Last updated 19:31, Thursday, 27 November 2008

MARYPORT’S Senhouse Roman Museum held its first literary festival last weekend.

The Maryport museum has worked with local writers and artists for many years to bring the town’s Roman heritage to life, but this was the first weekend of events.

Creative writing workshops, meet-the-author sessions, story telling, poetry readings and book sales made up the weekend which was supported by the Cumbria Community Foundation, Allerdale council and the Senhouse Museum Trust.

Among the guests was Ruth Downie, of Buckinghamshire, who talked about her best-selling creation, Roman army doctor and detective Gaius Petreius Ruso.

Other guests included author and cartoonist John Pepper; Grevel Lindop, author of Travels on a Dance Floor; Kathleen Jones, author of The Life of Christina Rossetti; and Angela Locke, author of Dreams of the Blue Poppy.

Museum curator Jane Laskey said she hoped there would be literary events in the future.