GALLERY: Bookworms flock to Chipping Norton for '˜best ever' literary festival

Reggie Yates and interviewer Jane Wenham-Jones. Photo: Silver Apples Photography NNL-180105-132920001

**CLICK THE LINK TO SEE A GALLERY OF PICTURES FROM CHIPLITFEST 2018***

Eighty authors spoke at the seventh annual literary festival with around 4,500 people attending 51 public events and 16 activities in schools from Thursday to Sunday.

Festival director Jenny Dee thanked all the volunteers who helped bring the bookish bonanza together, from the committee members to the venues and businesses which supported them.

“This was ChipLitFest’s seventh year and of course you’re meant to say it’s the best ever, but I think it really might have been,” she said.

Headline speakers at the festival including documentary filmmaker Reggie Yates, television presenter Richard Osman, actor Liza Tarbuck and radio DJ Jeremy Vine.

There were tonnes of other events for all ages and interests from cooks and historians to journalists and heart surgeons, plus loads of activities to remind children that books are for pleasure.

Ms Dee said: “We love our amazing range of events, we really hope there is something for everyone.

“We like to reflect society and make sure that half of speakers are women and that a quarter of our speakers are from a minority ethnic background - this is what Britain looks like and we aim to represent and include as many people as possible.”

The festival was launched on a ‘schools day’ where eight authors worked in 16 schools, including one for youngsters in residential care, with children aged from four to 14.

A book of short stories written by a class of ten-year-olds was also published as part of the run-up to the festival, including a launch party at Chipping Norton Theatre with Oxford-based writer Jasmine Richards.

Ms Dee thanked Chipping Norton for supporting the event, as the firefighters put up the bunting and flags around the town, Jaffe and Neal bookshop organise book sales and the health centre let visitors use its car park.

For more information about the festival, visit www.chiplitfest.com.

***CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO SEE A GALLERY OF PICTURES FROM CHIPLITFEST 2018***