Award-winning writer to headline Wolverhampton literary festival

The author is set to be the highlight of a packed weekend featuring more than 80 different events at the second Wolverhampton Literature Festival.

It follows the huge success of this year's event which included such names as author Sathnam Sanghera, Doreen 'Lazy Cow' Tipton and Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff attracting large crowds.

The full line-up for the second festival, running from Thursday January 25 until Sunday January 28 has yet to be officially announced.

But Will Self, who will be in conversation with literary academic Sebastian Groes, is expected to be a huge draw.

They will be at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery at 5.30pm on January 28 exploring some of the running themes throughout Self's work and focusing on his modernist trilogy Umbrella, Shark and Phone.

Self has said of his writing that he does not seek to create characters for his readers to identify with or to represent reality he wants to 'astonish people.' Groes is a senior lecturer in English literature at Roehampton University, UK.

The 2018 festival will follow a similar pattern to the first taking in venues across the city and offering a varied programme with something for every age and taste.

Venues include the University of Wolverhampton, Bantock Tractor Shed, the Central and other city libraries, the Slade Rooms and Newhampton Arts Centre.

The programme is to include a number of high profile musicians who hail from the Black Country and a popular TV actor as well as favourite writers, poets and performers from the region.

Sister paper the Express & Star is supporting the festival again this year and will be hosting a discussion panel debating the 50th anniversary of the controversial Rivers of Blood speech by former Wolverhampton MP Enoch Powell. The debate will take place at the university MC001 building at 2.30pm on January 27.

Express & Star and Chronicle columnist Peter Rhodes will also be appearing at the festival, at the art gallery on the morning of January 28. Entitled Hacking It, he will reflect on 30 years with the Express & Star and how Britain's biggest regional newspaper covered some of the world's top stories. He will discuss "how he reported a changing world - and learned how to round up baby penguins in the process."

There will be poetry and short story competitions as well as countless writing and performance workshops during the festival.

Full listings and details of tickets are set to be revealed later this week.