The Sheff

Sheffield’s top independent bookshops are putting on a big book festival this weekend

This one's for book lovers

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 21st April 2026

A bunch of the top bookshops in Sheffield are banding together this weekend for a huge book festival.

The Sheffield Independent Book Festival (or SIBFest) will be a weekend designed for book lovers, with author talks, signings, workshops, reading rooms and more.

There'll even be a bookshop crawl encouraging people to visit Sheffield's many brilliant bookshops.

Different bookshops will be hosting their own fringe events on the first day of the festival, before loads of local businesses come together at Kelham Island for a full day of book-themed events.

SIBFest has been created by booksellers, for book lovers, with an aim to 'celebrate stories, and the shops and publishers who keep them alive'.

It's been created by the people behind local businesses like Novel (which is temporarily closed because of an issue where staff have been being harassed by a member of the public); and La Biblioteka at Leah's Yard.

Hillsborough Bookshop, a neighbourhood children's bookshop, and Juno Books, a queer independent bookshop, have also organised the event.

It will all be taking place at bookshops across the city, plus at The Victoria and The Mowbray at Kelham Island.

There'll be events at La Biblioteka at Leah's Yard for SIBFest
There'll be events at La Biblioteka at Leah's Yard for SIBFest
Novel is also taking part in the Sheffield Independent Book Festival
Novel is also taking part in the Sheffield Independent Book Festival

Here, you'll find a marketplace for local bookshops and indie makers inside The Mowbray, while The Victoria will host all sorts of talks, workshops and signings.

There'll also be a Graphic Novel Reading Room, where you can relax with a good graphic novel upstairs at the Lodge at The Victoria.

And you can grab delicious food, cocktails and coffee throughout the day in both venues.

SIBFest (Sheffield Independent Book Festival) lineup

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Bethan Woollvin (These Are My Rocks, Robin Hood, Little Red, I Can Catch a Monster)
  • Steve Webb (Peng and Spanners, Spangles McNasty, Cow's Go Boo, Tanka Tanka Skunk)
  • Luke Barley (Ancient)
  • Hazel Sheffield (Frontierland)
  • Manya Wilkinson (Lublin, & Other Stories)
  • Michelle Tea (Valencia, Black Wave, Against Memoir, Little F with Cipher Press)
  • Kavitha Rao (Lady Doctors, Jacaranda Press)
  • Witches and Folklore author panel with Anna Caig (The Wise Witch of Orkney)
  • Molly Aitken (The Island Child and Bright, I Burn)
  • Sally O’Reilly (Hagtale)

SIBFest will be taking place on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 April across Sheffield - see the full line-up and book tickets HERE.

Read more: Linguists want people to submit their favourite swear words… for science

Featured image: The Sheff

The Sheff

Yorkshire house hunters wanted as UK’s biggest property show returns for new series

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Looking to move house? Finding the house hunting process a lot harder than you thought it would be though?

Well, this could be the helping hand you need.

The UK's biggest property show, Location, Location, Location - which has been a fixture in Channel 4’s schedule for more than 20 years at this point - is looking for house hunters from across Yorkshire for the new series. 

First airing all the way back in 2000, if you've never seen Location, Location, Location, it's fronted by presenters and property experts Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer who head all across the UK to help buyers in search for their dream home.

Despite being on our TV screens for 26 years at this point, Kirstie and Phil have never tired in their efforts to match the nation’s hopeful house hunters with their perfect home.

For its next series being filmed this May, Channel 4 are now looking for individuals, families, and couples from across Yorkshire - Leeds and Sheffield in particular - who need Kirstie and Phil's expertise to find their next home.

New build houses
The UK's biggest property show is coming to Manchester and needs house hunters for its new series / Credit: James Feaver (via Unsplash)

Whether you're upsizing, downsizing, first timer buyers, or looking for a forever home, Channel 4 wants to hear from you.

"We are casting for the new series, and we are interested in hearing from chain free (or SSTC) house hunters who would be ready to buy in May this year," a spokesperson for Channel 4 said as the casting call was announced.

"Applications are now open and we're looking for individuals, families and couples who need Kirstie and Phil's expertise to buy their dream home."

Anyone interested in appearing on Location, Location, Location can apply on the Channel 4 website here.

Applications will be received by a member of IWC Media and they will contact you directly if they wish to take your it any further.

Featured Image - Channel 4 (Supplied)

The Sheff

Linguists want people to submit their favourite swear words… for science

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Linguists at the University of Sheffield are calling on the public to submit their most-used swear words - for science, of course.

This first-ever national swear word census will help to document how people across the country actually speak, and where regional swear words dominate.

The project has been launched by the University of Sheffield in partnership with legendary satirical arts practice Modern Toss.

Now, the first-ever national repository of regional swear words is open for submissions, with people across the nation encouraged to participate in this 'linguistic census' of authentic English.

It's hoped the swear census and map will protect regional dialect words from disappearing, as well as providing a historical snapshot of modern UK regional language.

The data will also be transformed into public exhibitions celebrating the humour, creativity, and reality of how people speak across the UK.

The repository will function similarly to a linguistic census, inviting members of the public to submit the swear words and phrases they commonly use in everyday life in their local areas.

Researchers are interested in regional terms, swear words and insults that are specific to particular towns and cities - the sort of things you say in a new group of people and they all look at you like you're speaking a foreign language.

We're talking wazzock, mardy, and chuffin 'ell.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by THE SHEFF (@thesheff.uk)

Dr Chris Montgomery, who is leading the project from the University of Sheffield’s School of English, said: "Swearing is a fundamental part of how everybody expresses emotion, identity, humour, and social connection, yet it is often excluded from formal records of language. We also know very little about how swearing varies in local areas.

"This project recognises that to truly understand English as it is lived and spoken, we must include all of it - not just the polite or standardised forms.

"Some traditional regional dialects might be disappearing, and this project is about celebrating the regional language that people actually use and preserving a record of it, so future generations can get a real insight into people’s lives in 2026 and how people communicated in towns and cities across the country."

Dr Montgomery continued: "We want to hear from everyone. Whether you’re in Glasgow, Sheffield, Cardiff, or a small village in Cornwall - your voice matters. This is a chance to contribute to a living record of language and culture."

Jon Link, from Modern Toss, said: "We’re delighted to be working with the University of Sheffield. At Modern Toss we’ve spent years turning filthy data into charts and interactive art, and this collaboration finally lets us map the UK's isolated linguistic pockets with proper academic rigour, yeah?

"The end goal is to join up these hidden worlds into a definitive, push-button, wall-mounted map of the national swear mind."

Submissions are open now, and participation is free. Contributors can share their most commonly used swear words and phrases as part of what researchers hope will become one of the most revealing linguistic archives ever created in the UK.

To submit a swear word, visit HERE.

Read more: In The Making – A brand-new marketplace with more than 100 independent businesses inside is opening in Sheffield

Featured image: The Sheff

More The Sheff

Audio

The very best record shops in and around Sheffield city centre

In The Making is opening in Sheffield

Sheffield News

In The Making – A brand-new marketplace with more than 100 independent businesses inside is opening in Sheffield

Hathersage has been named one of the best places to live in the UK. Credit: Instagram, Hathersage Swimming Pool

The Sheff

The Peak District town with a heated outdoor lido that’s been named one of the UK’s best places to live