Top writers are lined up for Bradford's second literature festival this summer.

Sue Townsend, who wrote the acclaimed Adrian Mole books, poet Simon Armitage and novelist Esther Freud are among the big names who will be in Bradford for the event.

One of the highlights of the festival will be Readers 2000, an all-day readers' conference to be held on June 10 at the Alhambra Studio.

Sue Townsend will give the keynote address at the event, a follow-up to last year's inaugural event.

The 1999 conference was thought to be the first in the country to be geared towards readers rather than writers.

Mr Tom Palmer, co-ordinator of the Reader2Reader project, based at Bradford Central Library, said: "After the success of the readers' festival last year we have had a lot of encouragement from people all over the country to put on another one - so we are delighted to be hosting it again."

Freud will present a Script to Screen evening at the Pictureville Cinema on the eve of the event, talking about the film Hideous Kinky, which was based on her novel of the same name.

Readers 2000 has won financial backing from publishers Penguin and HarperCollins as well as Yorkshire Arts and Mr Palmer hopes to be able to confirm appearances by other big names from the world of publishing, including Jim Crace, crime writer Val McDermid and Adhaf Souief, who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Mr Palmer said publishers were showing more interest in the idea of reading groups.

"This is the first chance that readers have had to talk directly to publishers. They seem much more into the idea of listening to readers," he said.

Major publishers are planning their own conference in London, based on the Bradford concept, and a similar event is going to be held in Sheffield.

The readers' conference is expected to move to other towns and cities in West Yorkshire in the future, with Kirklees lined up to host it in 2001.

Full details of the Bradford Literature Festival, which will be held as part of this year's Bradford Festival, have not yet been confirmed.

Simon Armitage will introduce the film of his Millennium poem at Pictureville on June 15 and organisers have also approached writers including Linton Kwesi Johnson, David Lodge, John Updike and Hugh Laurie.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.