MONMOUTH Literary Festival, organised by pupils from the town’s three senior schools, is back for its fifth year.

The headliner for this year’s event, which runs from Monday, June 25, to Friday, June 29, is natural history writer Horatio Clare.

Mr Clare, who grew up on a hill farm in the Black Mountains, will spend the day in Monmouth (Tuesday, June 26) talking about his comic stories, Aubrey and the Terrible Yoot and Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds, which deal with the subject of depression.

Planned by volunteers from Monmouth School for Boys, Monmouth Comprehensive School and Monmouth School for Girls, the festival aims to share the talent and diversity of young people in the community and to encourage reading and a love of literature.

Significant funding has been secured from Monmouth Town Council and Monmouth Rotary Club for this year’s programme, which has been planned by the students, who approached and contacted the writers themselves.

Neuroscientist Dean Burnett, author Sam Hay, who will visit children at Osbaston and Trellech Primary Schools, and poet Jonathan Edwards are involved on the opening day.

Mr Clare is joined at the festival on the second day by teen fiction writers Bryony Pearce and Hayley Long.

Crime writer CJ Daugherty, famous for her Night School series, will be talking to students on Wednesday, June 27 along with author Daniel Morden, who tells stories based on myths and legends from Wales and around the world.

A cast of 45 Year 8 pupils from across the three senior schools will be taking part in the popular, A Play in a Day. Monmouth Comprehensive is directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while Monmouth School for Boys’ is directing the Henry V element and Monmouth School for Girls is taking on Hamlet.

Also planned for the penultimate day is an informal tea concert and literary event at Bridges Centre in Monmouth.

The special inter-generational event, organised by students, will feature music, drama and literature recitals, showcasing talent from the three schools, as well as special performances from some of the local primary schools.

Rounding off the festival on the final day will be one of the UK’s best-loved storytellers, Cat Weatherill, a best-selling children’s novelist.