From Booker Prize winner Graham Swift to former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, an array of writers and thinkers are heading to Norwich for the University of East Anglia's spring literary festival.
The event - now in its 24th year - kicks off next Wednesday with an evening with journalist Paul Mason whose most recent book, PostCapitalism, considers what a world without capitalism might look like.
Seven other literary names will be taking to the stage in the weeks that follow, with author Joanne Harris, whose novels include the book Chocolat made into a film starring Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche, closing the festival on April 27.
Philip Langeskov, the festival's director, said: 'All of our authors are deeply invested in the business of thinking about the world in which we live. The results, evident in the new work they bring to the festival, are by turns thrilling, provocative and enlightening. I can't wait for the festival to begin.'
Novelist and non-fiction writer Julie Myerson, whose books include Something Might Happen, will be speaking on February 10, while Tim Parks, the UEA's UNESCO City of Literature visiting professor, will be at the festival on February 17. Veteran broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, who has also written screenplays, novels and non-fiction, will visit the UEA on February 24. Novelist and short story writer Graham Swift, whose book Last Orders won the Booker Prize, will return to the UEA to talk about his new novel Mothering Sunday on March 2. Dr Rowan Williams, who has returned to academic life since retiring as Archbishop of Canterbury, will visit the festival on April 13. Deborah Levy, whose work ranges from debut novel Beautiful Mutants to the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted Swimming Home to her new novel Hot Milk, will be in Norwich on April 20.
Tickets for individual events cost £8 (£4 for students). Season tickets for all eight events cost £56 (£48 concessions). All events begin at 7pm in Lecture Theatre 1 at UEA. For more, visit www.uea.ac.uk/litfest/tickets
Do you have a Norwich arts story? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk
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