THE first Helmsley Festival of Writing takes place this month with walks, talks, dances, performances, family trails and events suitable for all ages and interests.

It will run over the weekend of May 17-19, starting on the Friday evening at Helmsley Arts Centre with a show by writer, comedian and Radio 4 Saturday Live regular Kate Fox, who lives in Thirsk.

The organiser is Em Whitfield-Brooks, who became director of the arts centre a year ago.

Urged by Arts Council England to broaden its programme and prioritise literary events, she plumped for a literary festival, helped by poet Simon Armitage, with whom she had worked before. “The idea is to bring out the writer in everybody,” she said.

A lively programme involving novelists, poets, an historian and journalists, will start, aptly enough with a funny interactive family show by Kate Fox, The Starting Line, about running and writing. Fox says she spent most of her life sitting down until she ran the Great North Run and found out that brains and bodies are more connected than she ever knew.

Originally commissioned by Great North Run Culture, it was developed in association with Manchester Children’s Book Festival and produced by Stockton Arc.

One of the main events will be a Saturday morning walk led by Simon Armitage along the Cleveland Way from Rievaulx Abbey to Helmsley followed by an afternoon workshop.

Later that day (5-7pm), there is a literary tea dance at the Feathers’ Hotel with dancing to Manouche Jazz and European gypsy swing from the five-piece band Manière des Bohémiens.

Major names leading talks and workshops include crime writer Tom Needham, poet and playwright Amanda Dalton, associate editor of The Guardian Madeleine Bunting, and the festival’s poet-in-residence, Simon Armitage.

Activities for families include a Taletastic Tent for children aged onefour at Helmsley Arts Centre on the Saturday morning, for singing, dancing, dressing up, bubbles, stickers and storytelling. A trip to Helmsley Walled Garden for book-related activities, including a trail, Peter Rabbit event, papermaking and other events organised in conjunction with Ryedale Book Festival. A family ticket costs £5, available from the arts centre.

The finale will be a torchlit poetry and promenade event on the lawned terrace above Rievaulx Terrace on the Sunday evening, May 19, at 6pm, led by Simon Armitage and Amanda Dalton.

Details are available from Helmsley Arts Centre, in The Old Meeting House. Visit helmsley arts.org.uk or call the box office on (01439) 771700.