A festival is aiming to showcase the best of north Norfolk's creative talent and bring a mix of the arts to the region.

The Cromer and Sheringham Arts Festival (COAST), which is in its sixth year, will launch on Friday, October 23 at the White Horse Public House in Overstrand with a free evening featuring Paul Hill, acoustic jazz guitarist.

It will finish on Saturday, October 31, with 40 events leading up to and taking place during the festival week.

People will be given the chance to talk a walk through Cromer's history, view art and photography exhibitions and hear storytelling at libraries across north Norfolk and take part in numerous workshops including African dance, and circus skills.

One of the highlights of the festival is an evening with author and broadcaster Lynne Truss in the Cromer Pier Pavilion Theatre on Wednesday, October 28, at 7.30pm.

Ms Truss is best known for her best-selling books: Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation - which has sold more than three million copies worldwide - and Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today.

The North Norfolk's Got Talent Competition will culminate in a live final at Cromer Pier on October 29. As part of the prize, one of the judges, music and record producer David Mackay has offered to help the winner (if a singer or a band) make connections in the industry.

Barry Meadows, Coast arts secretary, said: 'We find people in north Norfolk do not travel for art so we are bringing it to them, and also there is a lot of art that people do not know about in north Norfolk.'

Sally Wallace, festival chairman, added: 'Our aim is to bring arts events and entertainment events to the people of Cromer and Sheringham and any visitors here as well. We think there is a nice mixture of events.'

? For more information on the festival visit www.casaf.co.uk. Programmes are in shops and tourist information centres across Sheringham and Cromer.