Literature fans in Bridport will get a chance to see the much-anticipated On Chesil Beach - a month before its general release.

The screening of the adaptation at the Bridport Arts Centre will be attended by novelist Ian McEwan.

The event is part of Bridport's From Page to Screen Festival and takes place on Wednesday, April 11.

Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach is among the most acclaimed British novels of this century. Published in 2007, it was short-listed for the Booker Prize, garnered glowing reviews and became a best seller. McEwan, has seen several of his novels adapted into films including The Comfort of Strangers and Atonement.

His latest work to be given the film treatment features scenes shot locally.

The drama centres on a young couple of drastically different backgrounds in the summer of 1962. Following the pair through their idyllic courtship, the film explores sex and the societal pressure that can accompany physical intimacy, leading to an awkward and fateful wedding night in a stuffy, sedate hotel near Chesil Beach in Dorset.

The film stars Saoirse Ronan fresh from her success in Ladybird, alongside Billy Howle, Anne Marie Duff and Emily Watson.

Bridport Arts Centre Director Laura Cockett said: “It is an honour to welcome a writer of Ian’s standing to Bridport. He is a writer who has seen so many of his literary works made into film. I know he will offer audiences a unique insight into the process of film adaptation.”

Tickets will be on sale early in March.