Richmond Literature Festival's been going 20 years - that's plenty of time to work up the contacts, get those big names in. And it's paid off, with Andrew Graham Dixon, Claire Tomalin (latest work: biography of Dickens), Jeremy Paxman, Marina Warner, Submarine author Joe Dunthorne and John Hegley.
Actually, we're more excited about seeing some of the other events (Joe Dunthorne and John Hegley aside; we are always pants-wettingly excited about them). There's a double of excellent double bills: Kate Tempest and Polarbear and Laura Barton and Ross Sutherland; poet Ian McMillan is simply the best thing ever to come out of Barnsley and Hallie Rubenhold and Rosie Thomas talking about sex and taboo in historical fiction should be worth a look.
London afficianados should like (and, really, if you're not, what are you doing here?) Iain Sinclair appearing with poet Inua Ellams, as well as David Kynaston talking about his compressed history of the City of London, which we told you about last week. Slightly leftfield events include an Edwardian Salon Du Thé and a boat party hosted by the people behind Caught by the River, with Culture Show presenter Michael Smith and the site's contributors.
There are also opportunites for children to take part in a podcast, learn to draw and create poetry (with Charlie Dark) and of course to meet authors, poets and illustrators.
The Richmond Literature Festival runs 3rd-27th November in venues around Richmond and Twickenham. For more information see the Festival website. Tickets prices range between £4 and £18.50.
