Still plenty to come at Todmorden Book Festival
Todmorden Book Festival 2019 has played host to the poet laureate Simon Armitage, established and emerging writers, children’s author and illustrator Chris Mould, and environmentalist Rob Hopkins, and there is more to come.
Tickets for BAFTA winner Sally Wainwright have become the hottest tickets in town, as the event has now sold out. There are plenty of other events to entertain, engage and inspire you, including an event with local author and founder member of Dementia Friendly Todmorden Steph Booth, whose book Married to Alzheimer’s, tells the story of her life with the actor and campaigner Tony Booth. The book is based on her Irish Times column of the same name, which she started writing as a way of coping with the shattering news of her husband’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s. The book explores the hardships of caring for him and captures the people they once were. The event takes place on Thursday, November 7 at 2pm at Central Methodist Church.
The programme also features neuroscientist Gina Rippon discussing her new book The Gendered Brain: The new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain on Saturday, November 9 at 2pm at St Mary’s Church.
You can explore the diary of a 12-year-old Victorian boy who lived in Todmorden in a free family event at Todmorden Library on Saturday 9 November at 10am, and take part in an interactive workshop and performance with verd de gris arts, in which participants will help create large-scale artworks inspired by the landscape, using wax and inks, pastels and charcoals, the spoken and written word, and song. The workshop takes place at 1.45pm and the performance at 4pm on Saturday 9 November. The final event of the Festival, Wild West Yorkshire, takes place at 7.30pm on Saturday at St Mary’s Church and features three Yorkshire-based writers, crime writer AA Dhand, author Stephen May and Clara Barley, whose debut novel The Moss House tells the story of local landowners and lovers Anne Lister and Ann Walker in the 1830s.
Todmorden Book Festival ran for the first time in November 2018. The programme features fiction, non-fiction and poetry events for adults, young adults and children, reflecting the rich cultural heritage of the region and exploring individual and collective stories.
todmordenbookfestival.co.uk