MORE than 500 speakers will take part in the biggest line-up yet for the Bradford Literature Festival this summer.

As well as top authors, historians, politicians and poets, the festival will feature appearances by boxer Frank Bruno and US rocker Suzi Quatro.

Over 400 events have been planned for the fourth annual festival, which runs at venues throughout the city from June 29 to July 8.

The festival, in association with Provident Financial, has skyrocketed in popularity since 2015, growing its audience from 968 visitors to 50,000 last year.

Newly-published books launching at the festival include Why I am A Hindu by Shashi Tharoor, The Business Plan for Peace by Dr Scilla Elworthy, Don’t Let My Past be Your Future by Harry Leslie Smith, and City of Sinners by Bradford’s own A. A. Dhand.

Other participants will include Kashmiri Nobel Peace Prize nominee Parveena Ahanger, historian David Starkey, Jeanette Winterson, Robin Ince, Elif Shafak, Ben Okri, Akala, Nimco Ali, Dennis Skinner and Joanna Hoffman.

1970s rock star Suzi Quatro launches Songbook, a new annual event that celebrates the lyrics and influences of a major songwriter.

This year’s programme also features two events that will explore some of the key influences of Bradford-born artist David Hockney. The first will examine the poetry that has inspired Hockney throughout his career, in a unique event taking place at Bradford Cartwright Hall’s Hockney Gallery. The second event will see the launch of Margaret Hockney’s memoir My Mother is Not Your Mother.

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The festival will also see the launch of the Bronte Stones project – a series of four sculpted stones creating a path from Thornton, where the literary sisters were born, to Haworth.

Other sessions will look at scientific explorations of gene therapy in the context of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the centenary of the start of women’s suffrage in Britain, and of the First World War’s Armistice. There will also be numerous events for schools and children.

The programme can be viewed at bradfordlitfest.co.uk.

Booking is open now online or via 01274 238374.