Off on a word tour with Chorlton Book Festival

Off on a word tour with Chorlton Book Festival
by guest blogger, Clare Conlon.

Cosying up with a good read is probably one of the nicer aspects of the nights drawing in and the weather taking a turn for the worse, but if you can bear to get out from between the covers (in both the blanket and the book sense), the Chorlton Book Festival looks promising for both readers and writers.

Starting next Monday (9 November), the fifth annual festival is shaping up to be quite a fortnight. It would be a cliché to say that there's something for everyone, but with novelists, short story writers, poets, playwrights, historians, non-fiction authors and bloggers, most forms of writing do seem to be covered. Even those strange people who don't like reading are included: to coincide with the festival, Chorlton Film Institute will be screening Elegy, an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Dying Animal.

In fact, the festival is getting out and about quite a bit this year. Former Chorlton (now Didsbury) resident Elizabeth Baines is going to be reading from her new novel, Too Many Magpies, at Lounge bar, while local author and short story writer Robert Graham will be hanging out up the road at Lloyd's Hotel. Chopin will open its doors briefly, so Chorlton Telling Tales can get busy spinning some yarns and the Spread Eagle will be holding the festival's first-ever quiz night, with prizes and everything!

Chorlton Library also plays a big part, hosting readings by Manchester-based crime writer (and former Chorlton schools inspector) Bill Rogers and novelist (and Bob The Builder scriptwriter) Ruth Estevez, talks by local historians Chris Makepeace and Christopher Hall, and the monthly Manky Poets get-together with MC copland smith and guest poet Melanie Rees.

As well as the literati, Chorlton Book Festival will feature the Twitterati, and, as a blogger, I can't miss the workshop on social media for writers by Manchester Digital Development Agency's Adrian Slatcher. I'll also be timing my book returns for the Sunday, when complimentary coffee and cakes are on the menu to promote the new weekend opening hours.

To get the young'uns into reading, there's a family fun day all about pirates, a chance to hear Elaine Bousfield read from her magical fantasy The Jewel Keepers, and a teen slam contest, judged by street poet Mike Garry and with £50 up for grabs.

See, I told you there was something for everyone...

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Clare Conlon is a freelance writer, editor and press officer. Her blog, Words & Fixtures, won Best New Blog in the 2009 Manchester Blog Awards.