STUDENT Louise Cooke has pulled out all the stops and to get some of the big names of the art and media world to speak at a cultural festival at her university. The 21-year-old from St Albans is part of a group of third-year arts management students at th

STUDENT Louise Cooke has pulled out all the stops and to get some of the big names of the art and media world to speak at a cultural festival at her university.

The 21-year-old from St Albans is part of a group of third-year arts management students at the De Montfort University in Leicester organising the seventh annual cultural eXchanges festival, which will run from February 25 to 29.

Lousie and her group have signed up author of the renowned Adrian Mole books Sue Townsend and Booker Prize winning novelist Ben Okri.

National Journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and poet Tom Leonard will also attend as will the dub poet and musician Linton Kwesi-Johnson.

Poet Laureate Andrew Motion will be holding and running a workshop at the event and Turner Prize winning artist Grayson Perry will give a talk.

TV writer and producer Tony Garnett will also be making an appearance as will Oscar-winning producer of the Wallace and Gromit film, Curse of the Were-Rabbit Claire Jennings.

Louise said that her course covered a wide variety of subjects including culture, politics, business, management, law and finance and she hoped to go into a career in marketing when she finished.