MORE than 60 local youngsters have entered a children’s writing competition as part of this year’s Dulverton Exmoor Literary Festival.

The festival, which runs over Saturday and Sunday (November 16 and 17), has been trying to attract more young people to take part and has several activities aimed at their age range.

More than a dozen different events will be held across the two days of the festival, which is now in its third year.

The programme kicks-off on Saturday morning with a 90-minute session in Dulverton Town Hall discussing the recently-launched book ‘Exmoor Farms: A Year on the Moor’.

It will be chaired by Exmoor Hill Farming Network chairman Ian May with farmer panellists Alan Collins and Jack Buckingham, and the book’s author Jane Pearn.

On Sunday, the festival’s ‘Book Club’ talk in the Town Hall will be on 20th century historical fiction hosted by historical novelist Kate Lord Brown and featuring Sunday Times best-selling author Jennie Godfrey, Vanessa de Haan, and Jessica Moor.

While many of the events will take place in the Town Hall and the public library, some will also be staged in the Bridge Inn public house, including one on Saturday with local author Hazel Prior, who will be playing her Celtic harp in between readings from her books.

Many of the events, including with Hazel Prior, are free to attend, while others can be booked online via the Visit Dulverton website here.

Talks by Jonathan Dimbleby and Caroline Quentin have already sold out, but tickets still remain available for Deborah Meaden, Plum Sykes, Stanley Johnson, Charles Foster, the Book Club fiction talk, the Exmoor farming talk, the horse racing talk, and the crime writing discussion.

One author, Children’s Laureate Lauren Child, has had to withdraw at short notice due to a family bereavement but hopes to take part instead next year.

Among other free to attend events is a ‘Children’s Story Corner’ with readings for young people by writers Emily Hamilton and Emma Bettridge in the Bridge Inn, on Sunday.

A ‘Meet the Author’ session in Dulverton’s public library on Saturday afternoon is also free, where people can drop in to chat with writers Jo Middleton, Zoe Gibson Quirk, Ian Parsons, Richard Collis, and local writer Powers Ian Mawby.

An invitation-only festival drinks party will be put on in the Town Hall on Saturday evening where the festival committee will thanks those who have helped to organise the weekend.

The children’s writing contest will be judged by historical novelist Kate Lord Brown and the winner and runners-up will be announced on Sunday afternoon.

The festival is being sponsored by Amicus Law Solicitors, Tozers Solicitors, Stockham Farm Exmoor, Dulverton Development Forum, Mr and Mrs Prebensen of Dulverton, Exmoor Magazine, Knight Frank Exeter Estate Agents, Ware Construction, Paul Hardy Antiques, Exmoor News, Osteo & Physio, Jeff Pegrum Landscaping, Risdons Solicitors, Rothwell & Dunworth Antique Books, Winsbere House B&B, Somerset Life Magazine, Waterstones Barnstaple, The Bridge Inn Dulverton, The Sip Shed, Exmoor Character Cottages, and Dulverton Town Council.