FAMOUS author J B Priestley visited Malvern again 25 years ago to open the Malvern Festival.

He attended a civic reception at the Winter Gardens, before appearing on stage at the Festival Theatre, where to the applause of the large audience, he expressed his pleasure at being back in Malvern and declared the festival open.

Priestly had visited Malvern 25 years earlier for a performance of his play, An Inspector Calls, as part of the town's first ever literary festival.