Bridport Literary Festival starts today!
Singer PJ Harvey, Actor Hugh Bonneville and Author Sheila Hancock are coming to Dorset to take part
The Bridport Literary Festival begins today, and residents are gearing up for a week of book talks, poetry and workshops.
This year marks the festival's 18th anniversary and big names are set to be taking part.
This includes Dorset's resident rockstar PJ Harvey, Downtown Abbey Actor Hugh Bonneville and Author Sheila Hancock who are coming to Dorset to talk about their new books.
Various events will be hosted around Bridport in the Electric Palace, Bridport Library, Bull Hotel and Sladers Yard.
Festivalgoers have been told to expect talks on philosophy, no-mads, fairytales and even Dorset history!
Dorset expert David Burnett is also giving a talk at the festival to promote his new book Lost Dorset: The Towns.
He has published 150 books about the county and has written 20 himself.
He told us why he loves to write about Dorset: "When I first came here nearly half a century ago it was kind of a rural backwater.
"There were no motorways and there are no motorways now so you could live in Lyme Regis and know someone in Poole - the other end of the county.
"Because it's also got coast, Thomas Hardy and a cocktail of different landscapes, it's just such a wonderful place to live and do things in.
"And other people are so interested in it, they want to explore it, learn about it and walk the coast - so me writing about it really seems to work, resonate with people and there's so much more to explore."
David also told us that aside from his own talk he is also looking forward to exploring all that the festival has to offer.
He said: "We're going to a talk about fairytales in the morning, a talk about no-mads in the afternoon, PJ Harvey talking about her record making in the evening and then Melvyn Bragg.
"There's just such an incredible mix of things that are available - there's something for everybody really and that's the joy of it."