Literature festivals that bring us to book

The unseasonal weather, with mornings light and evenings warm, is playing havoc with all sorts of wildlife – birds, nocturnal critters and in particular, bookworms.

The latter are used to, by this time of year, the nights drawing in and are impatiently waiting for the chance to settle down, not with a good book in front of a roaring fire, but with a bunch of other bookworms in front of an engaging author.

October in Yorkshire is the month for literature festivals and for a reading community that are increasingly well catered for.

Ilkley Literature Festival kicks off tonight, with Sheffield’s Off the Shelf and the Morley Literature Festival just around the corner.

Normally the packed events at each of these three festivals are akin to those at the Edinburgh Fringe in August – full of people who are cold and wet.

Whatever the strange autumn weather does next, whether it’s a sunny or a dark and cold evening, the festival events are expected to be full – a number of events at each have already sold out.

“We have around 7,000 tickets left for various different events,” says Rachel Feldberg, artistic director at Ilkley Literature Festival (ILF). It is not an admission that the festival is struggling to find audiences.

“We’ve already sold around 19,000,” she says, a woman sounding confident that within the month she will have presided over yet another successful fortnight-long festival for lovers of the written word.

In 2013, the festival, which was launched by WH Auden in 1973, will celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Earlier this year it received the news that it has been made an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation for the first time – the NPO replacing the Regularly Funded Organisations. This meant a rise in the funding it received of a not inconsiderate 150 per cent.

Plenty of reasons for the biggest literature festival in the region to be feeling confident. Or so you’d think.

When I tell Feldberg that the line up for the festival looks good, she sounds more than anything else, relieved.

“The extra funding from the Arts Council doesn’t actually come into effect until next year,” she says.

“We’ve organised this year’s event with the budget that was subject to all the funding cuts over the last year.”

Which makes the continued success of the festival even more impressive.

It is not just the names that are the big draw at Ilkley – although with Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Melvyn Bragg, Lord Digby Jones and Sir Roy Strong on the roll call, they certainly are one reason why 20,000-plus tickets are sold – but the wide range of events.

Feldberg says: “When people ask who the highlights of the festival are, they are thinking of Alan Hollinghurst, Jeremy Paxman, Val McDermid and it is a real coup for us to get Alan Hollinghurst, but I am really proud of all the events for young people and the 37 free events we have, those are the things that I think we also do really well as a festival.”

They are also the reasons the Arts Council decided to welcome the festival into the fold and grant it a much coveted NPO berth.

The festival opens tonight, being launched at Ilkley’s King’s Hall where Simon Armitage premieres his Memory of Water, his Stanza Stones poems, the first commission of the festival which will see Armitage’s poems carved into stones across the Pennines.

Down in South Yorkshire, Sheffield’s Off the Shelf can probably lay claim to being the county’s second biggest literature festival, particular this year, boasting as it does Michael Parkinson, Jeanette Winterson and Carol Ann Duffy.

Now in its 20th year, the festival overlaps with Ilkley and it does share some of the authors with the West Yorkshire event, but digs out plenty of its own, too.

Run between the city council and the city’s university, the Sheffield festival features a number of events that are specific to the city and with a greater emphasis on debates and other events best described as lectures.

River Wolton, the Derbyshire poet laureate, is appearing at the festival in her own event and appearing as what she describes as Carol Ann Duffy’s warm-up act when the Poet Laureate launches her first collection since being appointed to the position.

Wolton, who used to live in Sheffield, is a big fan of the festival. “Festivals are places you go, as a writer, where you get inspiration and meet other people who love books and literature and it sort of provides you with sustenance,” she says.

“It’s going to be great to be there as the support act for Carol Ann, but I’m also really looking forward to seeing lots of other authors.”

With a seemingly unstoppable momentum, is there a danger, a possibility that people might grow tired of literature festivals?

Wolton doesn’t pause for long before dismissing the very notion.

“I think, if anything, they are growing in popularity. With cuts, job losses and the economic stresses we are all under, I think people need to turn to art more and more. I also think that, with the faster pace of life, a literature festival is a perfect place to slow down and take the time to engage, be challenged, reflect and think.”

Testament to Wolton’s belief that festivals only continue to increase in popularity are the fortunes of Morley Literature Festival. The week-long event, in its sixth year, has attracted not just local names, as you might expect with a smaller event, but has landed a couple of heavy blows by bringing Ian Rankin, Jon Ronson and Arthur Smith to town.

Jenny Harris, festival organiser, says: “Each year the festival grows and we are amazed at just how much we can cram into a week.”

With a smaller, quirky festival, you also get the other end of the spectrum.

Hence a Poetry Takeaway – where people can go up to a van, ask a poet to write them a poem on a subject of their choosing, and take it away.

What’s on when and hidden gems

Ilkley Literature Festival: Sept 30-Oct16. www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk 01943 816714.

Morley Literature Festival: Oct 8-16 www.morleyliterature festival.co.uk 0844 848 2706.

Off the Shelf, Festival of Words, Sheffield: Oct 8-29. www.offtheshelf.org.uk 0114 273 4400.

Ilkley: Having A Ball: a story of fighting cancer. Ilkley Playhouse, Oct 7, 9pm.

Off the Shelf: Dead Poets Slam: The Lescar Pub, Oct 11, 8pm.

Morley: Chris Water: on his Fred Truman book. Morley Town Hall, Oct 15, 11am.

Everything from Roy Hattersley to Parkinson and poems from a burger van

Ilkley Literature Festival:

Andy Kershaw: The DJ, foreign journalist, Sony Radio Awards winner comes to Ilkley to tell his wild and fascinating personal story. October 1, 7.30pm, King’s Hall.

Alan Hollinghurst: The finest prose stylist of his generation who won the Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty, discusses his latest novel The Stranger’s Child. October 2, 4.45pm, King’s Hall.

Roy Hattersley: Lloyd George, Odd Man Out – the former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party sheds light on the life of Liberal Prime Minister Lloyd George. October 9, 2pm. King’s Hall.

The Baverstock Lecture: Are all Journalists Crooks? Dorothy Byrne, head of news and current affairs at Channel Four television presents this year’s Baverstock Lecture. October 14, 7.30pm, Ilkley Playhouse.

The Grand Trunk Road, Delhi to the Khyber Pass: Tim Smith and Irna Qureshi: Anthropologist Qureshi and photographer Smith explore the longest highway in southern Asia. October 15, 1.30pm, Ilkley Playhouse.

Off the Shelf, Sheffield

Will Self: Cultural polymath and one of the few people who can claim the New Statesman and Shooting Stars as regular employers. October 12, Pennine Theatre, Sheffield Hallam University.

The King’s Speech with Mark Logue and Peter Conradi: The grandson of the therapist Lionel Logue, depicted by Geoffrey Rush in the Oscar-winning film, shared his grandfather’s unpublished diaries with journalist and writer Peter Conradi. The pair discuss the film followed by a screening. October 15, The Auditorium, University of Sheffield.

Michael Parkinson in conversation with Paul Allen: The man who has interviewed everyone is interviewed on stage, recounting stories of singing with Bing Crosby and sparring with Muhammed Ali. October 19, 7.30pm, Sheffield Crucible.

Morley Literature Festival:

Arthur Smith, Exposed: The comedian and broadcaster will be sharing jokes and poems and reading from his memoir My Name is Daphne Fairfax. October 8, 7.30pm. Morley Town Hall,

Ian Rankin: The crime writer behind Inspector Rebus discusses his new book The Impossible Dead. October 13, 8pm, Morley Town Hall.

Poetry Takeaway: It looks like a burger van, but people collect poems from it. October 8, 11am-3pm, Morley town centre.