HIGH profile thinkers, novelists and performers are set to enlighten local bookworms at the Swindon Festival of Literature Festival when it bows out after 25 years this year.

Festival chairman Matt Holland announced the launch of the programme at the Central Library courtyard on Thursday, promising a packed billing of entertaining talks, poetry slams, and storytelling workshops from May 7-19.

Mr Holland demonstrated the growth of the festival by comparing the latest programme with the first in its history. “25 years ago, the Swindon Festival of Literature looked like this – a little fold-out single sheet with 10 events. Now it looks like this: 40 pages in full colour, more than 50 authors – Rock and roll. You can be happy anywhere with a book. A book, its contents, its author, and its readers are all worth celebrating, which is precisely we have the Swindon Festival of Literature.”

Philosopher A. C. Grayling, novelist Will Self, Labour MP Harriet Harman, and Poet Ben Okri are just some of the household names visiting the town to share their ideas and discuss their latest work.

The first day of the festival will take place entirely outdoors in parks around Swindon, including the grounds at Lydiard, while singers, storytellers, and poets will stage the dawn chorus.

Mr Holland said: “There’s a thriving writing and reading community here that has been born out of the Swindon festival of literature. We have an optimum size here. We’ve no ambitions to imitate Haye or anyone else. This is Swindon, and we’re a festival for working people”

Mr Holland related the story of a time he met locals at an off-license in Rodbourne. “They said, ‘you’re the literature bloke ain’t you? We just wanna tell you we came to one of your events the other day and all you do is talk about sex, death, and life and relationships like we do down the pub, only you do it in an organised way. Keep it up mate, cheers, we’ll be back.”

Swindon Mayor, Maureen Penny, vocalised her support at the launch event: “25 years of literature, isn’t that fantastic? In all different guises. And doesn’t literature bring us together, because when we’ve read a good book, don’t we go and tell other people about it?

“It’s not only solitary reading, it’s actually a group format, and the literature festival is growing year on year.

“I want to thank all the authors that make this event such a success, and all the people who do music and dancing. If it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t have a literature festival.”

For the full line-up visit www.swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk