There's not long to go until this year's Bridport Literary Festival.

This year's festival, which begins on November 5 and runs until November 12, will see some of the literary world's biggest names descend upon the town.

An eclectic mix of writers of fiction and non-fiction will help banish the November glooms and there is something for readers of all tastes and all ages.

Here, we preview an event where author Boris Starling will talk about his latest book The Invictus Spirit, which is about The Invictus Games, spearheaded by Prince Harry.

Boris will speak at the Electric Palace in Bridport on Sunday November 12 at 3pm. Tickets are £10 for adults, £5 for ex service Personnel and free for children.

The event is sponsored by Adam and Nicky Fenwick. Tickets are available from bridlit.com or from Bridport Tourist Information Centre.

Here, Annette Shaw reviews The Invictus Spirit.

Unconquerable. The Invictus Spirit by Boris Starling

It's not the finish line which counts, it's the start line. Even to get to that...after what these people have been through, is a triumph in itself..."

In a book that is both heart-rending and heart-warming, Dorset author Boris Starling has captured the spirit of Invictus that can filter, as a force for good, into the lives of others be they in the Armed Services or on civvie street.

Much has been reported in the media about the physical injuries caused in conflict and from IEDs. As a tribute to the Services and published to time with the recent and hugely successful Invictus Games in Toronto when 550 competitors took part, the book documents the background and the recovery progress of wounded warriors from around the world. The reader is also taken deeper into the less visible or obvious, yet equally challenging trauma , such as cancer and mental health. Darlene Brown was medically discharged from the Australian Navy and retreated to home - literally. Riddled with anxiety, she couldn't leave her house. Explaining more about her illness Boris says, "In a way that so many people can do, when suffering with behaviour altering conditions, she managed to spin it, so that to the outside world at least, nothing seemed wrong, yet nothing could have been further from the truth." Lance Corporal Sarah Rudder, originally from Lancashire, was serving in the US Marine Corps when she witnessed an American Airlines plane fly into the Pentagon on 11 September 2001. "For nine years she didn't tell her family she'd even been inside the crash site." In 2010 Sarah was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

What is so inspiring is how people with difficulties that most of us can't begin to comprehend , went on to compete in the Games. "To get to that starting line," says Boris, "They had to move the first mountain, to find that place within that sparks the energy we all need to combine courage with motivation. This is our inner strength." He makes the point that life-changing doesn't necessarily have to mean life-worsening. Who knows what lies beyond the gateway to the rest of our lives - even if that means something wholly different?

Unconquerable. The Invictus Spirit by Boris Starling, foreword by HRH Prince Harry, is published by HarperCollins. Available in hardback for £14.99.