Who doesn’t love a good literature festival? For bookworms and writers like you and I, they can be a great way to meet some of our favourite writers, hear snippets of upcoming works and get to ask them questions. They’re also an opportunity to attend writing masterclasses and get tips from leading writers.
Now in its sixth year, 
the pretty little Wiltshire town of Marlborough (just a few miles from both Swindon and the stone circle Avebury) hosts the annual Marlborough LitFest. This year, it takes place between Friday the 2nd and Sunday the 4th October so mark the dates on your calendars because there are some big, exciting names at this one.
As I scrolled through the brochure, I was particularly excited to see these names:
- Jasper Fforde: I’ve been to several book signings in the past. He’s as sharp and as funny in real life as he is in his written works that include the Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes series. He is giving a talk at noon on Saturday 3rd and hosting a writing master class for teen/YA writers in the afternoon
- Sean McGlynn: I’m also a history nerd (having studied archaeology) and one of the country’s foremost experts on Magna Carta is giving a talk on the importance of the document. It’s 800 years of Magna Carta in 2015, so I may give this a go
- John Lanchester: Economics is not the most exciting subject, but it is important that we understand more than we actually do. I have his book Capital on my Kindle. He is giving a talk on “How to Speak Money” at 3pm on Saturday
- Alison Weir: The popular novelist, writer of both Tudor fiction and non-fiction is giving a talk on “The Lost Tudor Princess” on Sunday at 4pm. Should be a good one as Weir has been a harsh critic of the sensationalism and romanticisim of Tudor history
- Peter Kosminsky: Staying with the Tudors, he is interviewed by Channel 4’s Jon Snow about filming the adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall.
These are just a few highlights for me but there is much more going on besides. There is a brochure of the full list of events here.
You can buy tickets here but hurry, I can see that some events are already sold out still with a month to go.