One of Northumberland's newest book festivals is set to return for the second year after 600 people attended the inaugural event last year.
The first Morpeth Book Festival was based around a series of author's evenings held in the town, and organisers deemed it such a success that they immediately began planning a follow-up event. And this year authors include North East favourite Mari Hannah will be part of it, while Morpeth authors such as Bridget Gubbins and Jane Ions.
Mari Hannah, now a Northumberland resident and writer of the DCI Kate Daniels series, has been appointed as the festival patron and will open the festival on Saturday April 1. She'll reveal more about the Kate Daniels' series in development for its television debut.
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Mari will be followed on the stage by Dan Jackson, whose book about the people and places of the North East has become a critically acclaimed read about the history of the region from the days of the Border Rivers to the industrial revolution and beyond.
Two writers from Morpeth itself will take part in the festival; Bridget Gubbins will launch her latest book "Cold War, Warm Hearts", which recalls her adventures as a young woman travelling along in the 1960s behind the Iron Curtain; and retired teacher Jane Ions is also making her book festival debut at the event, after her first book "Domestic Bliss and Other Disasters" was chosen as Times Radio Book of the Week.
Frank Rescigno, arts and cultural director of Greater Morpeth Development Trust, hopes that the festival will be a weekend that will "well and truly" put Morpeth on the regional book festival map. He said: "The instant feedback from those attending the first festival events, was that we had to do it again and go on to try and make it an annual event in the town."
Many other local and regional authors will be at the festival and there will be a whole day devoted to children's books and writers. The Morpeth Book Festival runs over three days from Friday March 31, at two venues in the town – the Morpeth Rugby Clubhouse on Mitford Road, and the town’s leisure centre.
For more information, visit the Greater Morpeth Development Trust website or the Northumberland County Library Service website.
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