HEXHAM Book Festival has pulled out all the stops this year to mark its 10th anniversary and boy does it have something to celebrate. 

Having begun tentatively as a one day event with a handful of speakers, founder and director Susie Troup sold 4,300 tickets this year for a diverse spread of 50 talks over a fortnight. 

The book festival has become a best-seller in its own right!

"The beauty of Northumberland and the fact it's such an interesting place are key to the success of the festival," said Susie. "That's why I have no problem attracting authors here."

The roll-call is impressive: Germaine Greer, Melvyn Bragg, Michael Morpurgo, PD James, Alexander McCall-Smith, Margaret Drabble, Jodi Picoult, Lionel Shriver, Kate Atkinson, Joe Simpson, Will Self, Val McDermid and Libby Purves, to name but a few authors, have all taken the train north, as have politicos Shirley Williams, Paddy Ashdown, Edwina Currie, Douglas Hurd, Anne Widdecombe, Nadine Dorries and Alistair Campbell.

Between them they have rolled out big bold biographies and tales of adventure, complemented by tasty dishes served up by cookery and gardening writers, all washed down with lashings of history.

Furthermore, a survey carried out in 2009 revealed punters spent an average of £15 in Hexham per day visit, on top of the money they spent on tickets and books at the festival itself.

Ten years on from its humble beginnings, the Hexham Book Festival banner embraces much more than the annual event itself.

Having gone off-piste for the first time in 2012, when Susie and her comrade in arms, Gill Pugh, put authors on the library vans that criss-cross our rural hinterlands, the octopus tentacles of the literacy development programme they now run (with the backing of Northumberland County Council) stretch out in all directions.

And this year has proved a corker. The 10 author residencies taking place across Northumberland to mark the 10th anniversary have been topped by even bigger reasons to celebrate: the book festival has been invited to take part in what is hoped will become an annual event, the new Hadrian's Wall Live! festival in September; and it is the joint winner of an £187,000 Arts Council England grant for an innovative new literary project currently being developed.

Working in association with fellow Hexham-based enterprise Arts&Heritage - Susie shares an office in the Queen's Hall with its director, Judith King - they are developing plans for a touring installation called The Mansio.

What was, in its day, an official stopping place on a Roman road for those on official business, it will be set up at seven historic sites on Hadrian's Wall next year for around a week at a time.

This modern version will be used to premiere new work by writers and encourage young people to reflect on the social history of the locations through multi-media, workshops and talks.

Renowned arts curator Peter Sharpe is involved too. Susie said: "We were inspired by those Kielder arts spaces (Peter curated) and we thought it would be fantastic to have something really striking and interesting in a heritage setting - somewhere rural that would attract not only visitors, but local villagers and perhaps walkers passing through.

"They will be locations in which the authors in residence will be able to respond to the whole idea of borders and boundaries and the history of Hadrian's Wall as a division between England and Scotland."

The Mansio be in Hexham too in time for the book festival itself. "It will be a great addition as a venue!" said Susie.