Despite being affected by days of blizzard conditions, Huddersfield Literature Festival 2018, which ended on March 18, attracted record numbers of people.

While heavy snow on three separate occasions during the festival disrupted travel around the region, just six out of more than 50 events were postponed.

Around 3,000 people in total attended, enjoying everything from an evening with Sir Patrick Stewart to the chance to hear author Joanne Harris in conversation.

“It was a really good festival this year,” said director Michelle Hodgson, “it’s just really frustrating that we had to postpone some events. But we are rescheduling.”

Radio personality Jeremy Vine with members of the Huddersfield Literature Festival 2018 team

Both the Stafflex free family day and an afternoon with journalist Tim Dowling were among the events affected by the weather.

Ironically, a visit by an animatronic Snow Lion to Huddersfield Town’s Canalside training ground, a highlight of the festival, went ahead without any snow at all.

The festival raised £360 for Kirkwood Hospice and a following Sir Patrick’s event a donation of £863 was made to the charity Refuge, which supports those affected by domestic violence.

Reflecting on this year’s festival, Michelle says she’ll now be looking to plan the 2019 event at a slightly later date. “I think I’ll push it ahead a couple of weeks,” she said, “it was challenging on some days. On Saturday (March 17) we managed to run all seven events but the audiences were thinning out as the day went on. David Barnett, who was interviewing Joanne Harris that evening, lives in Barnsley and ended up having to abandon his car on the way home and walk three miles to his house”.