In Derwentwater, Melvyn Bragg reminds us, ” … is an island which used to be called St. Erebert’s after the saint who lived there in the 7th Century, and his greatest wish was to die on the same day as St. Cuthbert, and meet him in Heaven. Meetings of a more earthly variety now take place at a festival devoted to words, which attracts literally thousands of wordseekers looking perhaps, like St. Erebert, for their small purchase on an elevated kingdom.”

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Carlisle has not one but two poetry reading groups starting up this month – one at independent bookshop Bookends, led by poet Malcolm Carson, and the other as part of Martyn Halsall’s poet-in-residence stint at Carlisle Cathedral.

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Stand-out stand-up poet Elvis McGonagall headlines this year’s Maryport LitFest at the Senhouse Roman Museum, performing alongside fellow BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live regular, Kate Fox. The festival opens on Friday 2 November with the heavyweight pairing of biographer and novelist Max Egremont and the grande dame of the Cumbrian art world, Mary Burkett.

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Nope, you haven’t just walked into a scene from an undiscovered Jack Kerouac novel. Hopefully you might walk into this Carlisle caff though, and peg a poem on their poetry washing line.

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After a couple of years in Cumbria that started badly – he thought he’d come on holiday by mistake, like Withnail – poet Martin Malone is sorry to be leaving for the soft south, aka Wiltshire. He’s swapping the corridors of Queen Elizabeth Grammar in Penrith for the playing fields of St John’s School in Marlborough, but before he goes he’s having a bit of a do.

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Bookends in Carlisle is throwing itself whole-heartedly into the spirit of Independent Booksellers Week (30 June to 7 July) with a wide variety of author events and activities – from storytelling to Gruffalo parties and Wally hunting.

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