ALONGSIDE all the political hard-hitters, top poets, biographers and other non-fiction writers, there is a feast of fiction at this year’s Bridport Literary Festival.

The event takes place in venues in and around the town from November 3 to 9, with some talks already sold out.

But there is still a chance to bag tickets for bestselling novelists and authors currently creating a storm on the creative writing scene.

Max Porter won the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Sunday Times/Peters Fraser and Dunlop Young Writer of the Year Award in 2016 for his first novel, Grief Is The Thing With Feathers. The book was adapted into a play starring Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy.

Porter is speaking at The Bull Ballroom on Tuesday, November 5 at 4pm. His latest novel, the wonderfully evocative Lanny, in which the landscape and community is as big a character as the people within it, was longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize.

The Independent’s Philip Womack describes Lanny as ‘a wonderful piece of work, reaching towards an engrossing, vivid climax’. He says the novel marks Porter as a writer to watch.

There is high praise, too, for bestselling author and screenwriter David Nicholls, who will be at the Electric Place on Saturday, November 9 at 5pm.

Nicholls is a prolific writer, best known for One Fine Day and screenplays for the 2015 Far From The Madding Crowd film and the Bafta award-winning Patrick Melrose, the series starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

His latest novel, Sweet Sorrow, was adapted for Radio 4 in the summer. Guardian reviewer Alex Preston calls it ‘a beautiful paean to young love’.

Says The Independent’s Holly Williams: ‘Nicholls is just gorgeous on the good bits of being a teenager in this utterly heartfelt tale.’

Sadie Jones is winning high praise for her novel, The Snakes, which she’ll be talking about at The Literary and Scientific Institute at 4pm on Thursday, November 7.

She won the Costa First Novel Award for her bestselling The Outcast. Her latest book holds the reader in its tense grip from start to shocking finish.

The Guardian named it one of the best books of 2019, calling it ‘a suspenseful, beautifully written thriller’, while The Telegraph described it as a ‘sizzling hot summer read’ .

Bestselling author Deborah Moggach, the woman behind The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, has a new novel out. The Carer is a deliciously waspish, witty and poignant novel about ageing, sibling rivalry and having to grow up fast. James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help.

His middle-aged offspring, Robert and Phoebe, employ Mandy who is happy to take him off their hands. But Mandy has vices as well as virtues, and life, as it unfolds, suddenly becomes one that none of them can handle and does not curtail at old age.

Moggach is at the Electric Palace at 2.30pm on Friday, November 8.

BridLit is looking forward to welcoming journalist, screenwriter, film and book critic Olivia Glazebrook to this year’s festival.

She’s one of Dorset’s rich seam of talented writers. Her debut novel, The Trouble with Alice, met with great critical acclaim. Kate Saunders from The Times described it as ‘a wise, humorous and humane first novel about the nature of real love’.

Olivia will be at The Bull Ballroom on Wednesday, November 6 at 4pm to talk about her latest book, The Frank Business. Shrewd, witty and poignant, the novel is a vivid tale of love and other battlefields.

Writer, broadcaster, polymath Melvyn Bragg’s award-winning series,The South Bank Show, is the longest running arts programme (1978-2019) on British television and has also been acclaimed as the best.

His BBC Radio 4 series, In Our Time, is a masterclass in the history of ideas and one of the most popular podcasts available.

His latest novel, Love Without End, re-imagines the legendary love story of Heloise and Abelard, and breathes fresh life into one of the most remarkable and enduring passions, uniting the middle ages with today.

Heloise, a brilliant scholar, arrives in Paris in the year 1117 and falls passionately in love with the young radical philosopher, Abelard – their dangerous love affair incurs terrible retribution. Nine centuries later Arthur, an English academic, arrives in Paris to revisit the story, and finds that his connection with the subject is more emotional than he cares to admit.

Bragg will be at the Electric Palace on Friday, November 8 at 6pm.

*Programmes and tickets for BridLit are available from Bridport Tourist Information Centre behind the Town Hall in South Street, telephone 01308 424901, or visit bridlit.com for more information.