A well-loved literary festival has called it a day due to lack of funding.
The annual four-day ChipLitFest held every April was founded in 2012 by the bestselling author and former Chippy resident, Clare Mackintosh.
It has welcomed over 1,000 writers in over 550 events at attractive venues across Chipping Norton.
They include Jim Al Khalili, David Baddiel, Jo Brand, Candice Carty-Williams, Lee Child, Lyse Doucet, Frank Gardner, Natalie Haynes, Armando Iannucci, Prue Leith, Jenni Murray, David Nicholls, Robert Peston, Ian Rankin, Tony Robinson, Alan Rusbridger, SF Said, Dominic Sandbrook, Lionel Shriver, Polly Toynbee, Kit de Waal, Terry Waite and Reggie Yates, among scores of others.
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Liz Sich, acting chair of Trustees, said: “The current financial climate and funding challenges have sadly made it impossible to continue to stage an annual festival.
"The trustees would like to pay tribute to and thank the team of volunteers who have worked so hard to make ChipLitFest such a success over the years, all our supporters, partners, Friends, patrons, sponsors and advertisers, and of course our authors, illustrators and interviewers."
The annual ChipLitFest short story competition attracted hundreds of entries and the ChipLitFest Children’s Programme reached pupils throughout local schools as well as those not in mainstream education or school-excluded.
Much of the programme was free or priced at £2.50 a ticket to make it as accessible as possible. ChipLitFest also arranged author visits to 18 local schools.
Run entirely by almost 100 volunteers, from the venue ushers to the Festival Director, it also introduced the first profit scheme for participating authors.
Jenny Dee, festival director since 2016, said: “Bringing an extraordinary range of voices to our small rural town has been a huge pleasure.
"Chipping Norton revelled in the variety of stories, arguments and opinions that we brought to the handsome venues, including the gorgeous Theatre, amongst the shops, pubs and cafes.
"Many local businesses supported the festival through sponsorship, our loyal audiences joined the Festival Friends and an unpaid team of energetic and devoted people programmed, planned, and photographed the events.
"Our wonderful partner bookshop, Jaffé & Neale, sold heaps of books for us and, last but definitely not least, hundreds and hundreds of brilliant authors and illustrators joined us to share their wonderful words and pictures."
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She added: "The event of which I was most proud was in 2022 when Lyse Doucet joined us whilst on a break from reporting from Ukraine to help promote a book of short stories written by Afghan women, My Pen is the Wing of a Bird.
"I loved the ripple of excitement when celebrities were spotted walking across Market Square on their way to their venue - Jenni Murray, Richard Osman, David Baddiel, Jo Brand and Reggie Yates all spring to mind - but also seeing groups of children bursting with questions or wanting to sing along and small groups of workshop participants keenly listening to invaluable advice from literary agents or established authors.
"This was all part of the joy of the festival. I shall miss it!"
Chipping Norton Theatre is hosting two grand finale events: John Finnemore on November 26 and Dr Rachel Clarke on December 12.
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