WORDS by the Water festival starts next week with prominent names such as Melvyn Bragg, Joan Bakewell, Ben Miller, Robin Ince, Alice Roberts, Will Gompertz, Michael Billington, James Naughtie, A.A. Gill and Ben Okri among the literary line-up.

Running at Keswick's Theatre by the Lake, from Friday, March 4-13, alongside these well-known and established speakers is a marvellous mix of themed days and individual speakers discussing fascinating topics.

Included among the 100-plus events will be songwriter, comedian and actor Isy Suttie (who played Dobbie in Channel 4’s cult TV programme Peep Show), who on the Monday (March 7, 11am) will be talking about the trials and tribulations of life as a single 20-something as her friends all marry, settle and rapidly start producing babies. The same day, the Writing Lives themed day features Amy Liptrot (feature on BBC radio 4 book of the week last month), who speaks about her experience of writing her uncompromising memoir about living on the edge, her return to Orkney and recovery from addiction; Sally Bayley flicks over the pages of secret (and not-so-secret) diaries, while Sam Jefferson reveals the antics of adventurer Gordon Bennett.

This year Words by the Water also welcomes Janet Ellis to her first festival, on the Tuesday, March 8 (12.45pm). Having recently completed an MA in Creative Writing and sending her work to the publishers under another name, it caused quite a stir in the publishing world when, after it had been picked up, it was revealed that it was the Janet Ellis of Blue Peter fame that was the mind behind the work. Her debut novel is The Butcher’s Hook.

The Women and Ideas day in the Studio on Wednesday, March 9, presents ground-breaking young and emerging writers such as Joanna Kavenna, who is fast becoming one of the UK's most important writers.

Box office 017687-74411.