THE director of the Swindon Festival of Literature says he is ecstatic with the success of this year's event.

Speaking at the festival's Lower Shaw Farm Children and Families Day, Matt Holland said he was delighted at the number of new and unfamiliar faces he was seeing at the events.

He said: "I have been living in Swindon for 25 years but this year I have been surprised at the number of new faces, at event after event.

"I don't know where they are coming from, but so many are approaching myself or a member of the crew and saying they are so pleased to have discovered the event.

"More and more people have been attending the event from outside the borough. We've had people from as far as Birmingham attending the events but there is also a growing number of loyal fans in Swindon. It really is remarkable."

Mr Holland also said he was delighted that so many of the festival's events were selling out and fast.

"We have come to expect some of the events to sell out," he said. "Last week you couldn't even pay people to listen to poetry, it's a subject that doesn't appeal to everyone, but on Saturday our Poems and Pints event was a complete sell-out."

Many of the festival's weekend events were designed for the younger fans of literature the children and scores of them, attended the Stanza and Deliver Youth Slam.

There was also a storywalk with storyteller Eric Maddern, who took youngsters along tracks and pathways in Lydiard Park. This was followed by the Poems and Pints event at the Town Hall on Saturday.

On Sunday dozens of youngsters and their parents turned up at the front of Lower Shaw Farm for the Children and Families Day which featured storytalks and a book launch with author Cat Weatherill.

And Swindon's Young Actors took to the stage of the Wyvern Theatre for their performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Anthony Osborne