Guernsey has announced the first wave of speakers at its third literary festival from 15-18 May 2014. This  includes award winning characters from the literary world such as media personality, Janet Street Porter; novelists, Esther Freud and Stephen May; poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion; children’s author, Nick Butterworth; teenage writer, Cathy Cassidy and CBeebies presenters Cerrie Burnell and Alex Winters.*
 

The 2014 Guernsey Literary Festival will be the island’s third large scale event dedicated to literature and aims to build on the success and excellent reputation of the first two. Past speakers have included Louis des Bernières (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin), Michael Morpurgo (War Horse), Marina Lewycka (A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian), Annie Barrows (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society) and even Charles Dickens’ great-great-great-granddaughter. Over the three days, events take place throughout the capital, St. Peter Port. In the past these have ranged from talks and workshops by authors, poetry masterclasses, story writing sessions, a murder mystery evening in Castle Cornet and a Dicken’s themed dinner. 
 

Catriona Stares, Guernsey Literary Festival committee chair, comments, ‘The festival offers islanders and visitors the chance to interact with some leading authors and poets in a fantastic setting. The first two festivals were a great success and we will continue to build on that for the 2014 event by adding more speakers to the list over the coming months.’
 

Details of the events and further speakers will be announced at www.guernseyliteraryfestival.com in the next couple of months. Tickets will be on sale from January. Updates can be seen on Twitter @guernseylitfestival.

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For further general information on Guernsey, please visit www.visitguernsey.com   
 

For any press enquiries please contact Jules Ugo or Amelia Astley Birtwistle on firstname@lotus-uk.co.ukor call the office on 0207 953 7470
 

*Speaker biographies
 

Esther Freud- Described by the Independent as ‘the best writer about childhood we have’. Freud travelled as a young child through Morocco with her mother and sister, which inspired her first novel Hideous Kinky. This was then made into a film starring Kate Winslet. In 1993, Esther was named by Granta as one of the Best Young Novelists under 40. Her latest book is Lucky Break. www.estherfreud.co.uk

Stephen May- May is a novelist, playwright and TV writer. His 2012 novel Life! Death! Prizes! was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and his plays Back The World and Still Waiting for Everything toured nationally with excellent reviews. www.sdmay.com

Sir Andrew Motion- Motion was poet laureate from 1999-2009, following which time he was knighted. He also founded the Poetry Archive, an online resource of poems and audio recordings which is changing the way poetry is taught in schools. Sir Andrew’s latest anthology, The Customs House, draws on soldiers' experiences of war from 1914 until today. www.uktouring.co.uk/andrewmotion
 

Janet Street-Porter- Street-Porter is a media personality, journalist and broadcaster. She has been editor and editor-at-large of the Independent On Sunday and is now a regular columnist for the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. Street-Porter regularly appears on Question Time, Loose Women and entertainment series such as Grumpy Old Women. Her books include Life’s Too F***ing Short and Don’t Let the B*****ds Get You Down. www.janetstreetporter.com

Nick Butterworth- Butterworth is an internationally-acclaimed children's author and illustrator who has sold more than 12 million books, including Jingle Bells, Tiger and The Whisperer. He is best known for his Percy The Park Keeper stories and one of his latest creations is Q Pootle 5, an animated children’s series. http://bit.ly/163WJpA

Cathy Cassidy- Cassidy has worked as fiction editor for Jackie ,magazine and was an agony aunt for teenage magazine, Shout. Her books include series The Chocolate Box Girls and Cassidy’s loyal fans can become members of her Dream Team, contributing advice and feedback in return for various benefits such as receiving her books before they are officially released. www.cathycassidy.com

Cerrie Burnell and Alex Winters- Burnell and Winters are co-presenters on CBeebies, the BBC TV channel and website designed for children under six. www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies