Book festival created to combat literacy deficiency

A new book festival is being launched in Stoke-on-Trent to encourage more people to read and help improve literacy levels.

Stoke Book Festival will run between 3-10 October and include talks by authors, workshops and performances.

Simon Drakeford, festival director, said they wanted to promote books by supporting the brilliant literacy work already going on and by having authors come to Stoke.

Data has shown that only 70% of Stoke-on-Trent children meet the expected level of reading by the end of Year 6, compared with 75% nationally, making the city the lowest ranked across the whole of the West Midlands.