The News
While many art venues are taking a hit because of the economic downturn, more than 800 tickets have been sold so far for the festival which opens this Friday.
The 10-day festival will host 101 events across 23 venues in the borough – much bigger than the 40 events held over four days during the inaugural festival last year.
Among the big names giving talks are bestselling novelists Fay Weldon, Maggie Gee and Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
Arthur Conan Doyle and his most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes, are also heavily featured with five talks plus an exhibition at the Meridian Centre of the Conan Doyle Collection, which was bequeathed to Portsmouth City Council by leading expert Richard Lancelyn Green.
And there are plenty more unusual distractions such as a ghost walk, a tea leaf reading gypsy and a poet in a shed.
The big names and variety of events have helped to draw people into the festival which is designed to provide something for everyone – as the ticket sales show.
The festival’s artistic director, Lucy Flannery, said: ‘We’ve sold more than 800 ticket and it does seem that the recession hasn’t really affected us. People do need to go out and enjoy themselves and our tickets are good value. We’re going to do better than last year.
‘But while we’ve had strong ticket sales there are still plenty left for many of the events.’
Some of the other highlights include the literary editor of The Guardian, Claire Armitstead, examining the role of the critic, as well as workshops on online phenomenons such as blogging and Twitter.
Local writers Isabel Ashdown, Alex Bell and Yong Pease will feature in a panel discussion on writing for and about teenagers.
And there are plenty of book fairs and sales and visits from children’s authors to schools.
Tickets can be bought from Havant Arts Centre in East Street. Call (023) 9247 2700 or go to havantartscentre.co.uk. For details visit havantlitfest.org.uk
