Wells Festival of Literature to have a new look for 2020 as Jeremy Vine is confirmed

Wells Festival of Literature will definitely take place this October.

Fans can look forward to a new version of this highly popular event. The organising committee has met all the safeguarding challenges posed by the pandemic and will be offering a new style festival.

This will take the form of a hybrid experience with a maximum audience of 100 in Cedars Hall combined with live, highly professional streaming online of the whole festival for a wider audience. In the event of lockdowns, the authors have committed to a live streamed event online.

Cedars Hall is well prepared to implement Covid-19 measures. These will include cleaning, social distancing and face masks.

Provision will be made for bubble groups to sit together. Although lunches will not be possible, the festival hopes to offer refreshments as well as the Waterstones pop-up shop.

Brochures with a full programme will be out by the end of August. Advance ticket sales for Friends of the Festival start on August 31 and public ticket sales on September 7.

Many events will sell out very quickly, so now is a good time to consider renewing or starting membership of the Friends.

The organisers have already announced the following authors - Simon Armitage, Rachel Johnson, Michael Eavis and Max Porter, who will discuss his novel Lanny for the book group event. They can now announce two more big names - Gina Miller and Jeremy Vine.

Gina Miller brought a crucial constitutional case challenging the UK government's authority to trigger Article 50 without parliamentary approval.

Her memoir Rise: Life Lessons in Speaking Out, Standing Tall and Leading the Way draws on a lifetime of failures and successes in fighting injustice. Gina Miller's story assures us that one lone voice can ring out and be heard.

Jeremy Vine has more than 30 years' experience at the BBC. He has presented Newsnight, Panorama, Crimewatch, Eggheads and, of course, is to be heard on his daily Radio 2 show, and now Channel 5 TV's news, views and opinions daily show.

There is little that he has not tackled, from nits, minority governments, reality TV and breastfeeding to pantomimes, planning permissions, bus routes and what makes us human.

Jeremy will present his compelling novel of love and sacrifice. The Diver and the Lover is based on real events surrounding one of Salvador Dali's most famous paintings in Catalonia after the civil war.

All tickets, including live stream performances from the few self-isolated authors, are £10 for adults and £6 for students.

The festival is proud of its work to promote literacy and a love of books in schools in our wider community and £2.93 of every £10 ticket bought enables ongoing literacy support, events and projects with poets and writers in these schools.

Festival organisers encourage supporters choosing to view performances via free live streaming both to "buy the book and make a donation" to keep the education funds flowing.

All details about the festival, including membership of the Friends, can be found on the festival website.