Welcome and thanks for visiting LiteraryFestivals.co.uk. Here you will find details of 100+ literary gatherings taking place throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

The 2010 Literary Festival Season is looking sensational. Whilst many 2010 dates are yet to be confirmed, the 2009 timing of events will give an indication if you are planning ahead.

Hopefully you will catch Melvyn Bragg, our Lit Fest appearance champion of 2009 at one of the gatherings in 2010 -bound to really. 2010 favourite? On early form Carol Ann Duffy to beat Melvyn by a short head with Kate Adie in the frame for third.

Please check all details for yourself via the links toofficial sites provided.

Anyone got the goss? Drop us a line if you know what the 'unforseen circumstances' were!

STANZA: SCOTLAND'S POETRY FESTIVAL - The only regular festival dedicated to poetry in Scotland, StAnza is international in outlook. Founded in 1998, it is held each March in St Andrews, Scotland’s oldest university town. The festival is an opportunity to engage with a wide variety of poetry, to hear world class poets reading in exciting and atmospheric venues, to experience a range of performances where music, film, dance and poetry work in harmony, to view exhibitions linking poetry with visual art and to discover the part poetry has played in the lives of a diverse range of writers, musicians and media personalities. The simple intention of StAnza is to celebrate poetry in all its many forms. When? 17 - 21 March 20

Event Cancellation - The Tolkien Art and Literature Festival previously advertised for Fri 26th – Mon 29th March 2010 has been postponed until later in the year. TBC

Bath Literature Festival

What? A literary festival in the gorgeous English town of Bath presenting a mix of local, national and international writers.

Carol Ann Duffyis being assiduous in attending to her duties as poet laureate and will be at Bath. Others booked include Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel (left) and Muslim Writers' Award winner Kamila Shamsie. More

Artistic Director for 2010 is James Runcie. When? Sat 27 February - Sun 8 March 2010

SUNDAY TIMES OXFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL-

What's it all about then Henrietta? Over 400 writers will descend on Christ Church college, Oxford, to talk, debate, and discuss ideas at the 2009 festival. Where? Christ Church, Oxford When? March 20 - 28, 2010 Why? In the historic college of Christ Church , with a sumptuous line-up, it's everyone's chance to get the cerebral matter working in one of sacred spots of literature as the corridors and quads turn into into a hub of ideas. Spring will be sprung in this delightful University City.

In 2009 there was a stellar line-up Mario Vargas Llosa, Ian McEwan, Sadie Jones, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Michael Morpurgo, Aravind Adiga, Kate Summerscale, PD James, Malorie Blackman, David Starkey, Kate Atkinson, Helen Dunmore, and many many more.

Essex Book Festival - March 2010

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looming - LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival: Off the Edge

We love this gathering which is free to one and all - gorgeous. Literary bunches of roses to the organisers, you darling people.

Highlights this year include events with Dan Cruickshank, Giles Foden, Susie Orbach, Mark Lawson, Lionel Shriver, Ben Okri, Colin Thubron and A S Byatt.

What? Half a century after C. P. Snow's two cultures, the arts and sciences remain distinct domains. While the social sciences might have built bridges, they each continue to occupy a space of their own. This festival aims to push those boundaries, exploring the edges of social science and asking what can be learnt in the borderlands between social science, natural science and the humanities about mind, self and society. When? Thursday 11- Saturday 13 February 2010. More

North Herts Book Festival - A rolling series of book events, readings, theatre, storytelling, a bit of local history, second-hand book bonanza, and last year the illustrious Offley Morris performed to boot! (Coming from Knebworth, near-by, we can claim prior knowledge!) When? February - March 2010 . More

The Ninth Aldeburgh Literary Festival. The event is run byThe Aldeburgh Bookshop which has been in business for nearly 60 years.  The owners, John and Mary James, took on the shop in 2000.  In April 2005 they won a 'Nibby' (the Oscars of the booktrade) for The Independent Bookshop of the Year Award at The British Book Awards.  Impressive. When? March 5 -7, 2010 - More

LONDON WORD FESTIVAL

What? London’s pioneering celebration of words, text and language returns for a third year, playing host to what it claims as it's most adventurous programme yet. You be the judge, but it looks like a fair enough claim to us. When? 7 March– 1 April 2010 Where? Various locations around London . More

Aye Write! Glasgow's Book Festival - Aye Write! Bank of Scotland Book Festival celebrates the rich variety of Glaswegian writing and also brings the best of Scottish and international writers to the city.  The festival, which is sponsored by the Bank of Scotland, the Scottish Arts Council and has a media partnership with The Herald, is now in its fourth year and takes place annually at the Mitchell Library in the heart of Glasgow.

All festival sessions take place in Glasgow's magnificent Mitchell Library, one of Europe's premier public reference libraries. When? 5th March- 13th March 2010 - More

Dublin Book Festival -Organised by CLE- Irish Book Publishers' Association, The Dublin Book Festival celebrates the best of contemporary Irish publishing and writing in a very warm, welcome and festive environment! More

The King's Lynn Fiction Festival is held during a single weekend in March (Fiction) with a second in September (Poetry) each year. Thier guiding principle, initiated by co-founder, the late George MacBeth, is to present some of the best of contemporary writers in a congenialand informal setting. You will see writers of international repute alongside new writers, from all age ranges and from locations across the world. Who in 2010? Louis de Bernières, Stephen May, Adam Thorpe Nigel Williams, Beryl Bainbridge, DJ Taylor When? 12 - 14 March, 2010. More

Kings Sutton Books Alive! -Small intimate setting in a lovely part of Oxfordshire. Check-out the King's Sutton village website for some photos of the area and a bit of local goss. When? Saturday 6 March- Sunday 7 March, 2010

York Literature Festival - What's it all about? Two weeks celebrating the written and spoken word in one of England's most beautiful cities. The festival features events at venues across York, including: theatre, storytelling, poetry, author signings, creative writing workshops, talks , guided walks around York's places of literary interest. When? 18 -28 March, 2010

Featured Book

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

In a quiet corner of rural Devon, six-year-old Joanna Mason witnesses an appalling crime.

Thirty years later the man convicted of the crime, Andrew Decker, is released from prison.

In Edinburgh, sixteen-year-old Reggie, wise beyond her years, works as a nanny for a GP. But Dr Hunter has gone missing and Reggie seems to be the only person who is worried.

Across town, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is also looking for a missing person, unaware that hurtling towards her is an old friend – Jackson Brodie – himself on a journey that is about to be fatally interrupted.

Guardian
Funny, bracingly intelligent and delightfully prickly...Kate Atkinson is that rarest of beasts, a genuinely surprising novelist.

Daily Express
Gripping...Suspense is tinglingly maintained throughout...shot through with wry wit and gritty realism.

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Publishers & Agents

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Literary Festivals UK Book Store in Association with Amazon - All the books. All the authors - Browse now

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Planning Ahead

Featured author - kamila shamsie

Kamila Shamsie, novelist, was born in 1973 in Pakistan. Her first novel, In the City by the Sea, was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, and her second, Salt and Saffron, won her a place on Orange's list of '21 Writers for the 21st Century'. In 1999 Kamila received the Prime Minister's Award for Literature in Pakistan. Her third novel, Kartography (2004), explores the strained relationship between soulmates Karim and Raheen, set against a backdrop of ethnic violence.

Her latest novels are Broken Verses (2005), and Burnt Shadows (2009), an epic narrative which was shortlisted for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction and won the 2009 UK Muslim Writers Award for Fiction.

Kamila Shamsie lives in London and Karachi. She has a BA in Creative Writing from Hamilton College in Clinton New York, where she has also taught Creative Writing, and a MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She also writes for The Guardian, The New Statesman, Index on Censorship and Prospect magazine, and broadcasts on radio.

Kamila Shamsie is booked to appear at the Bath Literature Festival Sat 27 February - Sun 8 March 2010

At the pointy end

NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR FOR West Cork Literary Festival 2010

The West Cork Literary Festival has announced the appointment of Denyse Woods as Artistic Director of the 2010 event which takes place from 4th – 10th July in Bantry, Co. Cork. More

Featured creative -Bath Literature Festival ARTISTIC Director - James Runcie

The Hon. James Runcie (born 1959) is a British novelist, documentary film-maker, television producer, theatre director, and Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival.

He was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford, Marlborough College, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He gained a First Class degree in English from Cambridge University in 1981.

From 1983-1985, Runcie worked in Radio Drama for BBC Scotland as a writer and director. His work included Miss Julie, The White Devil, Roderick Hudson, Men Should Weep, and A Private Grief.

More recently, James Runcie has produced Arts, Music, and History programmes for the BBC. He is a freelance director of documentary films, and has produced documentaries such as J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life for ITV, My Father (on his father Robert Runcie), and a six-part series How Buildings Learn.

Runcie has written four novels: Canvey Island, The Discovery of Chocolate, The Colour of Heaven, and East Fortune. He is published by Bloomsbury.

He has won two BAFTA Scotland Radio Drama Awards for Watching Waiters and Mrs Lynch’s Maggot, and been nominated for a BAFTA award for the film Great Composers – Bach.