Book lovers flock in thousands to the festival

MORE than 115,000 tickets were issued to this year’s Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Featuring around 900 speakers in 560 events, 200 of them free of charge, the festival presented literary giants, debut writers, storytellers and famous faces from Steven Pinker to Motsi Mabuse, and Taylor Jenkins Reid to Stanley Tucci.

Nicola Tuxworth, head of programming for Cheltenham Literature Festival, said: “The second year of our Read The World theme truly was a passport to a world of ideas as we welcomed international authors such as Mieko

Kawakami, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Damon Galgut and Celeste Ng, as well as representatives from literary festivals from Malaysia, Ghana, Ukraine, Norway and Ireland.

“We hope we’ve opened the doors to a world in which everyone can explore and create culture.

“Thank you to our speakers, chairs and publishers, to our members, patrons, funders and partners for their invaluable support, and to our Festival team.

“But, above all, thank you to the book lovers that have joined us in Cheltenham to enjoy this year’s amazing lineup.” Highlights included Stephen King dialling in for a rare, career-spanning interview with Mark Lawson and And Bono bringing the festival to a rapturous close, wowing the crowd with an impromptu set playing a selection of songs featured in his soon-to-bereleased memoir: Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.

During the festival, the longest signing queue in the Waterstones book tent was for Greg James and Chris Smith’s epic new superhero adventure Super Ghost.

Next year’s festival will run from October 6 to 15.