Five reasons you should have gone to Hillingdon Literary Festival

THE former Mayor of London and Labour politician Ken Livingstone has caused quite a bit of controversy lately with some interesting views on Hitler and anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, but it was another idea that caught the internet’s eye during HLF.

During a panel discussion on ‘shifts in political rhetoric’, Livingstone suggested taking the news media out of private hands, and instead handing it over to workers’ cooperatives.

Twitter users picked up on the comment, and pointed out parallels between Livingstone’s idea, the Soviet newspaper Pravda, and even the policies of Adolf Hitler. THE writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah had by far one of the busiest events at HLF as he recited his own poetry and told his life story.

Zephaniah, who is also a lecturer at Brunel University, recalled getting kicked out of school, getting into a life of crime, going to prison, and how he broke through to become one of the most famous poets in Britain.

A really inspiring event, Zephaniah discussed the racism that he faced growing up... and his poetry performances were spectacular. TJG1ST NOVELIST and journalist Matt Haig gave a heart-wrenching talk about his book Reasons to Stay Alive, a memoir about suffering with depression.

Haig talked about his personal battle with depression, ways to deal with it for other sufferers, and the ways it can be portrayed to the public.

It was a very eye opening event as the audience questioned the author about his own experiences and their own battles with depression.

He obviously won over the audience as he had one of the biggest queues for autographs after his event. THE final event of the weekend was also a one of my favourites as it showcased some of the phenomenal writing talent Hillingdon has.

This year marked HLF’s first writing competition, which encouraged writers with local links to write around the theme Writing Local, Thinking Global.

A handful of competition shortlisters performed their work in front of audiences, but the top spot and the £250 prize went to Vivien Brown for her poem dedicated to the nurses of the NHS.