FEMINIST icon and cultural commentator Germaine Greer arrived in Ilkley on Friday night to kick off a weekend of appearances by world-class authors.

A packed audience at the King's Hall

listened as the controversial academic

discussed female poets and read extracts from a new book she has edited - 101 Poems by 101 Women.

Festival organiser Dominic Gregory described her performance as 'fantastic'.

"I was nervous about her reading actually - probably because she has such a reputation and is so well known," he said.

"But she's an amazing woman. There was well over 400 people in the King's Hall and it was great. She was really good afterwards, having conversations with everybody despite there being a huge queue for books to be signed."

Sally Gough, 22, who works at The Grove Bookshop, said she was bowled over by Greer's performance.

"I'd never been to the literature festival before but I was totally impressed - it was just really good.

"She was a very striking woman both physically and in terms of her intellect. She spoke for an hour and a half with no notes, no prompts."

The next day was an equally high-profile one for the festival with Jane Stevenson, Alan Sillitoe, Will Self and Simon Armitage all putting in an appearance at Ilkley Playhouse.

Self, clad in black denim and 6'6" tall, cut an imposing figure on the stage as he read a specially-commissioned story - The Five Swing Walk - which lasted for well over an hour.

The tiny theatre was crammed with fans - to the extent that Mr Gregory had to watch the performance from the lighting booth.

Next up was Yorkshire poet Simon Armitage with the world premiere of a new ghost story - Enoch's Hammer.

On Sunday afternoon, children's writer Michael Morpurgo - author of Why The Whales Came and The Butterfly Lion - was at the Playhouse for a reading in two parts.

"They were two hugely packed events - both sold out," said Mr Gregory. "He kept the kids absolutely enthralled."

Later that day best-selling novelist Kate Atkinson read a new short story, Charlene and Trudy go Shopping.

"The Kate Atkinson story was just fantastic," said Mr Gregory. "Really moving, really funny but so moving and scary. It had echoes of what's going on at the moment with the bombings."

He added that the best - and worst - thing about the festival so far had been the overwhelming interest from members of the public.

"The sad thing is we have not been able to cope with the sheer volume of things. We have always been victims of our own success.

"It's sad that more people couldn't come because they did want to. The phones before the weekend were just red hot. It was impossible to cope with the sheer number of calls."

And he said the same was expected this week with hundreds of book lovers hoping to secure a ticket to see cult Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland, tonight, and Melvyn Bragg, tomorrow, both at the Playhouse.

The festival ends on Sunday.