Bronte author Juliet Barker says she feels privileged to be taking part in Bradford's literature festival.

Bradford born and bred, the Bronte scholar and former curator of the parsonage in Haworth closely associated with the legendary family of authors will be talking about the life and work of Emily Bronte as part of the Reading the City seven-week celebration of literature.

Mrs Barker said: "It's the first time I've appeared at the festival and I'm looking forward to it.

"I took my 15-year-old son Edward to see Bernard Cornwell at Waterstone's talking about his Sharpe novels and it was fantastic.

"It's such a privilege to see him in the flesh and he signed all 22 of my son's Sharpe books.''

She continued: "There's an awful tendency to think that authors are dead or not around and events like the Bradford literature festival really help to bring literature to life and I feel privileged to be a part of it."

Mrs Barker, who has written two books on the Bronte sisters and one on William Wordsworth, was brought up in Heaton and would regularly drag her family on trips to Haworth.

"I read Jane Eyre when I was about nine years old and fell in love with it and if you'd asked me when I was 13 what I planned to do when I was older, I would have told you I wanted to write the biographies of the Bronte sisters," she added.

"It's important that children are introduced to reading at an early age and my two children, Edward and eight-year-old Sophie, have been brought up with lots of books around them."

Tom Palmer, festival organiser and Reader2Reader project manager at Bradford Central Library, said her event also tied in with the Bradford Past, Present and Future programme.

"She's the leading expert on the Brontes and it's great to have a local person of such calibre appearing," he said.

"Her books are written in a way that's accessible to everyone - they're a far cry from academic text books - and she's also a very good speaker, so it should be an excellent event."

Mrs Barker, 43, was educated at Bradford Girls Grammar School. In 1983 she got her dream job as curator at the Bronte parsonage museum in Haworth.

In 1999 she was given an honorary degree at the University of Bradford.

l Mrs Barker will be appearing at Keighley Library tomorrow at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £3 (£2) and can be booked on (01274) 753600.