Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival: These are the latest names added to line-up for this year

The end result looks set to be a truly star-studded line-up of historians, broadcasters, authors, playwrights and political players.

Taking place from October 20-23, after Susie Dent of Channel 4's Countdown fame launches the festival in style with a literary lunch, there follows a feast of events at the Crown Hotel.

Award-winning author Stella Duffy will describe how she has sustained writing over decades and the links between writing and psychotherapy.

The 8th Earl of Harewood David Lascelles’ will talk about his travels in the Himalayas and the extraordinary meeting of cultures that resulted in the Himalayan Garden at Harewood.

View the full line up for Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival and book tickets via www.harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

Alternatively, book in person at the HIF box office at 32 Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate.

Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival highlights

Peter Snow

Date: Saturday, October 22

Time: Event starts at 4pm and last approximately 1 hour.

Historian and broadcaster Peter Snow introduces the most powerful men and women in English, and later British, society, opening with the reign of King Alfred.

Snow offers a unique insight into the waxing and waning fortunes of these formidable rulers, from those such as devious King John who ruled with cruelty and fabled warrior-king William the Conqueror, to our own Elizabeth II, admired for her diplomacy and integrity while presiding over turbulent times.

Ronnie Archer-Morgan

Date: Saturday, October 22

Time: Event starts at 11.30am and last approximately 1 hour.

For decades, BBC TV's Antiques Roadshow star Ronnie Archer-Morgan has brought to life the fascinating, often surprising backstories behind our most cherished heirlooms and household objects on the Antiques Roadshow.

Now, he tells his own unlikely story.

After a childhood marked by abuse, racism and brushes with both criminals and the police, he got into music, became a DJ and, later, worked as a celebrity hairdresser for Vidal Sassoon and Smile in 1970s London.

A flair for spotting antiques led him to start his own Knightsbridge gallery, ultimately becoming one of the most respected figures in the industry.

Lady Brenda Hale

Date: Sunday, October 23

Time: Event starts at 11.30am and last approximately 1 hour.

A lifelong smasher of glass-ceilings, Yorkshire-born Lady Hale is an inspirational figure admired for her historic achievements and for the causes she has championed.

As President of the Supreme Court, Lady Hale won global attention in finding the 2019 prorogation of Parliament to be unlawful.

Yet that dramatic moment was merely the pinnacle of a career as a pioneering reformer which saw her become the first woman to be appointed to the Law Commission during her rise.

Chloë Duckworth

Date: Sunday, October 23

Time: Event starts at 1pm and last approximately 1 hour.

As co-presenter on The Great British Dig, Dr Chloë Duckworth is familiar with bringing history and archaeology closer to home than ever before, descending on streets and gardens across the country to discover the treasures we have been living right on top of without realising.

Audiences will learn about the actual frontier of the Roman Empire in Britain, the Tudor palace of an Elizabethan spymaster, a hidden WW2 military base, a prehistoric village under a school playing field and a lot more.