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Top Writers to Appear At First Ever Literary Leicester Festival

Some of the country's best-known and best-loved writers are to come under the spotlight at the first Literary Leicester Festival, to be held at the University of Leicester, from Wednesday 29th October to Saturday 1st November.

In a spectacular celebration of the completion of the newly remodelled and extended David Wilson Library, visiting writers, many with a Leicester connection, will include Colin Dexter, former Assistant Classics Master at Wyggeston School and creator of Inspector Morse; Sue Townsend, creator of Adrian Mole; and children's authors Chris d'Lacey, Pippa Goodhart, and Mary Mestecky.

Multi-prize-winning novelist David Lodge, author of the campus novels, Changing Places and Small World, as well as How Far Can you Go?, Nice Work, and Paradise News, will read from his latest novel, Deaf Sentence.

A selection of the 1421 extraordinary, gossipy, rancorous, affectionate, miserable and often funny letters and 521 postcards written by poet Philip Larkin to Monica Jones will be presented by Anthony Thwaite, who is compiling a book of this correspondence for Faber and Faber. Larkin was a former University of Leicester Librarian and Monica Jones an Assistant Lecturer in the English Department.

Anthony Thwaite will also read a selection of his own poetry.

Crime writer and Royal Literary Fund Fellow at De Montfort University Jane Adams will discuss her work on a Leicester Writers' Panel. Her fellow participants on the panel are three Leicester graduates: biographer, literary journalist and Director of the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University Andrew Biswell; radio and television dramatist Paul Broderick; and contemporary female fiction writer Adele Parks. The panel will be chaired by John Florance of BBC Radio Leicester.

The Saturday events, a day For Children (and Big Kids), will include a performance of the Victorian Toy Theatre by the Cornelius and Jones Touring Theatre Company, written by Anthony Peters, as well as featuring author readings by Chris d'Lacey, Mary Mestecky, and Pippa Goodhart There is also a question and answer session with Sue Townsend for those aged 9. As well as meeting Sue Townsend there is a chance to examine a box of documents and objects which have influenced Sue Townsend’s life and fiction. Visitors can bring in a small box of items that represent their lives and find out how to use archives and interpret evidence.

The Festival celebrates the opening, this year, of the refurbished David Wilson Library

Librarian and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester, Christine Fyfe, commented: "This is a thrilling event to launch an exciting new building. We are delighted with the David Wilson Library and with the very positive reactions it has inspired. In the new century the idea of the Library as the lifeblood of academic endeavour is as important as ever, although what happens in the physical library and in its virtual, networked manifestation has undergone considerable change over recent years.

"Working with students and academics, and with an eye on the latest international developments in Library design, our vision is to create an inspirational, functional and adaptable Library, somewhere where the entire space is stimulating and engaging."

All Literary Leicester Festival events are free, though some are by ticket only, available from Jenny Lees, email jel13@le.ac.uk, tel 0116 252 2323.

For details of times, venues and ticket events please see: www.le.ac.uk/literaryleicester.