he doesn't have far to travel to his new offices in Charlotte Square.

So what can Book Festival fans expect from the first Barley event? The process of drawing up next year's programme has already begun – Barley flew out to the Frankfurt Book Festival on Wednesday – and while he refuses to say who is on his wishlist, he says he is determined to make the event accessible to all.

"It's not just a highbrow festival, it's about having all sort of people from all walks of life," he says. As a football fan, sports writing could be on the agenda – "there is a lot of good writing about sport" – and as a father of two he recognises the importance of the children's section. His children, Felix, seven, and Morgan, four, are books fans too – Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson and War Horse writer Michael Morpurgo are among his favourites from their favourites.

The former editor of The List also hopes to showcase the "huge amount of emerging talent" in Edinburgh: "What struck me was that when JK Rowling first appeared, it was to an audience of just 30 people before Harry Potter was widely known so as well as bringing in the bigger names, we also want to see the stars of next year and the year after at the Book Festival first."