A new literary festival is to be held in Redruth – and well-known names have been lined up to feature at the event.

Talks will be given by authors such as Terry Waite, Patrick Gale, Tom Cox, Catrina Davies, Wyl Menmuir, Natasha Carthew and Tom Watson.

The talks will be on the theme of home, whether that means the comfort of our firesides, the plight of homelessness or the impact of second homeowners on coastal communities. 

The Redruth Book Feast will be held at the Redruth Drapery over the weekend of April 22-23. 

Cornish Lithium is the headline sponsor of the event and as part of its involvement is offering to digitise any historical books or documents relating to Cornish mining that local people may have hidden away within their homes.  

Company chief executive Jeremy Wrathall said: “Redruth has been the hearth and home of Cornish mining for centuries and we would like to offer local residents the chance to preserve this rich heritage for generations to come by scouring their bookshelves and sharing any books or documents that they may have inherited from their forebears for us to capture in digital form for the future.”

The company has already digitised thousands of books, documents and historical mining maps to inform its exploration projects that are focused on the extraction of lithium from geothermal waters and hard rock in Cornwall’s historic mining districts. 

The company has amassed an extensive digital archive but is particularly interested in documenting the personal legacies of local mining families. 

Jeremy said: “We would be pleased to hear from anyone who thinks they may have something of interest to contribute, however small they think it may be. 

“Building and strengthening relationships with our local communities is very important to us at Cornish Lithium, and what better way to do this than by sharing a love of the written word, revering Cornwall’s proud and rich mining history, and safeguarding it for the future?”