A CHRISTMAS fundraising appeal has been launched by Ilkley Literature Festival to raise money to repair the Snow Stanza Stone which has recently been vandalised.

Money raised via the Snow Appeal will also help to support the work of the literature festival throughout the year.

Thanks to the generous support of Bradford based printing company Spellman Walker the literature festival has 500 limited edition cards featuring the Snow Stone and poem by Simon Armitage. Each one is signed by the festival's headline authors including: Alan Bennett; Susan Calman; Mary Portas; Jacqueline Wilson; Carol Ann Duffy and Imtiaz Dharker; Simon Armitage; Mark Billingham; Jenni Murray; John Suchet; Jack Monroe and Nick Hewer.

People who donate £25 will receive one of the signed cards which will be selected at random. Each card has space to add your own message should you wish to send it on to someone special.

A spokesperson for Ilkley Literature Festival said it is believed, but not confirmed, that someone shot at the stone with an air rifle. She added: "Inspired by the Snow Stone, which was recently vandalised and is in need of costly repairs we are launching the 2018 Snow Fundraising Appeal to raise £10,000 to support our work throughout the year including repairing Snow Stone.

"We are already off to a great start thanks to the fantastic team at National Trust Marsden Moor who have generously agreed to contribute to part of the costs of the Snow Stone repairs but we need to raise more in order to get the work done.

"Ilkley Literature Festival is much more than two weeks of events every October. We work year-round on projects including weekly writing groups for children and young people, author visits to schools, supporting writers to make new work and of course major projects like the Stanza Stones.

"By donating to the Snow Appeal you will be making a real difference and supporting our work. For instance: £5 provides a ticket for a young person to attend a Festival event; £15 covers the costs of materials for a Story Explorers participant; £50 subsidises a Summer School place for a young writer; £150 covers the costs of an author visit a local school; £500 supports an emerging writer to create new work for the Festival."

Stanza Stones was an imaginative collaboration between Simon Armitage and Ilkley Literature Festival, in association with imove, a Cultural Olympiad programme in Yorkshire.

The project, which culminated in June 2012, saw Armitage write a set of poems inspired by the language and landscape of the Pennine Watershed, which were then carved onto stones across the upland by stone artist Pip Hall, forming a permanent ‘Poetry Trail’ from Armitage’s home town of Marsden to the Festival’s base in Ilkley.

To donate to the Snow Appeal visit: www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/donate