A literary festival is returning with a stellar line up of authors for its 14th year.

Petworth Literary Festival has mushroomed over the past few years, from humble beginnings as a long weekend to 40 events in five venues over 12 days.

Covering a wide range of literary genres, the Petworth Literary Festival will welcome some of the biggest names in fiction, politics and current affairs, the natural world, culture and lifestyle, including Dame Judi Dench, Robert Harris, David Baddiel, Kate Mosse, Pam Ayres and Clare Balding.

Festival artistic director Stewart Collins said: “What we look for when devising the programme each year is to curate a combination of fascinating and thoughtful reads that link up to a series of genuinely unmissable events, and by bringing in so many people who’re right up there in the public eye, you can be pretty sure that practically everything will score highly on both counts.”

Guardian columnist and broadcaster Polly Toynbee will be discussing her new book, An Uneasy Inheritance which examines her family history through the lenses of class in Britain. Award-winning journalist John Sweeney will be talking about Alexei Navalny who forms the subject of his new book, The Life and Death of Alexei Navalny: Murder in the Gulag.

Sophia Money-Coutts will be in conversation with comedian Helen Lederer who explores her new memoir: Not That I’m Bitter while Sunday Times journalist Hadley Freeman reflects on her “searing” memoir Good Girls.

Former political editor of The Sun and great-great-newphew of George Mallory Tom Newton Dunn discovered a collection of personal letters written by the climbing legend in a drawer. They form the basis for his new book, Letters from Everest. Much-loved broadcaster Adrain Chiles muses on a everything from the “sacred” to the “profane” in his new book, The Curious Columns.  

The festival starts on October 23 and ends on November 3. Buy tickets for individual shows on the event website.