Laura DevlinThe worlds of history, nature, science and fiction come together for this year's Spring Literary Festival at the University of East Anglia. Historian Simon Schama, broadcaster Joan Bakewell and authors Will Self and Ian McEwan are among those appearing.Laura Devlin

The worlds of history, nature, science and fiction come together for this year's Spring Literary Festival at the University of East Anglia.

Award-winning nature writer Richard Mabey, historian Simon Schama and writer and broadcaster Joan Bakewell join authors Will Self and Ian McEwan in the line-up for the festival, which starts on March 5 with scientist Steve Jones.

Prof Jon Cook, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and festival organiser, said: 'This is an exciting and varied programme and we are extremely pleased to be able to present such a range of talent.'

Steve Jones is professor of genetics at University College London and a highly successful writer of popular science who is followed on March 18 by Richard Mabey, a columnist, reviewer and frequent broadcaster on the BBC.

The following Wednesday is the turn of Graham Swift, the author of eight novels, including Waterland and Last Orders, while Geoff Dyer, the author of three novels - Paris Trance, The Search and The Colour of Memory and several works of non-fiction - appears on March 30.

Joan Bakewell, whose broadcasting career spans some 45 years, appears on April 27. She started out as a presenter of BBC2's Late Night Line Up and in the 1990s she wrote and presented The Heart of the Matter for BBC1. Her first novel, All the Nice Girls, is published in March.

Broadcaster and author of four collections of short stories and five novels, Will Self, will give a talk on May 4, while Julie Myerson, a novelist and regular contributor to BBC's Newsnight Review, appears on May 20. Her non-fiction work Home: the Story of Everyone Who Ever Lived in Our House, was dramatised on BBC Radio 4.

TV historian Simon Schama, who compiled the History of Britain trilogy, appears on May 27. His new book, The American Future: A History, was presented as a four-part BBC2 series in October last year.

On June 3, poet and novelist Anne Michaels will discuss her work. She is the author of three collections of poetry and her first novel, Fugitive Pieces, won the Orange Prize and the Guardian First Book Award, and was made into a major motion picture.

C K Williams, who teaches on the creative writing programme at Princeton University and is the author of numerous books of poetry, appears on June 10.

The programme finale is on June 17 and features Ian McEwan, the author of two collections of short stories and 10 novels, including The Child in Time, Enduring Love and Atonement. He has been honoured with various literary awards, including the Whitbread Novel Award, the Booker Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award.

All events begin at 7pm in Lecture Theatre 1 at the university. Individual tickets priced �6 (no concessions) and season tickets priced �50 (�45 concessions) are available from the box office on 01603 508050.