Local Authors To Feature In The Festival Of Words

Local authors will be featured heavily in the East Riding Festival of Words – the new look literature festival coming to the area in October.

The festival will be officially launched by Val Wood at Beverley Art Gallery on Thursday, 18 October, at 7.30pm. Val will be giving an exclusive reading of her latest novel, ‘A Place to Call Home’, which will be published in November.

Those attending the event will be able to purchase copies of her new book ahead of its publication, in an exclusive deal through East Riding Libraries.

Val Wood has written 24 novels, all set in and around Hull and the East Riding. Her first novel, ‘The Hungry Tide’, published in 1993, won the Catherine Cookson Prize for romantic fiction. Val’s catalogue of books were named among the most-loaned titles in UK libraries on BBC Radio Four’s ‘Open Book Show’.

Tickets for this event cost £5 and are available now, visit www.festivalofwords.co.uk
Another local author, Wendy Mitchell, will be at Beverley Library in the Treasure House on Thursday, 18 October, at 2.30pm.

Wendy was diagnosed with early onset dementia at the age of 58. Her career in the NHS, and her ability to drive, cook and run were all suddenly gone, and she had to face profound questions about memory, loss, feeling, life and identity. Shocked by the lack of awareness about the disease in the community and in hospitals, she vowed to spend her time raising awareness about dementia and encouraging others to see there is life after a diagnosis. She is now an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society.

Her memoir, ‘Somebody I used to know’, is the first of its kind, and is a tribute to the woman she once was and also a brave affirmation of the woman that dementia has made her become. This Guardian bestselling book challenges our understanding of humanity and confronts what we think defines us.

Tickets for this event cost £3 and are available now.

Bestselling local author David Mark will be joined by fellow writer Richard Vergette at Beverley Art Gallery on Saturday, 20 October at 5pm, as part of the festival’s ‘Dead Good Day’.

This will be a fascinating conversation about the dark stage adaptation of David’s first novel, ‘Dark

Winter’, which led to the creation of a series of books about DS Aector McAvoy. The stunning stage adaptation will be back by popular demand at Hull Truck Theatre in November.

Tickets for this event cost £5 and are available now.

The Festival of Words features four days full of poetry, literature, and spoken word events in Beverley, Bridlington and Goole, from 18-21 October. To book tickets, and to get full details of the programme, visit www.festivalofwords.co.uk

Tickets are also available by calling 01482 392699, or in person by visiting Bridlington Spa or Beverley library.