ORGANISERS of an inaugural literary festival celebrating the life and works of the late Poet Laurate Sir John Betjeman hope the event will draw thousands of people to Wantage.

The Wantage Betjeman Festival, being held in the town and nearby villages from September 11 to 17, will include appearances from leading writers including Sir Max Hastings and the poet Pam Ayres.

And the organisers of the week-long event hope that it may one day come to rival the well-known annual Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in Hay-on-Wye, Wales.

The staging of the festival will be a dream come true for Wantage arts enthusiast Jim Mitchell who first had the idea two years ago.

Sir John lived in the town from 1951 to 1972 and before then was resident for a time in nearby Uffington. Among his many poems are two entitled Wantage Bells and On Leaving Wantage.

Mr Mitchell, who has lived in Wantage for more than 30 years, said: “My love of the arts motivated me to create a festival that would celebrate Sir John Betjeman’s association with the town and also create more interest in literature and poetry.

“Our dream would be to emulate the Hay Festival by welcoming people from all over the UK and abroad.

“I think it has enormous potential as, like Hay, we are surrounded by beautiful countryside and it is a lot easier to get to.”

Sir John’s daughter and author Candida Lycett-Green will open the festival alongside Wantage and Didcot MP Ed Vaizey on September 11.

Mrs Lycett-Green, 68, who attended St Mary’s School, Wantage, said she thought the town was a good place to host a literary festival.

Asked what her father would have thought, she said: “I think he would be perfectly happy — though he never thought much of himself.

“I think any idea that promotes reading and literature and poetry is good. Even if it converts one person it would be worth it.”

Mayor Charlotte Dickson, a member of the festival steering committee, said: “It will be a great opportunity to showcase Wantage and, hopefully, get as many people into Wantage as possible.”

The festival will include more than 30 events for all ages including talks from authors, concerts, workshops and literary lunches.

Mr Vaizey said he believed the festival had a lot of potential. “I suspect it will grow over the years,” he said.

More than £9,000 has been raised to stage the event including grants from Wantage Town Council and Vale of White Horse District Council and the festival is sponsored by the Oxford bookshop Blackwells.

Blackwells spokesman Zool Verjee said: “We are very pleased to be involved in a festival which celebrates both the life and work of an individual poet, as well as the literary and artistic life of Oxfordshire as a whole.

“We hope that this inaugural festival is a magnificent success.”

A Betjeman-themed quiz evening is being held on July 14 in the hall of the Blue Boar in Newbury Street to raise more funds for the festival.

For more information and tickets go to the website at: www.wantagebetjeman.co.uk