A star from children’s TV, a Manchester musical legend, ‘The patron saint of poetry’ and a former borough resident who is now one of country’s most successful self-published authors.
This Saturday sees the start of Oldham’s Bookmark festival, a weeklong celebration of all things literary in the borough.
Children’s TV personality and green-fingered gardener Mr Bloom will be sharing some nursery rhymes, songs, and veggie tales on Saturday 18 April. Mr Bloom will make an appearance in the Oldham Town Centre followed by two performances at Oldham Library & Lifelong Learning Centre.
Steve Hanley, bass player with The Fall and author of The Big Midweek: Life Inside The Fall, appears at the Festival on Saturday 18 April when he will be talking about his book, which was voted a Guardian book of the year 2014 and also nominated for NME book of the year. It provides a unique insight into one of the most talked about bands of the last 30 years.
Rachel Abbott used to live in Oldham and is now one of the country’s most successful self-published authors. After several failed attempts to get her first novel, Only the Innocent, published, she decided to do it herself. She has since penned two more sequels to her 2011 debut: The Black Road and Sleep Tight.
All three novels have together sold more than a million copies and been number one bestsellers on Amazon’s Kindle store. Rachel will talk about her success as a self-published author and give us an insight into her creative process and writing.
Rachel will be in The Performance Space, at Oldham Library at 7pm on Tuesday, April 21.
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who was a Bookmark Festival speaker last year, has hailed Roger McGough as ‘The patron saint of poetry’.
A new book of poems by Roger is always an event and As Far As I Know is truly a cause for celebration. Hilarious and surreal, he is a poet of many voices. Newly elected President of the Poetry Society, Roger has been honoured with a CBE for services to literature and the Freedom of the City of Liverpool.
He will be speaking about his new collection ‘As Far As I Know’ at Oldham Coliseum on Monday, April 20 at 7pm.
And there was more good news for Oldham Library and Lifelong Learning Centre this week after it was announced the Arts Council have given £101 724 in funding.
The money will be used to upgrade the technical specification of The Performance Space and children’s area.
This was on top of an earlier grant of £37,000, again form the Arts Council, which will help deliver the live@thelibrary programme of theatre, literature, comedy.
Councillor Jean Stretton, Cabinet Member for Town Centres, Culture and Tourism, said: “This is the third time we have held the Bookmark Festival and again we’ve been able to assemble a first rate line up that has something for everyone.
For more information or a full itinerary call 0161 770 8000 or go to http://www.oldham.gov.uk/bookmark_festival_2015
To book tickets for the events log onto https://www.eventbrite.com/
