1... Animal Farm
The Barn Theatre, Southwick Street, Southwick, Wednesday, September 25, to Saturday, September 28, 7.30pm, 2.30pm matinee Sat, from £10, 01273 597094

George Orwell’s political farmyard fable is brought to the stage by The Southwick Players, as pigs Snowball and Napoleon plan a revolution at Manor Farm.

2... Scotch Mist And Brighton Belles
Ropetackle Arts Centre, Little High Street, Shoreham, Saturday, September 28, 2pm, £8

Crime writers Sara Sheridan and Sue Walker share the secrets of their trade and tell why they have chosen to set their stories in Brighton and Scotland respectively.

Both will also be leading writing workshops during the festival.

3... War Baby
West Street Loft, West Street, Shoreham, Saturday, September 28, 7.30pm, £10

Actress and seventh Python Carol Cleveland revives her dramatisation of her parents’ diary, penned while they lived through the Blitz.

4... Ivor Baddiel
Ropetackle Arts Centre, Little High Street, Shoreham, Sunday, September 29, 3pm, £5

Having penned jokes for Stephen Fry, Graham Norton, Joan Rivers and Bruce Forsyth, Ivor Baddiel (brother of David) shares his experiences writing for television and as an author.

5... Look Stranger
Ropetackle Arts Centre, Little High Street, Shoreham, Sunday, September 29, 7.30pm, £15

Singer Ruthie Culver and the Utter Jazz quartet reimagine Benjamin Britten’s settings to WH Auden’s poetry, with readings by actor Alex Jennings.

6... Polly Tyrer
Harbour Way, Shoreham Beach, Wednesday, October 2, noon, £15 including lunch and a glass of wine

Vice principal of Leith’s School Of Food And Wine, Polly Tyrer, opens her home to share cooking techniques over lunch.

7... Sussex Folk Tales
Shoreham Library, Pond Road, Shoreham, Wednesday, October 2, 7pm, £3

Professional storyteller Michael O’Leary unveils Sussex’s hidden tales – including the screaming demons in Wealden copses and the dragons hiding in bottomless ponds.

8... Jilted
West Street Loft, West Street, Shoreham, Thursday, October 3, 8pm, £8

Singers Melanie Pappenheim and Rebecca Askew perform a musical encounter between Charles Dickens’s tragic Miss Havisham from Great Expectations and Dickens’s own jilted wife Catherine Hogarth.

9... Three Plays And A Reading
West Street Loft, West Street, Shoreham, Friday, October 4, 7.30pm, £6

Festival patron Simon Brett – who is also hosting a launch dinner at Shoreham Airport on Thursday, September 26 – performs one of his own plays, alongside Audrey Lee’s The First Waltz, Gill Medway’s Chuckling and The Chattering Classes by Tricia Cunningham.

10... Tales And Songs By The Riverbank
Verda Houseboat, Shoreham, Saturday, October 5, 7.30pm, £6

Storytellers join forces with Laura Ward’s Hickory Signals for a night of tales and folk song.

11... 20th Century Poets In Song
St Mary’s House, Bramber, Sunday, October 6, 2.30pm, £15

Neil Jenkins Choral performs songs penned by Thomas Hardy, WH Auden and WB Yeats among others, accompanied by the St Mary’s House grand piano.

12... Short Story and Poetry Slam
Ropetackle Arts Centre, Little High Street, Shoreham, Sunday, October 6, 7pm, £6

Punk poet Atilla The Stockbroker closes the 2013 Wordfest with an open mic session – each writer gets five minutes to perform their work.

  • Shoreham Wordfest runs from Thursday, September 26, to Sunday, October 6. Tickets from www.ticketsource.co.uk/shorehamwordfest or 07522 957691.