Top names booked for Long Weekend

Joanna Trollope, Margaret Drabble and Michael Holroyd are among the authors booked to appear at this year’s festival, which runs from April 14 to 17.

Other star names include celebrated political cartoonist Steve Bell.

Derek Law, corporate director of adult and community services at North Yorkshire County Council, who organise the festival, said: “The Long Weekend goes from strength to strength, and this year’s festival promises to be the best ever.

“The team have secured a fantastic line-up of star names for the four days of the festival and there really will be something for everyone.”

For the first time, the festival will have a writer-in-residence, Jackie Kay, a professor of creative writing at Newcastle University whose first novel, Trumpet, won the Guardian Fiction Prize.

For more information, visit www.scarboroughliteraturefestival.co.uk.