Literary Love at Ilkley Literature Festival

Cause UK were proud to do media work for the 2019 Ilkley Literature Festival.

Hosted over 17 days in October, the festival which was founded in 1973, is the north’s most established literary event renowned for its artistic excellence and diverse programme.

Headline acts included David Suchet, Clare Balding, Prue Leith and Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage.

We secured BBC York and Leeds radio interviews with Gyles Brandreth and David Suchet, as well as extensive author features in The Yorkshire Post.

David Suchet was on the cover of the Yorkshire Post’s Saturday magazine, with additional author interviews with Caroline Criado Perez, Prue Leith, Lemn Sissay, Mark Radcliffe, and Carrie Gracie.

Cause UK director, Ann, put her journalism skills to work interviewing authors Dick Clement and La Frenais in LA – the writers behind iconic TV shows including Porridge and The Likely Lads. The feature ran in the Yorkshire Post and Telegraph and Argus.

Ann also interviewed former Blue Peter presenter, Janet Ellis and author Laura Prescott for features in the Telegraph and Argus and Ilkley Gazette.

Cause UK supported local school pupil Esme Gutch to interview a host of authors for the Ilkley Grammar School’s Anti-Bullying Club. Esme sought their wise words on the topic for her school magazine. The project inspired our Director Clair to write a comment piece in the Yorkshire Post on bullying, with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage advising: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s one of life’s great guiding principles.”

An author interview with Mark Radcliffe to promote his festival appearance also ran in the Daily Express, with pieces by crime author Peter Robinson in Yorkshire Life, and a feature on a Bronte event in Yorkshire Living magazine. The event was also featured in the I newspaper, The Times, Bradford Review, and Country Life magazine.

We also invited ITV Calendar to film Gyles Brandreth in Ilkley, who announced “I love Ilkley” in a passionate interview on his love of poetry, and the festival’s legacy of poets.