THE Southern Highlands has reignited its passion for the book with the inaugural Festival of the Book over the weekend.

The festival was only made possible because of a $25,000 grant given to the festival committee by the IMB Community Foundation

"It is great that we have been given this opportunity to run a festival that we believe is not held anywhere else in Australia," Co-ordinator of Cultural Development at Wingecarribee Shire Council, Amanda Field, said.

"We are aware that there are writers festivals around the country, but what we are looking at doing here is to service the readers as well as the writers."

The idea for the festival came from joint discussions between three of the weekend's organisers Paul McShane, Ms Field and Annie McNamara.

"Paul is the Secretary of the Southern Highlands Book Sellers Association (SHBSA), Annie is the President of the South Coast Writers Centre (SCWC) and I came in from the council," Ms Field said..

"We decided on books because books work.

"They work because of the ambience of the area and books are something that we can involve both the community and visitors to the area in."

Speakers at the launch included Alan Woodward of the IMB Community Foundation, Mayor Phil Yeo, Mr McShane and Ms McNamara.

The festival was officially opened by renowned poet Les Murray.

The weekend was organised primarily by Ms McNamara who spent 12 months coordinating events, exhibitions and stalls.

"Annie has put a lot of effort in over the past year but this weekend wouldn't have been made possible with out the constant input from the whole committee," Ms Field said.

The bi-annual Book Festival complements both the annual Book Fair the idea of Bowral becoming a Book Town.

"The book town concept is the idea that a region or town will be come a place where people can come solely for the concentration of everything to do with books, from calligraphy to binding, and the Southern Highlands is an ideal region for it," Ms Field said.

Wingecarribee Mayor Yeo only had praise for this event saying, "it's a great initiative."

"Not only does it create jobs with in the area it also promotes the cultural aspect of the Highlands to people outside of the region," he said.

Mr McShane, summed it up best when he said: "The book is a part of the Australian character.

"At this year's Anzac Day the Bowral RSL placed a book on the memorial instead of a wreath because flowers wither and die but words last forever.

"The Highlands has had a love affair with the book for a long time and it is time now we recognised it," he said.