ARTS & CULTURE H

UDDERSFIELD’S awardwinning Literature Festival has launched its programme of events for 2018, with tickets already selling out fast for a number of keynote speakers.

This year’s festival, from March 8 to 18, features a number of high-profile contributors, including the Festival Patron Mirfield, actor Sir Patrick Stewart, BBC2 radio journalist Jeremy Vine, poet Simon Armitage, author Joanne Harris, national newspaper columnist Tim Dowling, women’s rights campaigner Helen Pankhurst, Huddersfield childrens’ author Annabel Pitcher and Guardian writer Lucy Mangan.

There are just a few seats left for St Patrick Stewart in Conversation and it’s likely the other big names will also prove to be crowd-pullers.

As festival director Michelle Hodgson says: “We expect to sell out a number of our events this year, but we have tried to find the right venues so that people who want to come along aren’t disappointed.”

Among the 40-plus events, the festival boasts workshops for budding writers, special sessions for children, films, a poetry slam and even a cocktail evening.

Some events are free and many are low cost. This year the festival, which won an Examiner Community Award for the Arts in 2017, also has an access guide for the disabled.

The 2018 festival is heavy with Yorkshire talent.

Around 75% of the writers and performers appearing are either from the county or now based here, and one third are from Huddersfield.

Michelle explains: “We have a lot of talent to draw on in the region and I wanted to bring that out this year.

“Even just in Huddersfield itself, within the HD postcode, we have a huge number of people who are novelists, or spoken word artists or poets – some of them really well-known.”

There are a handful of pre-festival offerings, which start on March 2, including a Stafflex Free Family Day at North Huddersfield Trust School on Saturday, March 3.

And on March 6 and 7, the Lawrence Batley Theatre is hosting Mr Darcy Loses the Plot, a comedy based on characters from the Jane Austen classic Price and Prejudice.

The festival proper begins on Wednesday, March 7, at Heritage Quay with an exhibition of be celebrated by the festival with two events by women writers, Diane Allen and Professor Jessica Malay, and a theatrical presentation, Ms Shakespeare Through Time, at the Magic Rock Brewery.

Local authors are major contributors to the festival. On Friday, March 9, Sarah Hussain will be talking about

Calderdale poet Ted Hughes’ papers and effects, as well as rare prints and first editions from the archives of Huddersfield University. The venue is also hosting Edinburgh Fringe comedian and poet Owen O’Neill. International Women’s Day takes place...