Dame Hilary Mantel DBE returns to the stage at Budleigh

The team behind the seventh Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival are looking forward to welcoming more first class authors, historians and biographers to East Devon in September.

Tickets for this year’s festival will be available online on Friday 24th July from 5pm, and offer the opportunity to see the usual mix of best-selling, award winning and inspirational authors, including Paula Hawkins, author of record breaking novel, The Girl On The Train, which has been on top of the UK hardback book chart for 20 weeks.

As well as new authors like Paula making their way to the seaside village of Budleigh, the festival has also attracted much loved writers such as children’s author Judith Kerr, BAFTA winning British dramatist David Hare and Sunday Times bestseller, Liza Klaussmann.

Back by (very) popular demand for 2015 is Honorary Festival President, Dame Hilary Mantel DBE. Hilary was made a governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2014 after the RSC's successful adaptations of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. A resident of Budleigh, Hilary has been an ambassador for the Festival since it's very beginning and will be making two special appearances during the four day Festival.

On Thursday 17th September, Hilary will be in conversation with fellow author and Observer writer Rachel Cooke, discussing her evolution as reader and writer, in an event titled My Life in Books. She will discuss the books that made her laugh, those that gave her courage, the ones she holds in awe and the stories that still shape her life in writing today.

On Saturday 19th September, following the success of the RSC productions of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies in Stratford-upon-Avon, the West End and Broadway, Hilary will discuss her new and accidental role of playwright as well as her involvement in bringing the Tudors to television in a controversial, record-breaking BBC series aired earlier this year. In this event, Hilary will also read from her much-anticipated final novel in the trilogy, The Mirror and The Light.

Hilary Mantel is one of Britain's most imaginative, accomplished, and garlanded writers. She's also one of our most treasured storytellers. Her books include Beyond Black, A Place of Greater Safety, Fludd and the memoir Giving Up The Ghost.

From Sunday 13th September BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial will broadcast an adaptation of Hilary's novel A Place of Greater Safety. An extraordinary work of historical imagination, A Place of Greater Safety was first published in 1992 and is set during the French Revolution.

Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival Artistic Director, Sarah-Jane Roberts said: "Hilary is one of the finest writers of our time. She has a real gift for language, characters and scenes and her novels really take you on a journey. We consider ourselves blessed to have such a talented and award-winning author in our midst."

"Hilary is a great champion for literature and is very supportive and encouraging of other authors. We can't wait to hear her talk about some of the novels and non-fiction books that have shaped and inspired her as a reader and writer. And of course we are longing to hear her talk about the final book in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy. There's no publication date for The Mirror & The Light yet but we're hoping she might treat us to an extract or two."

Hilary Mantel said: “We enter our seventh year with a strong and wide-ranging guest list, spirits high, and a new chairman. We have established ourselves among the more elite festivals and we want to remain there, distinguished by the efficiency and courtesy we extend to all our guests, whether performers or audience members. People, as well as paper, make our festival, and we could not operate without our gracious and well-organised volunteers. They, just as much as the authors, are the smiling face of our festival: and as always, the sea and the sky, the town and its people, are our star turns.”

Tickets for the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival will be available online from 5pm on Friday 24th July. To avoid disappointment, please book early. For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.budlitfest.org.uk.

Tickets can also be booked in person or by phone from The Tourist Information Centre: 01395 445 275 from Monday 27th July between 10am – 4pm, Monday to Saturday. Follow the festival on Twitter @BudleighLitFest and Facebook for more updates.