A new literary festival featuring TV stars and authors will be held at Chiddingstone Castle in May.

Tickets for the Chiddingstone Castle Literary Festival, which will be held over the May bank holiday weekend, from Sunday, May 1 to Tuesday, May 3, will go on sale on Tuesday, March 1.

The programme caters for adults and teenagers on its first day; families and children on Bank Holiday Monday and schools on its final day.

There will be talks by authors, drama, storytelling, children’s theatre, music and performance poetry.

On Sunday, May 1, Juliet Nicholson talks to Imogen Lycett Green, curator of the Betjeman Poetry Prize, about the seven generations of women in the Sackville-West family. Vita Sackville-West created the world famous garden at Sissinghurst Castle. Later, former Blue Peter presenter, and now an author, Janet Ellis, and Erin Church, whose novel Broadchurch inspired the ITV series, will both be appearing.

There will also be biographers Andrew Lownie and Adam Sisman and broadcaster Sandy Gall. In the evening there will be a performance by Robert Bathurst of Downton Abbey and Cold Feet.

On Bank Holiday Monday there will be poetry performances, music and storytelling. Lady Antonia Fraser and Tom Hodgkinson will talk about her memoir about her life with playwright Harold Pinter, and Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell will choose from questions posed to him by children.

Schoolchildren from six to 13 will be catered for on the final day with children's authors Philip Womack and Sally Gardner, plus Blue Peter award-winning author Nicky Singer.

There is also a short story competition for schools, for seven to 13-year-olds.

Tickets cost £12 per performance with under threes free and three to 13-year-olds £5. Tickets include entry into the Castle and its exquisite Japanese and Egyptian collections.

A day ticket for Sunday is £55. Discounted tickets are available until Tuesday, March 15.

Buy tickets from March 1 at www.chiddingstonecastle.org.uk/literary-festival or call 0800 033 7564.