Ruth Estevez and Elizabeth Baines launch Chorlton Book Festival today! #chorltonbf

A scriptwriter on BBC’s Bob the Builder, Ruth Estevez’s first novel, Meeting Coty, explores choices between relationships and a career with the most successful perfume maker of the 1920s. Ruth will be at Chorlton Library today talking about blending fact and fiction, relationships and a career and reading from her novel, "Meeting Coty".

If you want to know more about Francois Coty, one of the great perfume makers of his generation, join the debate about how people manage all the different elements in their lives, or just sit back and listen, please join us at Chorlton Library today (Monday 9 November) at 2pm...

...and at 7pm it's your chance to meet Elizabeth Baines in Chorlton's Lounge Bar. Elizabeth writes prizewinning fiction and plays for radio and stage and her most recent books are the acclaimed short story collection, Balancing on the Edge of the World and her new novel, Too Many Magpies (Salt), published in October.

Born in Bridgend, South Wales, to a Welsh mother and an Irish father, she studied English at Bangor, and for several years was a teacher of English in schools in Scotland and England. She is the prizewinning author of prose fiction and plays, with an established career as an acclaimed radio dramatist. Her collection of short stories, Balancing on the Edge of the World, was pronounced 'a stunning debut collection' (The Short Review). In 2004 she took up occasional acting by performing one of her own stage monologues for the 24:7 Theatre Festival. She lives in Manchester and writes the well-regarded Fictionbitch blog and her own author blog.

Chorlton Book Festival starts today bringing prizewinning authors, scriptwriters and poets to the local library as well as pubs, bars and churches. With Treasure Island and Bob the Builder alongside the Spanish Civil War and Social Media there is a real mix of events and discussions to suit everyone.

Pit your literary wits in the specially created pub quiz or, if you're aged between 13 and 19, take part in the teen poetry slam and you could win £50. and runs until. For full listings have a look at the Book Festival brochure.