At the Ilkley Literature Festival launch on Friday evening, former directors and participants spoke eloquently of their memories. This year’s line-up is likely to produce a lot more, to be evoked at future milestones. A glance at the programme made it clear that one theme in 2023 would be health and well-being, notably mental health. Forest bathing, as the Japanese call it, is a recognised remedy for environmental stress. In the opening event, Ray Mears made a cogent appeal for the preservation and development of our ancient woodland, so crucial to the nurturing of native species, themselves the key to biodiversity. Fascinating facts were plentiful – alder twigs toothbrushes, edible pine bark, birch tree sap and more… His book, The British Woodland, is a great guide to living in nature.

Melanie Sykes is a household name. Now diagnosed as neurodivergent – happily so as it explained her previous trauma – she gleefully calls TV “a beast of an industry” and dismisses her 27 years there as toxic. In a direct conversation with the packed King's Hall audience on Saturday, she let it all hang out (“I’ll definitely cry, but don’t worry”) and gave an enlightening insight into her experiences. Not for nothing is her autobiography entitled Illuminated!

Katie Kirby has a huge fan base among pre-teens and a lot of them were very excited to meet her in person at Clarke Foley on Sunday. As well as being highly entertaining, her Lottie Brooks books address all sorts of issues facing young people: family, friendship, self-worth for example, as well as rites of passage like moving from primary to high school. Sharing these worries is vitally important for children and parents alike. Katie also demonstrated her technique of drawing stick figures – clipboards and pencils supplied.

Lucy Caldwell and Rosanna Amaka had children very much in mind when writing These Days and Rose and the Burma Sky, respectively. Each wanted to leave their own children a testament to their heritage, Caldwell setting her tale of love and war against four days of the Belfast blitz in 1941, Amaka using for hers the story of a Nigerian boy fighting in Burma. They were also keen to highlight the role of women in conflict, then and after. Both found it hard to get relatives to revisit their experiences, not least of the provisional nature of life, a feeling heightened by the fact of writing, as they both did, during the Covid crisis.

Jane Glover thought she had “done” Mozart, with Mozart’s Women back in 2005. But, immobilised by lockdown, she revisited her extensive archive and decided that his Italian travels with his father around 1870 were missing. Mozart in Italy is the result. Between 13 and 16 years old at the time, Mozart enjoyed considerable success, in effect working an apprenticeship in operatic creation for the best singers in the world and, argues Jane Glover, laying the foundations for his later great operas, Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. As well as the music, Mozart in Italy provides a fascinating insight into the rigours of travel at the time, notably crossing the Alps in winter.

After 30 years of writing lyrics for various projects, Simon Armitage has assembled them into a collection, Never Good With Horses. On Saturday evening, describing poetry as a powerful package of language on a two-dimensional surface, he demonstrated its power to move, entertain, satirise, comment and plead, accompanying readings with his customary drily witty anecdotes. A great first weekend – and lots more to look forward to.