Now in its third year, the festival is constantly growing and tentative plans will see this year’s event stretching over a whole week.

The first event to be announced is the second Morley Literary Luncheon which will be held in Morley Town Hall on October 15.

Guest speaker at the event will be historical writer and broadcaster Kate Williams, author of the critically acclaimed biography of Lord Nelson’s mistress, Lady Emma Hamilton.

England’s Mistress, the Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton, was a Book of the Week on Radio 4 and is soon to be made into a film.

Kate’s next work, to be published in the autumn, is a biography of Queen Victoria. Around the same time Kate will have her own historical television series hitting our screens.

Morley Literature Festival’s new director, Jill Morris, said Kate was just the first of a number of big names that were heading for Morley come October.

The Observer and Advertiser will be keeping you up-to-date with all the big announcements as they happen.

l The newly formed Friends of Morley Literature Festival are also planning a series of evening events in the run-up to this year’s festival.

The group formed after last year’s festival in a bid to keep up the reputation of the event all the year around.

Members, who have been meeting monthly, have come up with the idea of having regular evenings dedicated to a poet or author and the first in the spotlight will be John Betjeman.

It will be held in Morley Town Hall on Thursday, June 5 at 7.30pm and tickets will be £3, which will include a free glass of wine.

People will be encouraged to go along and listen to other Morleians read Betjeman poems and they will be encouraged to bring along their favourite poem to read out themselves.

Local businesses are also being encouraged to attend and one Morley Market trader will be taking along a variety of cheeses to sample and sell.