THE Oxford Literary Festival has lost one of its main sponsors, The Sunday Times, but promises to be back, as big as ever, next year.

After almost a decade of support, the newspaper is expected to instead sponsor next year’s Cheltenham Literary Festival jointly with its stablemate The Times.

Derek Holmes, spokesman for the Oxford festival, said next year’s line-up would be announced soon, along with corporate sponsors and partners.

He said: “We are lucky to have lots of fantastic sponsors without whom we couldn’t present such a broad and interesting programme.

“It is disappointing to lose one, but the continued success of the festival means we are constantly attracting significant new sponsors.

“Planning for next year’s festival is already well advanced and we will have lots of big news for festivalgoers in the middle of next month.”

Mr Holmes, a former editor of The Oxford Times, declined to comment on whether the festival was looking to make an alliance with another paper.

He said: “There are various reasons why we want to keep things under our hat before the launch.”

Other current sponsors, including The Oxford Times, HSBC, Amazon, the Ashmolean and the Folio Society, are expected to continue their support.

Last year more than 550 international speakers, including the late Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney and Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel, appeared at more than 300 events.

The 2014 event, from March 22 to 30, will be launched in mid-December, with big name announcements expected, along with festival regulars such as DJ Taylor and Rachel Hore.

Oxford authors will include novelist Tim Pears, children’s illustrator Korky Paul and poet David Constantine, while veteran author Michael Morpurgo, creator of War Horse, is expected to lead a strong children's section, along with Malorie Blackman, Lauren St John, David Almond, Lauren Child, Martin Brown of the Horrible Histories and Meg Rosoff.

Festival director Sally Dunsmore and other members of the team behind the Oxford and Blenheim Palace festivals last year helped to mount a new three-day literary festival in Gibraltar.