BRIDPORT Literary Festival is just around the corner, with many events already sold out.

Leading writers, including the Great British Bake Off’s Prue Leith, Fay Weldon, Penny Junor and Patrick Gale, are among those appearing at the fourteenth festival, which takes place at various venues around the town from November 4 to 11.

The festival opens at Sladers Yard, West Bay, on Sunday, November 4 at 12 noon with The Bookshop Band, comprising Beth Porter and Ben Please, who bring books to the stage along with a multitude of instruments including cello, harmonium, glockenspiel, guitars and ukuleles.

The venue also plays host to The Glass Aisle on Sunday November 11 at 12 noon with ex-Stornoway frontman Brian Briggs and poet Paul Henry. This stunning long poem is set on a stretch of the Monmouthshire – Brecon Canal, breaking down borders between the poem and the song lyric.

Matthew Sturgis unveils the first major biography on Oscar Wilde in thirty years when he talks on Oscar: A Life in the ballroom of The Bull Hotel, Bridport, on Thursday November 8 at 2.30pm.

The event is in addition to those already in the published programme. Sturgis, who was widely praised for his biography of artist Walter Sickert, brings alive the radical ideas, the distinctive characters and the flaring colours of the fin de siècle to write the richest account of Wilde’s life to date.

Love letters discovered in an old chocolate box inspired Simon Worrall to write his novel, The Very White of Love. The acclaimed journalist will be in conversation with Sally Laverack on Thursday, November 8 at The Bull Hotel at 10am.

The book is based on letters between his mother, Nancy, and her fiancé, Martin Preston, a nephew of the poet Robert Graves.

Edward Wilson-Lee tells the story of Christopher Colombus’ illegitimate son, Hernando, in The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books. He helped make the first modern maps of the world. Wilson-Lee will be giving an illustrated talk at The Bull Hotel on Friday, November 9 at 11.30am.

Royal expert Penny Junor has stepped in at the eleventh hour in the place of author Bryony Gordon, who is unable to make the festival due to exhaustion. Penny will be at Bridport Electric Palace on Saturday, November 10 at 12 noon.

She will be talking about All The Queen’s Corgis, an affectionate and entertaining book about the dogs that have been bred, owned by and given to the Queen throughout her life.

For tickets to all Bridport Literary Festival events, contact Bridport Tourist Information Centre on 01308 424901