Now in its third year, the festival aims to give people the chance to see some of the UK’s best known authors, and offers FREE workshops and writing surgeries across libraries in Sefton.

Amongst the array of Autumnal delights available this year…

… Crosby Civic Hall plays host to An Audience with Alexei Sayle. As well as discussing his highly successful career as a TV writer-come-performer (The Young Ones), journalist (The Independent, The Observer, Time Out…) and author (The Dog Cathcher, Mister Roberts to name just two), he’ll be waxing lyrical about his love for his hometown and taking questions from the audience. A book signing will follow the event…

… Stick Man- Live on Stage, is a wonderful adaptation of the book by the team of writer and illustrator that created The Gruffalo. It is a charming tale of a Stick Man who, whisked away from his family in an incident involving a dog, travels far and wide, used as both pillar and post (or rather, flag mast and cricket bat). Will he ever make it home again? Three actors and a one-man-band combine with a host of colourful characters and animals (and a certain portly gentleman dressed in red and white) in this magical production…

… The classic Animal Farm is given a modern sinister relevance by Gary Shelford’s breathtaking solo performance of George Orwell’s masterwork. The farm yard is created all around you in 110 minutes of utterly compelling theatre, using nothing but a wooden box, amazing sound effects and brilliant physical and vocal dexterity…

… Closing the 2009 Sefton Celebrates Writing Festival, four of Merseyside’s leading female poets, Gladys Mary Cole, Mandy Coe, Pauline Rowe and Rebecca Goss, take to the stage to read from some of their publications and take about their work.

For details and tickets see http://www.seftonarts.co.uk or call the box office on 01704 540011 / 0151 928 1919

A Poet In New York……………………… Tues 10 November, 8pm

Let The Right One In ……………………..Tues 10 Nov, 7.45pm

Roger McGough …………………………… Wed 11 Nov, 7.30pm  (SOLD OUT!)

Animal Farm ………………………………. Thurs 12 Nov, 1.30pm & 7.30pm

Austen’s Women ………………………….. Fri 13 Nov, 7.30pm

Stick Man ……………………………………… Sat 14 Nov, 12pm & 4pm

Alexei Sayle ………………………………….. Sat 14 Nov, 8pm

Four Merseyside Female Poets ……..  Sun 15 Nov, 7.30pm

One such film which seems to be placed very firmly within the ‘good’ category is the newly released Bright Star, which puts the focus upon one of our most famous and beloved poets – John Keats. Written and directed by Jane Campion (The Piano) and partly based on Andrew Motion’s biography of Keats, the film centres on the famed romance between Keats and his muse Fanny Brawne and has attracted glowing reviews (here’s another) since its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In many ways, Keats could be considered the perfect subject for a dramatic and intense narrative – Keats’ poetic talent, growing body of work and personal love affair were all tragically cut short by his premature death at 25.

Despite the temptation to over-sensationalise, Bright Star appears to do justice to the beauty, elegance and soaring wonder expressed in Keats’ poetry. Just watching selected clips from the film, you cannot help but feel instantly overwhelmed by the breathtaking scenery which provides a visual counterpart to Keats’ sensual word imagery. A number of Keats’ poems feature throughout the film, woven carefully into the narrative rather than thrown in for effect, making them all the more moving.

To celebrate the release of the film, as well as to commemorate the recent anniversary of Keats’ birth, it seems fitting that this week’s featured poem come from the man himself. Choosing just one poem from the many superb ones on offer is not an easy task, so why not look to the source of inspiration for the title of the film itself? The sonnet expresses the notion that love and desire to love can transcend our time on earth, which is appropriate considering the fact that Keats’ work, love for Fanny Brawne, and indeed life transcended his own existence.

Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art–

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors–

No–yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever–or else swoon to death.

John Keats (1775-1821)

13-14 November, Various Venues, Manchester.

Tickets are now on sale for the UK’s first adaptation-only film festival. With masterclasses from Frank Cottrell Boyce, Paul Welsh, Jane Rogers, Kate Jessop, and screenings and premieres of specially commissioned work, plus stacks of opportunities to get involved in next year’s projects. More info at: www.versionfestival.co.uk

The aim of the Version is to nurture an appreciation of narrative among developing filmmakers and to reassert the importance of the writer in the filmmaking process. Young directors and animators have been encouraged to engage directly with literary texts at the start of their careers – an opportunity not normally open to them because of publishing and authorial copyright. As a publisher, Comma (the organisers of the festival) have been able to bypass this obstacle by negotiating author permissions as part of the commissioning process, not only among its own authors but – through Literature Northwest, a network of independent publishers – among authors from across the region.

In addition to individual adaptation challenges, Comma has funded and produced four short dramas specially for the festival, based on short stories by Christopher Priest, Martyn Bedford, M Y Alam and Guy Ware. These have been produced under the auspices of award winning producer Caleb Shaffer and a crew assembled from Northern Film School graduates and Futureworks Media students, with support from production company Lions Eyes and the Granada Foundation.

Speakers at the festival include Frank Cottrell Boyce, executive producer Paul Welsh, Amir Jamall, Jane Rogers, Kate Jessop, Andrew Haigh (director of Film Four’s £50K adaptation of Comma’s short ‘Five Miles Out’), Carl Hunter (Grow Your Own), Alison Surtees and Mick Knowles (Made Up North Films).

More information on www.versionfestival.co.uk

To book tickets to Cornerhouse events click here.

Workshops and networking events are free (email ra.page@commapress.co.uk to book)

International Showcase, Fri 13 Nov, Cervantes, tickets on door. Please note new time: 8pm

Andrea Gillies’s book Keeper: Living with Nancy – a journey into Alzheimer’s (Short Books) – describes the author’s decision to take on the full-time care of her mother-in-law, an Alzheimer’s sufferer and beat a shortlist of five other books to win the £25,000 prize.

Read more about the Wellcome Trust Book Prize here.

Perform-a-Poem is a joint project between Michael Rosen, Booktrust and the London Grid for Learning (LGfL), will allow teachers with an LGfL username to upload videos of children’s poetry performances, following national standards on e-safety procedures. Videos are tagged with a pupil’s first name and borough only and teachers can filter out unsuitable content. The children’s performances can be browsed and enjoyed by children in other schools, as well as families and friends, and can be searched by the title or topic of poem, or the name of the borough.

Read more on the Scholastic website.

Jonah Lehrer is a contributing editor at Wired. He’s also written for The New Yorker, Seed, Nature, the Boston Globe and is a contributor to Radio Lab. He’s the author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist. His new book is How We Decide.

Short and rather bittersweet – much like the hours of daylight we can expect for a while – is ‘Epitaph’ by Sara Teasdale. It succinctly sums up the cyclical nature of time, the passing of the seasons and how neither can be halted. The opening line presents a beautiful image of the change from autumn to winter, as the altered leaves fall from trees in ‘serene descent’. However in the very next line, an unsettling and even eerie atmosphere is introduced which pervades throughout – in the silence of the autumn air, the suffocation of the snow and perhaps most evidently in the ominous ‘unending drawing of all things to the earth again’. The mixture of darkness evoked by the title and the quiet beauty of the described elements is striking.

Love is a subject frequently touched upon by the American poet in her work and it is the romantic suggestion of the poem’s closing that I find especially illuminating. The idea that the earth is in a relationship with time and the seasons is one both intriguing and plausible, as one does affect the other. For one partner to be solid and dependable and the other flighty and restless seems to be the stuff of romantic folklore, something exciting but ultimately doomed to failure. Yet the earth does not regret what has been and the preceding season is not conscious to know that it has been discarded. Maybe it is best to think of the passing months and years in their turn in this way, as love affairs – destined at some point to come to an end but filled with memories that overcome time itself to endure in our lives.

Epitaph

Serene descent, as a red leaf’s descending

When there is neither wind nor noise of rain,

But only autumn air and the unending

Drawing of all things to the earth again.

So be it, let the snow fall deep and cover

All that was drunken once with light and air.

The earth will not regret her tireless lover,

Nor he awake to know she does not care.

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

In an article written in today’s Guardian, Dasgupta has confessed that he found his victory “very depressing”:

“I had loads of people emailing me, asking ‘Can I post this to the discussion?’,” he says. “A lot of people were immensely irate about the whole thing – I was amazed by the passion it raised. I was mostly saying ‘Please don’t post anything’.” A user with the postername John Self posted an invitation Dasgupta had sent via Facebook for friends to come and vote on the Not the Booker thread, and at that point “anything that was said about my book was a conspiracy,” Dasgupta continues, “and people were saying that I was behind it all.” It reached a point where Dasgupta felt there was “no way of arguing with any of this”, and posted on the thread himself to withdraw from the competition.

Dr Fearnley, who is also a member of The Reader Organisation’s Research Team, has written about his experience reading with patients weekly in this secure unit, and why he thinks it is so important, in The Reader issue 34, which you can download for free here, or buy your copy of the magazine here if the ‘real thing’ is more your thing.

This exhibition features a selection of original artwork from this year’s Liverpool Reads book The Savage including the original front cover from the hard back edition which is both intriguing and chilling.

Dave McKean has illustrated several award-winning comics including Arkham Asylum with author/playwright Grant Morrison, Signal to Noise and Mr. Punch with author Neil Gaiman. He has written as well as illustrated two books (Cages and Pictures That Tick) released four different collections of his photography (Black and White Lies, Option:Click, The Particle Tarot: The Major Arcana and The Particle Tarot: The Minor Arcana) and has created hundreds of comic and book covers including the hugely popular Sandman series.

Multi-talented, Dave has created ad campaigns and over 150 CD packages for Michael Nyman, Tori Amos, Counting Crows and Alice Cooper amongst others. He has worked on a variety of book and film projects with John Cale, The Rolling Stones, Milcho Manchevski, Stephen King, Lars Von Trier and Iain Sinclair. He is currently directing and designing films including the recent Jim Henson Studios produced Mirrormask and character design on the Harry Potter movie franchise. He also jointly oversees the running of the jazz record label Feral.

The Bluecoat is delighted to host an exhibition featuring a selection of original artwork by Dave McKean from The Savage. The exhibition starts outside the bar (press 2 in the lift) and continues on the floor above. It is open from 10.00am until 10.00pm Tuesday to Saturday and 10.00am until 6.00pm on Sundays and Mondays.

The images displayed are courtesy of the artist Dave McKean with support from Walker Books and David Almond.