“I’M VERY excited, I’m about to have a baby,” said Matt Holland, the director of the Swindon Festival of Literature, which burst into life this morning with the dawn.

After getting under way days after the birth of a royal baby, Matt compared his role putting the festival together to that of an expectant mother.

“I’ve been expecting my 22nd baby and it’s taken nine months of organising, and I’ve had nine months of morning sickness and anxiety, and I want people to like the baby and I want people to watch it run and walk and speak and think for itself,” he explained.

“It feels like showing people your baby, or like a chef who cooks a meal and hopes it will be a banquet.”

A popular fixture in the region’s cultural calendar, the two-week festival is set to be better than ever, with something for everyone to enjoy.

Matt said: “There are events catered for children, events to make you laugh, events to make you think.

“If you want to think about the start of life there is a talk about writing and motherhood, if you want to think about the end of life there is an event for that.

“This year people can expect more than 50 different events so there are more than 50 different things for people to do.

“We also have two particularly unusual events this year. One of them is boxing. We have a talk from Anna Whitham on her book Boxer Handsome, and from Swindon’s own Paddy Fitzpatrick.

“And we also have a talk about equality from Dann Dorling, who is a professor for the University of Oxford.

“We are also the only literature festival to have a Think Slam, where people are encouraged to stand up and say something interesting for a few minutes.”

Some events have already sold out, with highlights including talks by Patrick Gale, Jung Chang, an internationally-lauded author, broadcaster Sandi Toksvig and historian Dr Suzannah Lipscomb.

Other big names include impressionist Rory Bremmer and comedians and writers such as Helen Lederer and Tony Hawks.

“The festival is famous for getting some great names but also some good surprises and this is what we’ve done this year,” said Matt.

“We are also very keen to appeal not only to the mind but to the body, so we will be starting the first day with a running and walking event at Lydiard Park.”

Like many pregnancies, however, it has not been all plain sailing, with two speakers pulling out of the festival at the last minute.

Rick Edwards, who was to deliver a talk tomorrow at 12.30pm, had to withdraw to other commitments while a broken ankle forced Rachael Chadwick to pull out of her talk on May 13.

Both events will be replaced with alternatives.

The festival will run from today until May 16 at venues across Swindon, including the Wyvern Theatre, Arts Centre, Central Library and the festival’s headquarters at Lower Shaw Farm.

For more information, to see the full programme or to book your place at an event, please visit swindonfestivalof literature.co.uk.