AROUND 200 people were at the Ilkley Playhouse on Saturday night to hear Alexei Sayle read from and discuss his 'first proper serious' novel, Overtaken.

The Wildman Theatre is a suitably intimate venue for an audience to feel that authors are giving less a performance, more a sharing of their opinions and insights.

And so it was with Alexei Sayle.

He was disarmingly open and honest about his writing - "God knows what this bit means - I just made it up," and had a charm that hopefully won over those shocked by his frequent and enthusiastic swearing.

Alexei Sayle is proud of his novel. He has reason to be.

Overtaken is a story of modern life with all its pretensions, pressures and absurdities.

It is also a tale of murder, revenge and human weakness.

The central character Kelvin is not exactly lovable, but is recognisable, and when he loses his friends in a car crash, if the reader doesn't exactly care what becomes of him, he is certainly desperate to see what Kelvin will do next.

Rather than witness an act of violent revenge we watch Kelvin attempt to teach the killer of his friends, life in a moral and cultured world.

Obviously a fan of the arts, and a believer in their value as education, Alexei Sayle nevertheless, talked of how the country was in danger of being overrun with cultural events.

He said; "My basement is infested with mime artists."

His particular hate for the modern day circus is demonstrated by Overtaken's central character Kelvin.

In the extract read on Saturday, we heard how Kelvin attended a 'CirKuss' and took delight in throwing away a clown's imaginary ball. It is this kind of bizarre scene that reminds us of who the author is "indelibly a comic."

Alexei Sayle freely admitted that his own voice could be heard in the novel. But he hoped that as he writes more, his voice will become more indistinct.

He talked of his upbringing in a left-wing Liverpool; "It was Lenin who came down our chimney," and being surrounded by "turgid, left wing tomes."

Alexei Sayle said he wanted his novel to be about why people turn on each other.

He makes no judgements.

talked of the people in Afghanistan and Palestine and said that not all oppressed will succumb to violence, not all will follow the crowd, but then who knows what we would do in any given situation. It's a big subject to tackle, but not the only one he has in mind.

Alexei feels he doesn't have a choice about writing. He said: "If you are an artist then that is what you do."

And as for the future, he said: "I can't stop, I have thousands of ideas."

His respect for the novel as an art form means he spent four years on this one, and feels he is a success. I think most would agree.

WHAT'S on

Today

Gordon Burns and Julia Darling. Ilkley Playhouse. 7.30pm. £4 or £3.

Friday

Women or Africa - leading African women writers Assia Djebar, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Lilia Momple with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Ilkley Playhouse. 7.30pm. £4 or £3.

The Big Draw, drawing and writing event. The Manor House Museum. 11am -4pm. Free.

Saturday

Shorts or Dungarees, short story workshop with Sara Maitland. Ilkley Playhouse. 11am - 1pm. £8 or £5.

Francis Spufford, Gavin Weightman, The Backroom Boys. Ilkley Playhouse. 11am. £4 or £3.

Getting Published - The Inside Story. Ilkley Playhouse. 1pm. £5 or £3.

Bernice Rubens. Ilkley Playhouse. 3pm. £5 or £3.

One to One writer's surgeries with Martyn Bedford. Ilkley Playhouse. 3pm to 5pm. Free but book with box office on 01943 816714.

Sara Maitland and Michelene Wandor. Ilkley Playhouse. 5pm.

Word from the Edge - four hot performers in cabaret. Mat Fraser, Sophie Woolley, Francesca Beard and Sara Kendall. 7.30pm. £5 or £3.

Sunday

Michele Roberts and Lucy Wadham. Ilkley Playhouse. 1.30pm. £4 or £3.

Women, Mountains, Words. Cow and Calf Rocks. 3pm. Free.

Darwin's Ilkley - talk and walk. Rombalds Hotel. 3pm. £2.

Francis Spufford: The Child that Books Built. Ilkley Playhouse. 3.30pm. £4 or £3.

In conversation: Patricia Duncker and Tobias Hill. Ilkley Playhouse. 5.30pm. £4 or £3.

Arriva Open Mic Competition. Ilkley Playhouse. 7.30pm. £5 or £3.

Thursday

Festival Feedback Session. Crescent Hotel. 7.30pm. Free.

More big names in line up

WITH ticket sales already double those of last year, more big names are lined up for the final events of this year's festival.

Booker prize winner Bernice Rubens will discuss her illustrious writing career at the Ilkley Festival on Saturday.

The author, who has written 25 novels over 40 years, will talk about her latest work, The Sergeant's Tale which opens in 1947, the year before the Israeli War of Independence.

The conversation between Ms Rubens and James Nash will be one of the highlights of this week's events which also features a host of other distinguished authors.

Leading African writers Assia Djebar, originally from Algeria, Tsitsi Dangarembga, from Zimbabwe and Lilia Momple from Mozambique, will feature together in an event chaired by journalist and radio and TV broadcaster Yasmin Alibhai-Brown.

Gordon Burn and Julia Darling will talk about the contemporary Northern novel.

In Getting Published - the inside story, Robert Craig, the Bradford postman who has found fame with his first novel Cover to Cover, will talk about his experiences of getting his work into print.

The cabaret Word from the Edge, on Saturday, features Mat Fraser, Sophie Woolley, Laurence Clarke and Francesca Beard.

Festival Director Rachel Feldberg said: "All four are really well known, and the event is unique because you don't get people of

that calibre performing together in a small town."

She said the festival's first ever weekend of children's events, which has just taken place was a resounding success and would be repeated next year.

She added that the poetry competition for youngsters had proved extremely popular, and the standard of entrants had impressed the festival's own poets Dave Gill and Craig Bradley.

Organisers report that most people attending events are coming from within, or very near, Ilkley.

Next Thursday people who have attended the festival are invited to a festival feedback session.

If you have an hour at 7.30pm at The Crescent Hotel on October 23, organisers would love to hear your views on the festival.