A Hexham singer-songwriter hopes to soon be mixing with the biggest names in music after receiving interest from major record labels.

Rising star Alix Robson, 19, from Beaumont Park, has been plucked from the Northumberland pub and club scene to write songs that could get sung by some of the world's biggest artists.

Collaborating with a songwriter who currently works for Universal Music, the former Queen Elizabeth High School pupil said: "I love that this is happening.

Paddy Ashdown, Janet Street-Porter and Benjamin Zephaniah (pictured) will be among the guest speakers attending the Hexham Book Festival over the next few days.

The festival, which has managed to buck the recession and expand from last year, is based at several venues in Hexham, as well as few in the surrounding countryside. It started on Saturday and will run until May 3.

Organisers hope the event will help to spark the creative juices of the public, with events ranging from the popular childrens' live show Horrible Science, to a morning with Radio Four presenter and columnist Irma Kurtz.

Hexham's UK Combined Events Challenge meeting goes from strength to strength and this year's promotion on July 18-19 promises to be bigger and better.

The Northumberland market town will once again be host to international athletes chasing qualification for the World Championships, which will be held in Berlin five weeks later.

Meeting director Richard Hunter has already received enquiries from athletes from Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe and he is confident that once again Hexham will be at the forefront of multi-event competition in the UK.

A classic chiller has helped inspire a play - a modern-day ghost story set in Northumberland - which opens in the region tomorrow.

Henry James's novella Turn of the Screw, and its spooky 1961 film adaptation The Innocents, caught the imagination of local lecturer and writer Margaret Wilkinson.

And a psychological exploration of personalities under pressure is the theme of her new play Queen Bee which runs at the Customs House in South Shields from tomorrow until Saturday before coming to Hexham next month.

The Journal Ladies Trophy has a new sponsor - Anne Scott Sport and Leisurewear, based at Tynedale Golf Club in Hexham - and the boss is a on a mission.

Recommended to The Journal as the event partner by former Miss Great Britain Pat McIntosh, a golfer from the Tyneside club who was last year's runner-up in the Trophy, Scott is out to destroy a myth.

Val Pesarra, right, and Anne Scott modelling golf clothes

"I am afraid there are still people out there who think female golfers wear tweed skirts on the course and twin-sets off it," she said.

Bosses at Northumberland's new super council have been accused of failing to comply with an independent regulator's guidance by providing an 0845 number for people who need to contact the authority.

Bob Watson is unhappy that Northumberland County Council's new number is premium rate

Members of the public who telephone the all-purpose council - which came into being on April 1 following the switch to unitary local government - now have to use a single number, 0845 600 6400, to speak to call handlers.

The autumn rains and the snow of January are now hitting hard on the players of Hexham FC. All those postponed games are now being rescheduled and the games are flowing thick and fast.

Hexham FC take on Whitley Bay

With Sunday League commitments a total of five games were played in a matter of eight days. Midweek Hexham travelled to Forest Hall, who still have an outside chance of promotion in the Northern Alliance but the start could not have been much worse.

People with any concerns or problems following recent changes in home to school transport arrangements in the west of Northumberland are being urged to seek help and advice from the county council.

Parents or schools with worries should contact the transport unit on (01670) 533644 or 533673.

New boys Morpeth, winners on the opening day of the Wellstream NTSL, found life a lot tougher when they entertained Tynedale.

The runs were shared around the visitors' innings with Barry Stewart (48), Neil Parton (44) and John Alder (40no) dominating proceedings.

Set 204 to win, things were going reasonably well in an opening partnership of 40 between Darren Leason and Blake Reynolds. But when they were split, the rest had no answer to Liam Pringle who ended with 5-30, Mark Armstrong also chipping in with 3-43.

On a good weekend for the North East sides, Blaydon secured their National Two future with an 83-33 mauling of Waterloo, Percy Park won promotion to North Two East, seeing off Bridlington 36-3 in the play-offs, and Tynedale accounted for Mounts Bay 32-14 in Cornwall to finish fourth.

Tynedale closed out their season at Mounts Bay with their third straight away win in National Two.

A Jack Harrison hat-trick did the job in the South West, while cruel luck befell Ross Samson, who tore a hamstring after 15 minutes of his last Tynedale match.