Marlborough is gearing up to welcome a host of great authors as the fifth LitFest rolls into town.

A rich mixture of well-established and emerging talent will join the annual festival that runs from September 25 to 29.

During the long weekend there will be more than 20 activities for book-lovers to get involved with, alongside – back by popular demand – the Big Town Read.

Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, will open the festival on Friday, September 26, at 7.30pm in the town hall as the LitFest’s 2014 Golding Speaker.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams will be visiting Marlborough to reflect on the war poets in the centenary year of the start of the First World War.

Closing the festival this year is A Good Book – a new event for the LitFest where three panellists will be encouraged into some literary sparring.

Journalists Elinor Goodman and Sathnam Sanghera and manager of the White Horse Bookshop Angus McLennan will each discuss their favourite novel, convincing the audience to vote for their book of choice.

Mavis Cheek, patron of the Lit Fest, said: “What we love to do is to bring all kinds of writers to the town and this year we have expanded our programme to include the very best of fiction, poetry, biography, philosophy and much more, in a range that includes Rowan Williams bringing some gravitas to the proceedings and Lynne Truss, whose works cover so many aspects of clever, funny writing.

“It’s been hard work for us but there are great pleasures ahead for our audiences.”

The LitFest Café will be running throughout the festival in the town hall and visitors will be able to buy books by the visiting authors through a White Horse Bookshop stand.

Catalogues and tickets are available from The White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough High Street, or from Pound Arts booking office at www.poundarts.org.uk or 01249 701628, or visit www.marlboroughlitfest.org