You can now secure your tickets to see star writers at Bridport Literary Festival.

The 15th annual festival takes place from Sunday, November 3 to Saturday, November 9. This feast for lovers or reading and writing in all genres is bigger and better than ever, with talks, workshops and discussions in and around the town.

Director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart said: "There’s something for everyone this year. We’re looking forward to a brilliant festival."

This year’s event sees a diverse line-up of speakers in a star-studded programme, including the new Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, novelists Melvyn Bragg, Sadie Jones, Deborah Moggach, David Nicholls and Booker longlisted author Max Porter, as well as non-fiction historians Max Hastings, Tom Holland and Tim Bouverie and journalists Lindsey Hilsum, Steve Richards and Channel Four News’s Matt Frei, who is guest speaker at the George Millar Literary Dinner.

Armitage will be speaking at this year’s Bridport Literary Festival on Sunday November 3 at the Electric Palace. A Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds, Armitage has published 28 collections of poetry. His work has been studied by millions of children as part of the national curriculum and in 2010 he received a CBE for services to poetry.

His latest collection of poetry is Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic, applauded by his Poet Laureate predecessor Dame Carol Ann Duffy for being ‘boundary-breaking . . . poems of emotional weight and musical grace from the fabric of our everyday lives.’

Novelist David Nicholls, who will be at the Electric Palace on Saturday November 9, is receiving rave reviews for his novel, Sweet Sorrow, his follow-up to the bestsellers Us and One Day. Nicholls was the screenwriter for Patrick Melrose on television and the latest film of Far From The Madding Crowd, which was partly set at Mapperton House and Gardens near Beaminster.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo author Christy Lefteri will be speaking at the Bull Hotel Ballroom on Monday November 4 while on Thursday November 7, Sadie Jones, who won the Costa First Novel Award for her bestselling The Outcast, will be talking at the Literary and Scientific Institute about her latest book, The Snakes, an all-consuming story of a family whose worst sins come back to bite them.

Renowned nature writers Stephen Moss (birds) and Peter Marren (butterflies) and national treasure Henry Blofeld are also on the BridLit programme, along with Jason Goodwin, who lives locally, a discussion on spirit of place with local authors Rosanna Ley, Gail Aldwin and Maria Donovan and a life writing masterclass with Dr Celia Brayfield, who will also be talking about her much acclaimed book, Rebel Writers.

*Bridport Literary Festival is celebrating its fifteenth year with a programme jam-packed with 42 events to appeal to booklovers of all tastes. The brochure, which gives you all the details, is available from various venues throughout the area and can be downloaded from bridlit.com. It includes a map of the multiple venues across Bridport where the events are hosted. The box office is at Bridport Tourist Information Centre, telephone 01308 424901.