Headingley LitFest: Read! Read! Read!

Thursday, 23 June 2011

Read! Read! Read!

Here's an extract from a recent issue of the official newsletter of Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School in Meanwood:

The school was privileged to stage one of the events of the Headingley LitFest when the celebrated author, Robert Swindells read and discussed his works with pupils. Swindells is one of Britain’s most successful writers of fiction for young people...

Robert Swindells, who was born in Yorkshire, has received numerous awards for his books for children and young adults. Stone Cold, a favourite with our pupils, won the Carnegie Medal and has been adapted for television by the BBC. Generations of our pupils have enjoyed reading his novels and they were delighted to be given the opportunity to hear Mr Swindells read extracts from his work.

They plied him with questions about his subjects, his writing methods, his beliefs and his income! The quality and variety of the questions asked was impressive. Pupils found his honest, entertaining and down-to-‐earth approach engaging and many of them said that he made them believe that they could succeed as writers if they put their minds to it...

We were delighted to welcome pupils and staff from Allerton High School to the event. Mr Swindells was moved and impressed by the interest our pupils had shown.

Radish Books attended and provided copies of Mr Swindells' work. Many purchased Stone Cold and left clutching copies which carried a personal message from the author: variants of 'Read! Read! Read!

C. Brown

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LITERARY HEADINGLEY

Headingley is just the place for it! Don't expect a big circus with marquees, though: we're not at that stage yet. We're all volunteers as well.

Our venues include the HEART Centre on Bennett Road, the New Headingley Club on St Michael's Road, friendly cafés, historic local cinemas, Headingley Library, people's houses and the historic Leeds Library in Commercial Street, city centre.

Headingley's Literary Links

Headingley has strong connections with many writers:

Arthur Ransome was born in Headingley, J R R Tolkien lived at 5 Holly Bank and also at 2 Darnley Road, West Park when he was reader in English Language at the University of Leeds 1920 - 25, Alan Bennett lived over a butcher's shop opposite the Three Horseshoes, now Royale Dry Cleaners.

Lucy Newlyn has published poetry about her early life in Headingley, George Orwell stayed at 21 Estcourt Avenue with his sister Marjorie and her husband Humphrey 'Humpy' Dakin (with whom he visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth), T S Eliot used to visit his mother-in-law in Weetwood Lane, William Fryer Harvey was brought up in Spring Bank, Trevor Griffiths lived just off Victoria Road on Winstanley Terrace, Jon Silkin's first office of STAND magazine was his flat at 144 Otley Road, Sir Geoffrey Hill lived in Shire Oak Road, Peter Redgrove lived in Headingley between 1962 and 1965 when he was Gregory Fellow of Poetry at the University of Leeds, and playwright Kay Mellor still lives near The Hollies in Far Headingley.

Wilson Barrett, the charismatic first manager of the Grand Theatre, Leeds (a prolific playwright as well), lived in Beech Grove Terrace, Woodhouse in the 1870s. His house was a meeting place for many writers, artists and visitors to Leeds - such as W. S. Gilbert, George Grossmith and Atkinson Grimshaw.

Headingley LitFest 2020 was the thirteenth. The fourteenth will take place from March 2021 and will be adapted to the rules of the Covid pandemic. We are now a proud part of the annual Leeds Lit Fest.