Nigel Jarrett casts a cultured eye over the next few weeks to help you plan your days and nights out

ALL sorts of weird characters now seem to qualify for appearances at literary festivals, including cooks who have written a lot of tosh with recipes at the end.

There was a hullabaloo when former US president Bill Clinton was advertised as an attraction at the Hay Festival, where he was to promote a boring autobiography.

What do Nigella Lawson, Clinton and others have to do with literature, a branch of imaginative endeavour beyond the physical act of typing words and having them published between covers for cash?

One cannot, of course, defend the most revered novelists and poets from the charge that they also appear in order to sell their wares, but at least they qualify.

Although Bath's literature festival (01225 463362, www.bathlitfest.org.uk) from February 26 to March 6 includes a few cooks and bottle-washers, there are more than enough genuine articles. including playwright Simon Gray (February 28) and stirring Welsh writers Niall Griffiths, James Hawes and Desmond Barry (March 5).

The Riverfront at Newport (01633 656757) continues a strong spring season with Pilot Theatre's adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies (March 4 and 5) among the theatrical attractions.

But one of the big events there next month is on March 8 at the odd time of 1pm, when Diversions, the dance company of Wales now based at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, leave their bayside "armadillo" HQ for a triple bill.

No excuses for missing Shakespeare's Richard the Third in a production by the compelling Mappa Mundi company - it's at Abergavenny Borough Theatre on March 9 and 10 (01873 850805), the Beaufort Theatre, Ebbw Vale on March 11 (01495 350360) and Blackwood Miners Institute on March 16 (01495 224425).

Back at the WMC on March 8, Welsh National Opera revives Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci for the third presentation in the opening season at their new 'home'.

Lovers of classical music under its "contemporary" heading shouldn't miss the Venus Blazing tour at St David's Hall, Cardiff on March 2, when composer Deirdre Gribbin's new Violin Concerto will be presented in a way described as "an interplanetary event". The composer will "MC" the show, the Britten Sinfonia and fiddler Ernst Kovacic will play and also present will be Britain's composer-of-the-moment James MacMillan (02920 878444).