OUTSPOKEN and internationally renowned feminist Germaine Greer will speak in Otley next month.

The academic and writer has been announced as one of the headline acts in Otley Courthouse’s Summer programme.

She will lead a conversation at the arts and community resource centre at 7.30pm on Saturday, May 30.

Greer is most famous for her feminist tract The Female Eunuch, a worldwide bestseller and landmark in the history of the women’s movement.

More recently her book White Beech: The Rainforest Years chronicles her attempt to restore land in her native Australia.

She found herself confronted by an irresistible challenge in the shape of 60 hectares of dairy farm, one of many in south-east Queensland that, after a century of logging, clearing and downright devastation, had been abandoned to their fate.

A few days before Greer’s talk, Horse and Bamboo present a pantomime-style, family-friendly production of Red Riding Hood on Thursday, May 28.

Comedy fans, meanwhile, can look forward to seeing Irish-Iranian stand-up Patrick Monahan performing his new Adventures in Monahan Land show on Saturday, May 23.

Last year he took part in the hit family entertainment series Splash! (ITV) and appeared on the new series of Celebrity Squares (ITV).

Local band Hope and Social will take the stage on Monday, May 25, while on Friday, June 10, the audience can enjoy an evening with Bob Fox — the man behind the music of the West End hit Warhorse.

Other attractions in June will include a gardening questions and answers session, featuring Joe Maiden from BBC Radio Leeds, and a performance by yodelling banjo player Curtis Eller with his band, The American Circus, and special guests The Holcombe Family Strings Band.

This month the Courthouse will hold its debut Globe on Screen presentation, showing an acclaimed production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar on a big screen, on Thursday, April 30.

That will be followed by a screening of The Comedy of Errors on Thursday, June 25.

For more details on any forthcoming events at the Courthouse visit otleycourthouse.org.uk, call (01943) 467466, or pop into the venue, on Courthouse Street.