Morpeth is set to become a 'book heaven' this weekend as it hosts a book festival - with Vera author Ann Cleeves and American novelist and screenwriter Chuck Hogan due to take centre stage.
More than 30 writers and poets are set to perform live at the inaugural Morpeth Book Festival, many of whom have won awards for their work, such as North-East based Robert Scragg, winner of the Lindisfarne Prize for Fiction; Trevor Wood, winner of the Specsavers debut crime novel award 2021; and OBE-nominated Ann Cleeves, author of the much-loved Vera series. From further afield, American writer Chuck Hogan, creator of the Strain trilogy and TV series with Guillermo Del Toro, will be appearing via video link to give a talk on dystopian fiction.
Mari Hannah will also give a talk on her latest instalment of the Kate Daniels series, Her Last Request, on Saturday evening, while romantic fiction writer Glenda Young stars on Sunday. With some big names on the programme, the organisers have high hopes that the festival will become the 'first of many' and that each event will be a sell-out.
Frank Rescigno, Director of Arts and Culture for the Greater Morpeth Development Trust, said: "We're hoping that this will be the first of many (book festivals) in Morpeth. We have quite a lot of authors who have agreed to attend and we're really pleased about that.
And Frank believes that there's a space for more cultural events in Morpeth, despite the town not having neither a cultural centre nor a theatre, unlike other nearby towns such as Alnwick and Hexham. He continued: "There really isn't a book festival in the south east of Northumberland.
"You've got Berwick International and Hexham, but nothing down here. Since we decided to have the book festival we have had tremendous support from Northumberland Libraries."
The festival has been designed to be as inclusive as possible, with the RNIB coming to show people who are blind and partially sighted how to access its library of audible fiction, while there are plans for future festivals to have BSL interpreters, though the budget will not stretch that far for this year's offering.
Frank continued: "We want to make it as inclusive as possible. It's different from many book festivals because we have included poetry, a children's programme, and we want to help everyone to access literature."
Morpeth Book Festival is a joint project between the Greater Morpeth Development Trust, Northumberland Libraries and Northumberland County Council. For tickets and more information, click here.
