Best-selling novelist Tony Parsons has shown his affection for Bradford by pledging to return to launch the city's book festival.

The best-selling author revealed he has squeezed the event into his busy schedule before jetting off to America for a three-week promotional tour of his book Man and Boy.

He described Bradford as "a place for literature" because it draws in the crowds and he has thrown his weight behind the district's Capital of Culture Bid.

"I am voting for Bradford for Capital of Culture. It is so warm and welcoming and has a cultured background so it gets my vote," he said.

"There is no point having a fantastic venue full of people who are shy but people in Bradford are outgoing and not afraid to speak out, you can't have people sitting there like they are in a museum."

Parsons, who appears on May 11, recalls wowing the crowds at the launch of the literature festival in Ilkley two years ago.

He said: "As time goes by and there are more and more drains on my time I am doing less and less of that stuff. But one event I am doing this time round is the Bradford Book Festival."

"I was very impressed by the crowd in Ilkley last time because when we got there, people were very positive about books and there was a good turn-out.

"It was my kind of crowd and I felt comfortable in a place like that so I'm looking forward to coming back."

The 47-year-old Essex-born writer, who is also a Daily Mirror columnist, will speak about his life and his books at Pictureville before his favourite film The Godfather is screened.

His novel Man and Boy has sold almost two million copies worldwide. His latest book One for My Baby is expected to do well when it is printed in paperback.

Audiences in Bradford will be among the first in the country to find out about the third novel in the trilogy, One for My Wife which is on the way.

Parsons has joined a host of celebrities who are backing Bradford's quest to become European Capital of Culture in 2008.

The list includes film director Lord Puttnam, who is chairman of the partnership board which prepared the bid, pop star Gareth Gates, Bradford actors George Layton and Duncan Preston, and film producer Steve Abbott, TV presenter Richard Whiteley, and former MP and champion of Yorkshire causes Dame Barbara Castle.