WITH just eight days to go before Keswick’s Words by the Water Festival, a sparkling line-up of speakers is heading for the Theatre by the Lake close to the shores of Derwentwater.

Festival president Melvyn Bragg has described this celebration of words and ideas – renowned for its warmth and friendly welcome - as “a jewel in the new landscape of literary festivals”. Lord Bragg will be among the household names stepping into the spotlight alongside lesser-known writers with equally fascinating stories to tell.

Opening the festival on Friday, March 6 will be former Home Secretary Alan Johnson, whose talk about Please, Mr Postman, the sequel to his best-selling memoir, has already sold out.

Another high-profile MP taking to the stage will be Penrith and the Border’s Rory Stewart, as he leads a discussion on “issues of concern” in the run-up to General Election day, such as housing, the economy and the Middle East; and later shares his personal experiences of Iraq and Afghanistan – Then and Now.

There’s a strong local feel to the festival programme, with Melvyn Bragg discussing his Cumbrian novels; and talks about Arts and Crafts houses in the Lake District and the lifestyles of their wealthy industrialist owners; Greta Hall, once home to Lakes poets Coleridge and Southey; shared living on a fell farm in Eskdale (by part-time priest and campsite owner Ian Hall); and Lake District icons from Kendal mint cake to Beatrix Potter (by photographer Phil Rigby and writer Michaela Robinson-Tate).

Well-known names from the worlds of literature, broadcasting and politics making appearances will be Claire Tomalin, biographer of Charles Dickens; Kate Adie, talking about women in World War One; Margaret Drabble, on childhood experiences shaping lives; Booker prize-winning novelist Ben Okri; Michael Buerk on reality TV; and Baroness Williams on memories of her mother, Vera Brittain, and the recent film about her, Testament of Youth.

The richness of the festival programme includes events such as a poetry breakfast with coffee and croissants, and talks on such intriguing topics as fish and chips unwrapped, stationery, walking the Nile, what art can tell us about the history of food, maps and map makers, India’s disappearing railways, the science of body and mind, wartime fashions, the invention of home, and the healing power of taming a hawk (by Helen Macdonald).

For tickets, visit the Theatre by the Lake box office, see www.theatrebythelake.com or phone 017687-74411.