Booker Prize-winner Ian McEwan will make a return to Norwich this autumn as part of the University of East Anglia's International Literary Festival.

The novelist, who was the UEA's first creative writing student, will be joined by a line-up including comedian Ben Elton and broadcaster Jeremy Vine during the seven-week festival, to be hosted by the university's Arthur Miller Centre.

The announcement comes in the wake of Norwich being named England's first UNESCO City of Literature, and further strengthens the university's contribution to literature, creative writing, reading and the literary arts.

Festival organiser Prof Chris Bigsby, of the UEA's school of American Studies, said the line-up was 'as various as it is impressive'.

He added: 'The festival regularly attracts authors of the very highest calibre and this year's line-up includes winners of the Booker Prize, the British Book Awards, the Pulitzer Prize the Pen/Faulker Award, and the European Prize for Literature.'

'I'm particularly delighted that such major figures from this country and around the world will join us as Norwich celebrates becoming a UNESCO City of Literature,' he added.

Sebastian Faulks, the award-winning author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, opens the festival on September 26, and will be followed on October 3 by radio presenter Jeremy Vine, talking about his new book It's All News to Me.

US author Michael Chabon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, will appear on October 8, and PEN/Faulkner award-winner TC Boyle two days later.

Novelist, poet, scriptwriter and biographer Edna O'Brien will speak about her memoir Country Girls at the festival on October 24.

Mr McEwan, whose works include Atonement, the Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam and whose latest novel, Sweet Tooth, is published on Tuesday, will appear on October 31.

November features Pat Barker, who won the Booker Prize for Ghost Road, and comedian and writer Ben Elton, before lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, whose work includes representing and writing about detainees at Guant�namo Bay, brings the festival to a close on November 14.

The autumn festival was launched in 1991, when American playwright Arthur Miller, author Salman Rushdie and writer Gore Vidal attended. Since then, it had welcomed literary and cultural figures as varied as Harold Pinter, Seamus Heaney and Stephen Fry.

Season tickets are �49 (�42 concessions); individual events are �7. Call 01603 508050 to book or see www.uea.ac.uk/litfest