Bradford Literature Festival’s inaugural season has a hugely eclectic range of speakers and you couldn’t get authors with more different subjects than the two I saw at Waterstone’s on Sunday afternoon.

First up was Ben Aaronovitch whose fifth book on his cult supernatural crime series, takes Peter Grant, the police constable and apprentice wizard, out of his London comfort zone to a small village in remote Herefordshire where he investigates the disappearance of local children.

Aaronovitch revealed he chose Herefordshire as it is the second quietest county in the UK. He amiably chatted about why he deliberately made his detective a cheerful soul, who unlike the Scandi noir protagonists, is free of angst and has no alcohol dependency.

Cops, who Aaronovitch counts amongst his fans, are generally a cheerful lot with a dark gallows humour when required.

Irish writer Dervla Murphy is still investigating and challenging the world at the age of 83.

In her book Between Rivers and Sea: Encounters in Israel and Palestine, she describes living with and among Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in cramped Haifa high-rises, in homes in the settlements and in aWest Bank refugee camp.

It was a privilege to hear this most intrepid and tough travel writer,. She closed her eyes and described the misery of occupation, disturbing eye witness accounts of cruelty, how the treatment of Palestinians is funded by Western governments and why she favours a one state solution

By Catherine Turnbull