2019 Festival: Sneak Preview

Even before this year’s Festival events are all confirmed, we can guarantee that it will feature a fantastic finale – an event quite unlike anything we have ever staged before.

The legendary Liverpool poet Roger McGough will join forces with a toe-tapping trio of musicians known as LiTTLe MACHiNe (all are pictured here in a picture by Nick Wright). This ground-breaking two-hour spectacular will consist of a magnificent selection of poems set to music in an evening of entertainment that promises to break previous Festival records! The 2019 Festival is not all about change though, and it would certainly not be the same without our hugely popular Book Group event which sells out fast year after year. This year it features the best-selling author Joanna Cannon. Her latest book Three Things about Elsie has an 84-year old heroine and is a hilarious and heart-breaking exploration of memory, friendship and old age. As always, the event allows the audience an exclusive conversation with the author, and to get the most out of the experience we do recommend you read the book (pictured) in advance.

We are of course also promising the much-loved array of topics and speakers who guarantee to inform, entertain and even, occasionally, annoy! You can find out who these will be next month when our full programme will be published. There is a lot to look forward to…