As the Hexham Book Festival celebrates its second birthday, LNE spoke to festival organiser Susie Troup about how the festival has earned its place on the region's literary calendar.

Tell us about the festival this year. What's on and what shouldn't we miss?
There really is something for everyone this year. Scottish crime writers Ray Banks and Allan Guthrie promise to be good fun in a dark and twisted sort of way and it's even a free event, so you'd be daft to miss that! And Guardian columnist Kathryn Hughes is an an extremely witty and entertaining speaker. She'll be talking about historical biography and her most recent book, the acclaimed The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton.

There’s also a ‘get your poetry published workshop’ so from food to delectably nasty Scottish crime writing, via children’s workshops and Will Self on the Saturday night, I'd say things were looking pretty good!

We’re also hosting the Northern Writers’ Awards for New Writing North as well as profiling several local writers.

How important is it to have a mix of local writers and those from further afield?
It’s great to profile local writers, but we need to have some national names to attract audiences who perhaps wouldn’t go to a ‘literary’ event as a matter of course.

Who comes to the festival?
Last year our research showed that people came from throughout the North East, from as far as Chester-le-Street and Morpeth. I have to say that the libraries have helped enormously by distributing programmes through the region.

This is the festival's second year. What did you learn from last time?
Feedback last year led us to scheduling a continuous programme, so both days are pretty full of back-to-back events, with more things for children as well as two poetry events.

How did the food theme come about? It's not just the Queen's Hall events, is it? You're also doing something at the Hexham Farmers' Market...
Food issues proved very successful last year, with William Leith, Candida Crew and the Hairy Bikers. Then I heard about independent booksellers taking over the farmers' market in Manchester last year and thought, why not combine the two? The independents are struggling here to keep their heads above water in the face of Waterstone's and Tesco in just the same way as small food producers are. Bloodaxe Books, Biscuit Publishing, Comma Press, Independent Northern Publishers, Mslexia, and Red Squirrel Press will all be presenting their produce alongside Northumberland’s farmers at the market.

What were the chances of there being two local writers having written books about Yemen?
How strange was that? I'd heard about Paul Torday's book in March 2006 and had spoken to his agent then about having him this year. Then he was keen to go on with another writer and I remembered seeing Peter Mortimer read from his book when it was launched by NWN a while ago, so it was heaven sent! I certainly didn't realise that Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was going to be quite as successful as it has been - at the time, I'd just heard he was from around here and it sounded like the kind of quirky thing that might appeal to local audiences!

And how would you persuade someone who'd never been to a literary event to come to the festival?
I think this is the hardest question... Perhaps the ‘food writers’ are the ones set to attract literary event ‘virgins’? Most people like to talk about food and if we can get them in the Queen's Hall to hear Sophie Grigson or Andrew Whitley, then they might move on to more ‘writerly’ events next year!

Hexham Book Festival 2007 runs from 24-25 March at the Queen’s Hall, Hexham, Northumberland. For more information, see the Events section on Literature North East or the festival’s own website at www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk.