Ahost of celebrities and world-class musicians will be checking into Taunton’s Castle Hotel in the early months of 2018.

First up, at lunchtime on January19, The Castle welcomes Stanley Johnson – father of Boris, author and star of TV’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.

Stanley will be speaking about his life and times as a politician and environmentalist, and his latest novel, Kompromat - a satirical and hilarious thriller.

Over the weekend of January 26, The Schubert Ensemble return with four magical concerts of classical and romantic piano quartets.

On February 9, our “Dear Old Thing” Henry Blofeld, better known as “Blowers”, talks cricket and his “innings of a lifetime with Test Match Special”.

His book Over and Out has been a smash hit. Guests will also be able to have lunch with the Great Man after the talk.

The weekend of March 9, sees the return of the famous Mandelring Quartet playing four concerts of Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven.

Stage, TV and screen stars Timothy West and Prunella Scales appear at lunchtime on 16th March to talk about their lives as leading actors and, as husband and wife, their shared love of canals and narrowboats.

Their book, Our Great Canal Journeys, is a touching and humorous memoir based on the hit TV series.

On March 22, TV Chef Rick Stein fills lunchtime with his stories of the kitchen and his travels around the world exploring the cuisines of other nations.

His latest book, The Road to Mexico, tells the tale of his gastronomic journey from San Francisco, through California to Mexico.

And finally, over the weekend of April 13, we welcome our great friends, the worldrenowned Chilingirian Quartet who will be playing a programme of string quartets and quintets by Mozart and Haydn.

All these events will be hosted by Castle Proprietors, Kit & Louise Chapman.

For full details about these and others at The Castle Hotel go online to go to the-castle-hotel.com/events