Ilkley Literature Festival
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The Ilkley Literature Festival is the north of England's oldest and largest literature festival.
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[edit] Introduction
The Ilkley Literature Festival is an annual event in the small spa town of Ilkley and has become one of the UK's top arts festivals. Attracting many important international literary figures, its two-week programme, starting at the end of September, now features more than one hundred events which take place in a variety of venues in Ilkley and surrounding towns and villages.
Festival director Rachel Feldberg has described the festival as 'bringing the best and the most exciting literature from across the world to Yorkshire.'
[edit] History
The festival was the brainchild of Michael Dawson, director of the Yorkshire Arts Association. During the postal strike of 1971 (led by union leader and future festival chairman Tom Jackson), Dawson, because of the lack of mail, browsed the brochures of other arts festivals in England. Realising there was nothing of its kind in the north, he began work to establish a literature festival in his home town of Ilkley. The festival began in 1973 and was opened by English poet W. H. Auden during the last year of his life. Since 1988 it has occurred annually.
[edit] Notable visiting authors
- Maya Angelou (2005)
- W. H. Auden (1973)
- Carol Ann Duffy (2005)
- Greg Dyke (2005)
- V. S. Naipaul (2001)
- Will Self (2001)
- Ted Hughes
- Clive James (2005)
- P. D. James (2005)
- John Sergeant (2005)
- Ned Sherrin (2005)
- Louis Theroux (2005)
- Fay Weldon (2005)
- Benjamin Zephaniah
- Simon Armitage (2006)
- John Simpson (2006)
- George Alagiah (2006)
- Jeremy Paxman (2006)
- Melvyn Bragg (2001 and 2006)
- Jenni Murray (2006)
- Kate Adie (2006)
- Andrew Motion (2006)
- Nick Hornby (2006)
[edit] Trivia
- Writer and broadcaster J. B. Priestley wrote to support the first festival and said 'Ilkley is the right size for a Festival town...large enough to provide various amenities and small enough to stroll around and run into everybody.'
