Stars due at Marlborough literary festival (From This Is Wiltshire)

THERE could be another Man Booker prize candidate on the programme for Marlborough Literary Festiv-al if veteran novelist and playwright Michael Frayn appears on the shortlist.

The shortlist will be published on September 11, so Mr Frayn will know where he stands when he attends the festival on September 29 at 7.30pm. The 78-year-old has been nominated for his latest book, Skios.

The festival will welcome a previous Man Booker Prize winner on September 28 when Howard Jacobson, who won in 2010 with his comic novel The Finkler Question, gives the Goulding lecture in the Assembly Room at the town hall at 7.30pm.

Ginny Baily, who clinched this year’s McKitterick Prize for her first novel Africa Junction, is appearing at the Merchant’s House on September 29 at 4.30pm.

Ian Banks, who has published 26 novels, will read from his latest, Stonemouth, at the Assembly Room at 6pm on September 29.

Susie Parr and Bella Bathurst share a platform at the Assembly Room at noon on September 29; Ms Bathurst has published The Bicycle Book and Ms Parr The Story of Swimming.

Dr David Parker, an expert on Charles Dickens, will speak at the town hall on September 28 at 4.45pm.

The creator of the Cultural Olympiad’s Poetry Parnassus, Simon Armitage, visits Marlborough College at 7pm on September 30.

Full details of all events are available online at www.marlboroughlitfest.org