A STELLAR line-up of top authors has been booked to speak at this year’s Oxford Literary Festival.

The festival runs this year from March 17 to March 25 and the Sheldonian Theatre will be the main venue for high-profile speakers.

These include novelists Anthony Horowitz and Ian McEwan and historians Claire Tomalin and David Olusoga.

Children’s author Judith Kerr will also speak at the venue, and Rick Stein is making an appearance.

ITV’s Robert Peston will give the latest update on British politics and former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who has written a series of acclaimed memoirs is also attending.

One of Ireland’s most acclaimed writers Sebastian Barry will give this year’s Chancellor’s Lecture, on Thursday, March 22, when he will be interviewed by Oxford University Chancellor Lord Patten.

The festival website said: “Mr Barry became the only novelist to win the Costa Book of the Year award twice when his latest novel, Days Without End, won the 2017 award.

“He has just been named the new laureate for Irish fiction. Barry has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for A Long Long Way and The Secret Scripture.

“He is also author of more than a dozen plays and two volumes of poetry. Days Without End is the story of an Irishman who fights in the American civil war and cross dresses so he can marry a man. “

The talk, with tickets from £8, starts at 6pm.

Visit oxfordliteraryfestival.org