Music journalist to give guest lecture at Leeds Metropolitan

The public lecture entitled 'Music and writing' will be held at the University's Rose Bowl and will see Laura discuss her career in music journalism.

A well-respected and widely published journalist, Laura's renowned fortnightly Guardian column - Hail, Hail Rock 'n' Roll, was launched in 2006.

Leeds Metropolitan's senior lecturer in Media and Popular Culture, Dr Peter Mills, said: "Laura Barton is a remarkably gifted writer - primarily on musical matters, but she is also a first rate newsprint journalist and budding novelist.

"Her insights on writing in different styles on varied topics and in a range of media will be of immense interest to anyone who cares about writing, ideas and music. It is a great pleasure to have someone as gifted as Laura coming to speak to us at Leeds Met."

Laura has been a journalist on the Guardian since 2000 and contributes to music titles such as Word and Q as well as writing for women's magazines including Vogue, Marie Claire and Elle.

She has written and presented several documentaries about music for BBC Radio 4 while her series of articles and short films -Barton's Britain, won the Press Photographer's award 2010. Laura's first novel, Twenty One Locks, was published in 2010 and her new book about music and landscape is set to be released later this year.