Lit Fest plans for May 2004

Following last May's splendid and successful tenth festival, plans are now well underway for the eleventh Swindon Festival of Literature, 1 -15 May 2004.

Nationally-known authors and speakers already booked to appear include political diarist Tony Benn, broadcaster diarist Joan Bakewell, dreadlocked poet Benjamin Zephaniah, eminent educationist and legal mind Helena Kennedy, prize-winning children's writer and author of Mrs Doubtfire Anne Fine, author-comic Sean Hughes, professorial man of letters Terry Eagleton, and writer and international television personality Clive James.

Also signed up is Mark Haddon, whose new book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is set in Swindon and was nominated for the Whitbread prize for childrens books.

Negotiations are also under-way with novelists Melvyn Bragg, Jeanette Winterson, Martin Amis, and Tony Parsons, and broadcasting personalities footballer Bob Wilson, comic Sandi Toksvig, gardening guru Alan Titchmarsh, and former chart topping crooner and Radio 2 DJ Jimmy Young.

Of course, in true Swindon Festival of Literature tradition, it will not just be famous names that make this an annual event to write home about. During its15 days, the festival, described by Mo Mowlam as the best-organised in the country, will include the sixth Clive Brain Memorial Lecture, the now nationally-famous Swindon Performance Poetry Slam competition, a children's weekend, an evening of campfire storytelling, and a wide range of literary talks, performances, discussions, and readings at theatres, arts venues, libraries, schools, pubs, parks, and even woodlands in and around Swindon.

Festival frolics will start high on a ridge in Lawn Woods at 5.30am on Saturday 1 May with the ever-popular Dawn Chorus, where earlybirds gather for a spring carnival of poetry, song, storytelling, and dance, plus a good deal of mayday morning mischief.

Festival director Matt Holland said, "the festival's profile grows each year as it plays host to bigger names and attracts a larger following. At every level, it has become a fantastic celebration for Swindon of things well written and things well said - something between a cultural communion and a literary frolic. People have a great time, get together, meet authors, join in good talk, and make discoveries. It is very exciting."

The full festival programme will be published in March. To receive early notice through the festival mailing list, call 771080 or mail: swindonlitfest@lowershawfarm.co.uk