'The Independent' sponsors the Bath Literature Festival

The Independent is pleased to announce that, from 2012, it will be the headline sponsor of the Bath Literature Festival, which will run next year from 2-11 March.

Founded in 1995, the Bath Literature Festival has become established as a 10-day forum for literary debate and celebration, bringing local, national and international writers to Bath's city centre, where Jane Austen's first heroine, Catherine Morland, visited the fashionable pump-room in Northanger Abbey and where Mr Pickwick and his fellow club-members repaired to the Assembly Rooms in Charles Dickens' first novel.

The bicentenary of Dickens' birth in 1812 will be celebrated in several events at the festival, including a public reading of the author's own favourite work, David Copperfield, in its entirety. A weekend will be devoted to Angela Carter, author of The Bloody Chamber, Wise Children and Nights at the Circus, who died in 1992.

Other literary events will feature the Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, Nadine Gordimer and leading novelists including William Boyd, Hisham Matar, Michele Roberts, AL Kennedy, Tony Parsons and Salley Vickers.

Exclusive Offer for Independent readers (STARTING FRIDAY 6 JANUARY)

Priority ticket booking this weekend for The Independent Bath Literature Festival

Jump the queue and book your tickets (starting 6 January) at www.bathlitfest.org.uk or on 01225 463362

Your Priority Booking code: INDY2012

* Click HERE for a pdf brochure