Literary festival goers are being urged to buy their tickets as soon as they can after some events sold out within minutes of going on sale.

The annual Bridport Literary Festival takes place at various venues in and around the town from November 3 to 9.

Organisers say that the high demand is to be expected with the festival's 'stunning' line-up this year.

Festival director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart said: "The clamour for tickets is not surprising because it is such a stunning line-up of writers to suit various reading tastes.

"We are very grateful to our friends at Bridport Tourist Information Centre in Bucky Doo Square who always do such a sterling job for us with ticket sales.

"BridLit is a firm fixture on the West Dorset calendar and our audiences look forward to something exciting happening in the dark days of winter."

Among the star-studded line-up is Sunday Times number one bestselling author Damien Lewis, who will be talking about his new biography of Paddy Mayne and the SAS, Daggers Drawn.

Many of Lewis’s books have been made into movies or TV drama series or adapted as plays for the stage. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is now a major movie directed by Guy Ritchie. He’s at Bridport Electric Palace on Friday, November 8 at 10am.

Writer and television producer and presenter Daisy Goodwin will be in conversation about her novel, Diva, based on the life of Maria Callas, at the Palace on Saturday, November 9 at noon.

The creator of Grand Designs and the hit ITV drama Victoria, which has sold to 134 countries, Goodwin has written bestselling novels, a memoir and edited numerous poetry anthologies, including 101 Poems That Could Save Your Life.

In Diva, she brings to life a woman with extraordinary talent, unremitting drive and natural chic that made her a legend. By confronting the heartbreak of losing her lover Onassis to Jacqueline Kennedy, Maria Callas found her true voice.

Journalist and broadcaster Andrew Pierce tells the moving story about his search for his birth mother in Finding Margaret, a woman who did not want to be found. He had lived in an orphanage in Cheltenham for more than two years until his adoption by a loving family who nurtured him. 

Pierce, a columnist, consultant editor for the Daily Mail and TV presenter, is at the Palace on Saturday, November 9 at 10am.

The speakers at BridLit, the main sponsor of which is West Dorset law firm Kitson & Trotman, include gardener Carol Klein, war correspondent Lindsey Hilsum, bestselling author Andrew O’Hagan, nature writer John Lewis-Stempel, novelist and spy’s granddaughter Charlotte Philby and archaeologist Bettany Hughes.

There are also two special events – one in advance of the festival when number one bestselling author Victoria Hislop, known for her historical fiction set in Greece, comes to Bridport Electric Palace on September 18 at 2.30pm to talk about her latest novel, The Figurine.

The second is at the Palace on November 20 at 2.30pm when dancer and entertainer Wayne Sleep talks about his new memoir.

In Just Different, he looks back on the extraordinary times he has lived through. In spite of dancing with ballet legends Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, partying with Freddie Mercury and dancing with Princess Diana, who became a close friend, Sleep has always felt like an outsider.

Behind the glitz and glamour, he reveals the difficulties for a working-class, gay man in handling the prejudices of his generation and living through the Aids epidemic.

Tickets for all BridLit events are available from Bridport Tourist Information Centre in Bucky Doo Square, either in person or by calling 01308 424901.