ORGANISERS of the Marlborough Literary Festival want everyone in the town to pick up a book and get reading this summer.

They have teamed up with The Reading Agency who are challenging local book groups and individuals to get involved with their Big Town Read and are giving away free copies of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by author Rachel Joyce, available at Marlborough Library.

The heartfelt novel tells the tale of Harold Fry, 65, who goes to post a letter to a former colleague who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. However, he decides not to post it and instead embarks on a journey he could never imagine, walking from one end of the country to the other in his quest to save a life.

The book has been an international bestseller and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and for the Man Booker Prize as well as being translated into 34 languages. It was also chosen from this year’s World Book Night list, an annual event run by The Reading Agency in April.

It is the third year the Marlborough LitFest has run the Big Town Read and a question and answer session with author Rachel Joyce will be held at the LitFest on October 3 at the Town Hall from 6pm.

Kay Newman from the LitFest said: “We are delighted that once again The Reading Agency is sponsoring Marlborough's Big Town Read. Readers feel that they can really engage with the author and this is fast becoming one of our most popular events at the Litfest.”

The full festival programme is available online at marlboroughlitfest.org

The line-up offers more than 25 events over three days and features the best in excellent writing - both fiction and non-fiction - as well as offering poetry events, creative writing workshops and children’s authors and events, all held in Marlborough over the weekend of 2-4 October.

Tickets and programme catalogues are available from The White Horse Bookshop, in the High Street, or Pound Arts: 01249 701628 / 01249 712618 (www.poundarts.org.uk/).