WOODSTOCK will be awash with authors next month as it holds its renowned annual literary festival.

The 2010 Independent Woodstock Literary Festival, now in its sixth year, includes more than 60 talks, walks and events held in venues across the town and in the palace.

This year’s festival, as well as featuring a gala dinner in Blenheim Palace’s Oran-gery, will also host a special 80th birthday celebration for Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter.

The festival will run from Wednesday, September 15, to Sunday, September 19, with the Oxford Mail’s sister paper, The Oxford Times, again among the sponsors.

The festival will mark both Mr Dexter’s 80th birthday and the 35th anniversary of the very first Morse book. The Oxford crime writer will be taking a special vintage bus trip to the festival from Oxford to Woodstock, to mark the anniversary of the publication of The Last Bus To Woodstock in fitting style.

The speaker at the gala dinner on the Friday September 17 will be Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow.

During the week, Michael Frayn will speak on his new memoir My Father’s Fortune and Antonia Fraser will discuss her life with Harold Pinter and her book Must You Go?.

Local authors include Oxford scientist and outspoken atheist Prof Richard Dawkins; Jane Bingham who will talk about the Cotswolds; and John Banbury, who will discuss Woodstock and the Royal Park.

His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman will be in conversation on portraiture with Woodstock personality, sculptor Martin Jennings, who sculpted Mr Pullman for the National Portrait Gallery.

Helena Attlee will talk on Italian Gardens and Max Hastings will be speaking on Churchill as War Lord, close to the Second World War leader’s birthplace at Blenheim A group of pupils from Woodstock’s Marlborough School will spend an afternoon at Blenheim with Nicholas Janni examining Shakespeare’s Henry V.

Panel discussions will be held on political scandals and conspiracies and panellists Peter Hennessey, Steve Richards and Polly Toynbee will consider the question, ‘Did Labour’s Demise Result in a Hung Parliament?’ The celebrated journalist and Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk has also been added to the list of speakers.

There are several children’s events, including Anthony Penrose talking about his memoirs in The Boy Who Bit Picasso.

Andrew O’Hagan will be in conversation with Sarah Crompton on The Life & Opinions of Maf the Dog and Andrew Graham-Dixon will speak on Caravaggio.

TheLiterary Pub Quiz will be held at the Woodstock Arms and the Festival’s Patron, HRH The Duke of Gloucester, will visit students showcasing 900 years of culture in Woodstock.

For further details visit woodstock literaryfestival.com