Tickets are selling fast for the Oxford Literary Festival which will bring thousands of book lovers to the city later this month.

Highlights this year include an appearance by Oxford author Philip Pullman, who will be talking about how his prize-winning book Northern Lights is being turned into a film starring Nicole Kidman.

Organisers are hoping those attending the Northern Lights event will be able to see exclusive preview footage.

Some of the scenes were filmed in Christ Church, where the festival is based.

Angie Prysor-Jones, a spokesman for the festival, said: "Tickets are selling very well - we are slightly up on the same point last year and it promises to be a very good year with a very strong programme, covering politics, history, fiction and children's books.

"There are still tickets available for the Philip Pullman event at the Town Hall and we are hopeful that footage from the new film will be shown. Christ Church has sold out its weekend packages and I don't think there are any places left for the closing dinner on Saturday night with PD James and David Starkey."

There will be about 30,000 people coming into the city and hotels and businesses are all expected to benefit from the event.

Ms Prysor-Jones said: "Oxford has a reputation as a city which tourists visit only for a few hours or a day at a time, but the festival is a way of attracting visitors for a whole week.

"Heritage Tours has booked about 40 people into the Randolph Hotel and there are lots of other similar bookings.

"This festival is now well and truly on the map. Oxford is the fourth biggest literary festival in the country after Edinburgh, Hay and Cheltenham."

Other big names appearing at the six-day festival include Jeremy Paxman, who will be discussing the monarchy, and combative atheist Richard Dawkins, who will be discussing his new book The God Delusion with Rod Liddle and Joan Bakewell.

About 160 events are scheduled for the festival, which runs from Tuesday to Sunday, March 20-25.

For children, highlights will include the chance to meet Anthony Horowitz, author of the Stormbreaker books, while every schoolgirl's favourite writer, Jacqueline Wilson, will be reading from her new work.

Local writer Geraldine McCaughrean will also talk about her acclaimed sequel to Peter Pan and the challenges of following in the footsteps of JM Barrie.

Other celebrated speakers include Colin Dexter, Iain Banks, Mark Haddon, Libby Purves, Tim Pears, Blake Morrison, Joanne Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Will Self, and Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

For further details about the Oxford Literary Festival, which the Oxford Mail's sister paper The Oxford Times helps to sponsor, call the box office on 0870 3431001.