Ilkley Literature Festival 2025 PR

The north’s longest running book festival, Ilkley Literature Festival, now in its 52^nd year, had another hugely successful year.

Ilkley is remarkable, delivering 17 days of author events, and 2025 line up included household names, including Nick Clegg, Jung Chang, Michael Palin, Simon Armitage, Lady Hale, Alan Davies, Mary Portas, Hugh Bonneville – phew – to name just a few!

It also delivers writing workshops and has an unrivalled reputation for showcasing acclaimed poets, as well as providing a platform for new and emerging poets (WH Auden launched its first festival in 1973).

Cause UK first began providing PR support for the festival in 2019.

Over the years we’ve secured dozens of author interviews in targeted regional press such as the Yorkshire Post, Telegraph and Argus, Ilkley Gazette, Yorkshire Living, Yorkshire Life, and Beyond magazine, Living North etc.

We’re also proud to have a very active presence on the BBC, including Look North, BBC Radio York, Leeds, and BBC Online.

This year highlights included the festival being one of Marie Claire’s not to be missed autumn festivals, as well as one of Good Housekeeping’s Best book festivals. Country Life magazine also flagged it as this season’s hot ticket.

Thanks go as ever to Gyles Brandreth, are long-standing champion of Ilkley, who has done multiple media over the years. This year, he did a brilliant interview with the BBC on the North’s literary scene being overlooked.

We had multiple authors interviewed on BBC Radio, including Hugh Bonneville and Jay Rayner, and Michael Palin, Mary Portas and Nick Clegg graced the weekend magazine of the Yorkshire Post, with features on wider authors including Rachel Bower, Jess Kitching, and Dr James Fox.

Over 90 newspaper and magazine stories were achieved, with an estimated 1.33m views. You can view the full coverage book here.