The announcement last week that Lockerbie has resigned was cause for sorrow, on her behalf as well as the festival’s, but it was not unexpected.

One does not envy whoever fills her shoes, but at least a fresh appointment offers a chance for future programmes to regain some of the vigour and ­imaginative brio Lockerbie infused them with when she was in her prime.

Complaints aside, this year’s line-up still has enough to whet the appetite for seasoned festival-goers but more particularly for those who are new to the delights of leafy Charlotte Square in the fug of urban August.

Of the handful of true headline grabbers attending, foremost is Margaret Atwood (August 30, 3.30pm and 9.30pm), adding a bit of much-needed glitter to the line up of novelists. She’s no stranger to the festival, but as anyone who has ever heard or met her knows, she is not predictable. Any event she takes part in is a one-off. On this occasion she’ll be talking about her new novel, The Year Of The Flood. It’s not too hard to guess what the subject matter of this will be, Atwood being one of the fiercest and most prescient of writers, with an eye on ­environmental apocalypse.

Another of the finest names in the fiction camp is American novelist and purveyor of off-beat non-fiction, Nicholson Baker (August 24, 11.30am). Baker is perhaps best known for his novel featuring phone sex, Vox, and for his literary stalking of his hero, John Updike, which formed the basis of his entertaining homage, U and I. Baker’s new novel, The Anthologist, promises to be typically wry and entertaining, as is he.

Of the internationally feted writers, there’s one great catch, namely Basque novelist Carlos Ruiz Zafon (August 15, 3pm, see above/below), author of the spectacularly successful The Shadow Of The Wind. A familiar but always welcome face is ­Garrison Keillor (August 15, 6.30pm; August 16, 11.30pm), who’ll be talking about his joyously chaotic and soulful novel Liberty, set in Lake Wobegon, a town most of us know better than our home turf. Another draw, for his legion fans, is William Boyd (August 28, 11.30am), who’ll be revealing his much anticipated new novel, Ordinary Thunderstorms.

Poetry is rarely as well served by book festivals as it deserves (with the obvious exception of StAnza, St Andrews’s poetry festival) but this year the festival is to be congratulated for snapping up American luminary Sharon Olds (August 23, 7pm). Those who like more poets for their bucks, however, should sign up for an excellent trio: Liz Lochhead, Jen Hadfield and Aonghas MacNeacail (August 21, 3.30pm), who will be reading in honour of the Scottish Poetry Library’s 25th anniversary; so too for the superb line-up of Australian poet Peter Porter, New Zealand novelist CK Stead and English poet Hugo Williams (August 22, 10.15am). Personally, I’d have cleared the schedule to allow this event double the time, so fine and rare is the company.

Charlotte Square is renowned for the calibre of its political guests, and several jostle for attention this year. Choicest of the pick is Cherie Blair (August 25, 8pm), who’ll be talking about her much slated but revealing autobiography about life as a barrister and political spouse, but she’s closely followed by grande dame Shirley Williams (August 25, 6.30pm) and the ineffably urbane Vince Cable (August 24, 8pm).

Of the slew of biographers gathering under canvas, the most eagerly anticipated is Martin Stannard (August 18, 2pm). Some years back he wrote a biography of Evelyn Waugh, which brought him to the attention of Muriel Spark, a devoted protege and friend of Waugh’s. On impulse, it seems, Spark invited Stannard to write her biography with the liberating injunction, “imagine I am dead”. Now, sadly, she is. Years after beginning this project, it will be published next month, and Stannard’s appearance at the festival marks its launch.

The environment usually sparks lively discussion at the book festival, and the first one to head for is the double act between renowned nature writer Colin Tudge, and Scotland’s very own bird woman, Esther Woolfson (August 21, 11am), who not only knows all there is to know about birds, but shares her house with them.

As Quintin Jardine (August 23, 8pm) shows in his latest novel, Fatal Last Words, a book festival doesn’t deserve the name without a touch of skulduggery. Unless a writer is bumped off in the authors’ yurt, though, as in Jardine’s plot, the best of the year’s murderfest is the acclaimed Scandinavian crime writer, Henning Mankell (August 22, 11.30am), widely famed for his Kurt Wallander series, which was recently televised with Kenneth Branagh bringing some much-needed charm to this dour but charismatic sleuth. Also a distinguished children’s writer, in which guise I personally prefer his work, Mankell will also be appearing in the children’s programme (August 23, 12.30pm). Interestingly, he has himself stated that his kids’ story, The Cat Who Liked Rain, “might even be my most important book”.

Television glamour of an edgier kind comes in the form of David Simon (August 29, 8pm), creator of the hugely popular US series The Wire. The inspiration for this series was Simon’s spell observing Baltimore’s underclass as a reporter in tow with the police, which he recounts in the high-octane memoir, Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. A sparky conversationalist, he’ll bring a whiff of far from fictional danger and tragedy to Edinburgh’s New Town.

For full information about this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival programme go to www.edbookfest.co.uk

or call 0845 373 5888