The countdown is on for book lovers as they eagerly await to hear from some of their most inspirational writers.

A launch event for the 2017 Dorchester Literary Festival was held last week at Duke's Auctioneers. 

The festival is a celebration of the written word and gives festival-goers the opportunity to hear stimulating talks and discussions by leading authors in a relaxed setting. 

Dorchester is rich in literary associations, having inspired British writers including T. E. Lawrence, Ian McEwan and Thomas Hardy.

The festival will run from Wednesday, October 18 to Sunday, October 22 in various venues across Dorchester.

Janet Gleeson, co-director of the festival, said the launch party was a great success with a few famous faces making an appearance.

She said: "It was lovely to see Kate Aide at the event, as well as Minette Walters who will be talking about her new book on the Black Death and its arrival in Weymouth and into Dorset.

"Our mayor, Susie Hosford, is a great supporter of the festival and said she will be taking some time out to come to a few of our events."

Janet added that ticket sales were doing extremely well but with bigger venues this year there are still plenty of tickets left.

She said: "If we didn't have the bigger venues for extra capacity we would have sold out on many events by now.

"Some of the top runners for ticket sales are Henry Blowfield and Val McDermid but everything is selling well and looking very positive.

"We have lots of nature enthusiasts here in Dorset to our tickets running along that theme are doing well too - we have Simon Cooper's The Otters' Tale and Dave Goulson talking on bees."

This year all funds will be donated to the Dorset Community Foundation.

Last year more than 2,000 was raised for Macmillan.

Speaking at the launch event, which was sponsored by Humphries Kirk, co-director of the festival, Paul Atterbury said: "It would never happen without the generosity and hard work of community, their word of mouth and friendship."

A new venture was also announced at the launch. A writing prize is now open to all writers based in the South West who have self-published a book or published one with a small independent publisher. 

Janet added: "With Dorchester's literary legacy in mind the aim is to encourage and nurture local talent. The prize of £1,000 will be presented at an award ceremony next summer and the closing date is February 2018. There are more details on the website and we'll be announcing the judges and further details after the festival so watch this space."

For a full list of the events or to purchase tickets visit dorchesterliteraryfestival.com