• Hilary Mantel, 2009 Booker Prize winner for Wolf Hall;

• Philip Pullman with his new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ;

• Poet Don Paterson, winner of the  2009 Forward Prize and Queen’s Gold Medal;

• Jon McGregor (If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things) and Blake Morrison (And When Did You Last See Your Father?) reading from their new novels;

• Award winning screen writer and novelist  Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Launderette), with his new Collected Stories;

• John Simpson, one of the greatest reporters of our day, reading from Unreliable Sources;

• Rebecca Stott, whose novel The Coral Thief is this year’s Book of the Festival.

 Lionel Shriver, Andrew O’Hagan and Prue Leith on a panel discussing Politics & Literature; founder of the 10:10 campaign,Franny Armstrong (The Age of Stupid, McLibel) talking with environmental campaigner Tony Juniper; and pundit Will Hutton on the  financial crisis and his new book, Them and Us.

celebrate the work of Adrian Mitchell with the cabaret Yes!, performed by Wonderful Beast Theatre Company; Jeremy Hardy reads from his hilarious new book, My Family and Other Strangers; and Friday night brings comedy with Kate Fox andMilton Jones.  Children’s events include  Francesca Simon with her latest Horrid Henry story and there are loads of workshops, opportunities to meet industry insiders and events for and about new writers.