A SECOND successful literature festival has seen authors, illustrators and more visiting Cirencester to share their love of books and reading.

The week-long event organised by Octavia Karavla of Octavia’s Bookshop has seen 12 events take place for children and young adults.

Events were hosted by Octavia’s Bookshop and Cirencester library, drawing hundreds to meet the authors of well known children’s books.

For the first time the festival also included two events aimed at adults, including an extremely popular cider and curry event featuring Ivor Peters, aka The Urban Raja and Rory Souter of The Cotswold Cider Company.

Octavia said that the two adult events had been great successes and that she hopes to have more at future festivals.

She said: “We also had two adult events which were a huge success and there was a great atmosphere at both.”

Octavia thanked volunteers Olivia Maiden, Megan Raine and Molly Wickett for their help throughout the week and their invaluable contribution to the festival.

She said: “The only reason we can make this happen is because of these girls, who have been my customers for years and are such great volunteers.”

Octavia added that the children’s talks were packed every time and plenty of books brought in by authors sold out during their events.

Speaking about events taking place at the library Marilyn Lane, locality librarian, said “It has been a very busy time of year, but also a really successful one.”

Marilyn explained that the events had drawn many young people and their families to the library and encouraged some to sign up.

She noted that the event with Liz Pichon, author and illustrator of the popular Tom Gate’s series, was particularly well attended and also provided the library with a pair of illustrations to decorate their walls.

Adding her thanks to Octavia Marilyn said: “It’s so good to have a great independent book seller with the enthusiasm and contacts to make something like this happen. It’s great for us to work with her.”

The authors who visited have also extended their thanks to the organisers and volunteers who made the festival a success and some have already expressed their wish to return next year.

All proceeds from the festival will go to The Bingham Library Trust, named after philanthropist Daniel Bingham, to encourage people under the age of 30 to enjoy reading.