MARLBOROUGH LitFest will be showcasing a host of emerging literary talent.

This year’s debut authors include Betty Trask Award winner Ben Fergusson as well as Hiscox Young Authors Alex Hourston and Jemma Wayne in conversation.

Mr Fergusson’s debut novel The Spring of Kasper Meier won the Betty Trask Award in June for a first novel by an author under the age of 35.

Set in post-war Berlin, this thriller was selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club in 2014 and has been shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown Award for 2015, which celebrates the best debut novel of historical fiction.

Mr Fergusson has also worked as a translator and editor and will be appearing at 1.30pm on Sunday October 4 at The Merchant’s House. Tickets cost £8.

Alex Hourston and Jemma Wayne will be the appearing at the annual Hiscox Young Authors in Conversation event.

After 15 years in advertising, Ms Hourston returned to her first love, books, completing a master’s degree in English and her first subsequent novel In My House was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize.

Ms Wayne calls herself a writer and journalist with special interest in multi-cultural issues. She has written for stage and screen as well as completing her first novel After Before, which focuses on three women’s lives torn apart by betrayal. Hiscox Young Authors will take place at 12 noon on Sunday 4 October at The Merchant’s House. Tickets cost £8.

Tickets and programme catalogues are available from The White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough High Street, or Pound Arts: 01249 701628 / 01249 712618 (www.poundarts.org.uk/). For further information, visit www.marlboroughlitfest.org