BBC Radio 6 Music will be broadcasting live from Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival next week. On Friday 21 October 2016 Lauren Laverne will be presenting her popular music and chat show from Rochdale Central Library at Number One Riverside on Smith Street from 10am – 1pm.
Throughout the autumn the BBC is partnering with some of the UK’s leading literacy and literary organisations for #LovetoRead including Society of Chief Librarians, The Reading Agency, National Literacy Trust, Book Trust and The Publishers Association.
Guests already confirmed for Lauren’s Rochdale show include one man beatbox and rapper ‘Testament,’ comedian and Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival guest Mark Steel and singer/songwriter Billie Marten. Last year Billie was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2016 Award and describes her music as “a mix between acoustic, folky and a little indie.” The programme will be broadcast live from Rochdale on DAB radio.
Jonty Claypole, BBC Director of Arts, said:
“Authors and books have always been at the heart of the BBC, but with #Lovetoread 2016 our ambition is to move reading further up our agenda; to include more people, let everyone have a say on the books that matter most to them and importantly inspire a new generation to love reading. We’ll work with leading partners and use the BBC’s full range of services – TV, radio and online, national and regional – to inspire the whole of Britain to join a unique national conversation about books.”
Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival runs from 19-24 October with guests including actor Simon Callow, political commentator and journalist Owen Jones, former Downing Street director of communications Alastair Campbell, comedians Jenny Eclair and Mark Steel, internationally acclaimed crime writers Mark Billingham and John Connolly, and million-selling author Ann Cleeves, alongside Benet Brandreth and ‘Chocolat’ author Joanne Harris MBE. For children and families there’s a Roald Dahl-themed programme of events. For young people there’s an exciting Generation Z programme including one-man human beatbox Testament and theatre shows ‘The Devil Speaks True’ and ‘21,000 Miles of Rail’.
The festival celebrates and promotes the Maskew Collection of classic literature and philosophy at Rochdale Central Library, encouraging people to engage in reading and thinking. It will include events at venues in Rochdale town centre and borough-wide. It is funded through the generosity of Annie and Frank Maskew, a Rochdale couple who shared a passion for reading and thinking, who originally met in Rochdale Library. They left a sum of money to be used on resources and events related to literature, and philosophy to ensure classic works are available for future generations.
Full Details and bookings
