On Friday, 12^th February, Litfest will be holding a ‘Shakespeare in Love’ event in Lancaster's Storey Auditorium to celebrate the Valentine’s weekend. And they’ll be doing so with style – serving afternoon tea alongside Shakespeare’s sonnets.

The event, one of the litfest Classics series, starts at 4pm, and will feature Lancaster University’s Alison Findlay and Dr Elizabeth Oakley-Brown, who will introduce, read, and explore Shakespeare’s sonnets.

The NICE Bar (downstairs in the Storey) will be providing sandwiches, cakes, and pastries – Like as, to make our appetite more keen (Sonnet CXVIII) though be careful not to overdo it, or you might well find As fast as though shalt wane, so fast thou grow’st (Sonnet XI).

The bar itself will be decorated with love poems on the walls, ceilings, and even the skylights of the bar, from poets – Gaia Holmes, Pauline Keith, Sarah Hymas, Chris Culshaw, Ian Seed, and Josephine Dickinson; and diners in the NICE restaurant on Saturday will be treated to recitals of love poems during their meal.

Tickets for the event, which includes afternoon tea, are £6.50 (£4.50 concessions), and can be bought from the Lancaster Visitor Information Centre on 01524 582394

Look out later in the year for more Litfest Classics, a series of daytime events (usually held around lunchtime) which re-visit great literary classics. Coming up between now and June are events exploring the works of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Alexander Pope, and the poets of World War One.

For more information on events please go to: www.litfest.org