This year’s Examiner Literary Luncheon, on Tuesday October 2, will have a strong Yorkshire flavour and a tempting line-up of authors. HILARIE STELFOX reports

TOPPING our menu of speakers is television chef Rosemary Shrager, who runs a famous cookery school in North Yorkshire and has written several recipe books.

Supporting her we have South Yorkshire author Jane Sanderson, a period novelist and former Woman’s Hour producer; Andy Seed, a North Yorkshire resident, poet and writer of humorous non-fiction; and new author James Dawson, a former journalist and teacher from West Yorkshire, whose dark teen thriller has been highly acclaimed.

Bringing together such a collection of talent from the region is a coup for the luncheon, now in its 27th year.

Once again we’ll be dining at what is now the John Smiths Stadium and tickets for a two-course luncheon followed by coffee and tea are just £25.99 each.

Those who join us will not only have the opportunity to be entertained by our speakers, but will also be able to meet them at a book signing afterwards.

Rosemary Shrager has worked for some of the big names in haute cuisine, including Jean-Christophe Novelli and Pierre Koffman. She launched her first cookery school at the beautiful Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in the Outer Hebrides in 1998 and was featured in a six-part Channel 5 series Rosemary – Castle Cook. The project led to further television work, including Ladette to Lady, Nosh, Taste the Nation, the Alan Titchmarsh Show and Royal Upstairs Downstairs.

A regular on This Morning, she is now based in Swinton Park, Masham, North Yorkshire.

Rosemary’s latest cookery book, the second in her Absolutely Foolproof series, is due for publication in September.

Jane Sanderson was born and brought up in the mining town of Hoyland near Barnsley and says that inspiration for her period novel Netherwood, set in the year 1903, came from her late grandma, a miner’s widow and wonderful cook.

Although she now lives in Herefordshire and spent many years in London, where she was a BBC Radio producer on the World at One as well as Woman’s Hour, Jane still has Northern roots and drew upon the area where she was brought up when researching her book.

A fan of Jane Austen and Downton Abbey, she began writing after becoming a full-time mother and moving to a rural location.

James Dawson grew up in Bingley near Bradford and taught in Brighton for 10 years, but now writes full-time in South London.

He was a music journalist during his years at university and still runs the PopRa music blog to this day.

A lifelong fan of Doctor Who and a follower of horror films, James’ debut novel, teen thriller Hollow Pike, has been described as ‘mean girls with witches’ and is centred on a school community. With a strong supernatural element, Hollow Pike is part of the growing tend toward cross-over books, written for young people but read by all ages. James is currently working on a second book, which he describes as “a darkly comic thriller.”

Andy Seed is an author and poet who lives near Malton in North Yorkshire. He bases much of his humorous work on his 17 years as a teacher in a rural community during the 1970s and 80s and writes in the same genre as Gervase Phinn and James Herriot. His most popular work to date is All Teachers Great and Small, the precursor to his new title All Teachers Wise and Wonderful.

Tickets for this event, which is being supported by Waterstones, are available now from The Examiner’s town centre office in John William Street or by calling 01484 430000.

The menu for the event is as follows: chicken with tarragon sauce and seasonal vegetables, followed by a chocolate pot dessert. (A vegetarian option of wild mushroom risotto is available if requested at the time of booking).