The first names have been revealed for the 2015 Chester Literature Festival, tickets for which go on sale on Wednesday, August 5.

Nick Frost, Dom Joly, Vince Cable, Ranulph Fiennes, Tracey Thorn, David Starkey and Gogglebox regular William Hartson are among the guests for this year’s festival.

Running from October 10–25 and boasting more than 45 events, visitors can expect book launches and author talks, performances, live poetry, comedy, pub crawls, workshops and master classes.

Actor Nick Frost

Paul Lavin, festivals manager at Chester Performs, said: “We are delighted to be once again welcoming a raft of wonderful writers, performers and speakers to this year’s festival. Each year the programme grows in size and stature – we’re really looking forward to welcoming audiences back.”

Author talks include star of Shaun of the Dead Nick Frost, on his autobiography Truths, Half Truths and Utter Bullshit, Trigger Happy TV creator Dom Joly’s discussing his memoirs in Life of a Clown, Ranulph Fiennes returns to the festival and lead singer of 90s band Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn, is coming to discuss her book Naked at the Albert Hall – a memoir of her time singing.

Plus, from Channel 4’s hit couch potato show, Gogglebox, William Hartson will discuss his trivia book Even More Things That Nobody Knows.

Dom Joly
Dom Joly

Performance features highly in this year’s festival including acclaimed poet, playwright and performance artist Chanje Kunda who will perform her solo show Amsterdam.

Hot from the Edinburgh Festival is Austentacious, dubbed ‘an entirely improvised comedy play in the style of Jane Austen’ where audience members have to shout out a title of a Jane Austen novel for the company to perform.

There will also be The Forbidden Door: an evening of storytelling accompanied by live music.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Poetry fans are also well catered for, with appearances from Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre’s writer in residence and winner of the EM Forster Prize, Glyn Maxwell, BAFTA winning poet Simon Armitage and poet and playwright Tony Harrison. Plus evenings of live poetry with festival regulars Mark Grist and Luke Wright, among others.

As always the festival will offer a series of workshops: author and journalist Tim Lott will lead a session on the fundamentals of writing a book, literary agent Carrie Kania is offering writers the rare opportunity to quiz a publishing guru on how to get a book deal, plus festival goers are invited to walk the city walls and get advice on anything publishing related.

For full programme details and to book visit www.chesterliteraturefestival.co.uk, call 0845 241 7868.