TAUNTON Literary Festival looks set to be record breaking.

Ticket sales for the 21 events are going through the literary roof and a number of sold out signs have gone up for a host of talks.

The sold out events include: The Genius of Jane Austen with Paula Byrne and Imogen Smith on November 3; The Bookbinding event with Megan Stallworthy on November 13 and War and the Death of News: Reflections of a Grade B Reporter with Martin Bell on November 8.

Also selling fast are the talks to be given by Terry Waite on November 10, at St James Church The Long and Winding Road talk with former Labour MP and government minister Alan Johnson at St James Church and Andy Hamilton - The Star Witness at the Castle School Organiser of the festival, Lionel Ward said: “This will be the best year ever for ticket sales.

“What is great is I have no cancellations from any author and I have not had to cancel any event because tickets have not been selling.

“It is not nice to have to cancel an event when only six tickets have been sold and you have to disappoint the author or speaker.

“But this year things are selling well across the board.

“What is good to see is events I thought would do well have been even more popular than I thought.

“When I booked everything in August I could never tell how things would turn out.

“It has been interesting to see how ell the tickets have sold for Thomas Hardy, Poet with Graham Fawcett. This is great as it is a poetry event and people have been snapping up the tickets.

“It is very pleasing to see so many tickets being sold. This is not something I can remember happening before.”

A full list of of events and the current availability of tickets can be found at www.tauntonliteraryfestival.net or please pick up a brochure or see the current LAMP Magazine available from a number of information points and Brendon Books.

For further details please visit or phone Brendon Books, Bath Place, Taunton TA1 4ER, 01823 337742 brendonbooks@ gmail.com