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The 2011 Cheltenham Literature Festival update

The Festival Quarter is starting to take shape...100,000 tickets have already been sold...
Over 600 speakers are making last minute arrangements...all this can mean only one thing...The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 2011 is now just ten days away!

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival 2011 kicks off next Friday, 7th October and with over 100,000 tickets already sold it is well on its way to becoming the most successful literature festival ever. Whilst a number of events have sold out in advance - the brand new Festival Quarter has ensured that tickets are still available for some of the Festival's top names.

Just some of the outstanding speakers with tickets still available are:

Award-winning writers AS Byatt, Ben Okri, Penelope Lively, Howard Jacobson, Lee Child and Anne Rice.
Some of Britain's finest actresses Joanna Lumley, Penelope Keith, Lucinda Lambton, Sue Johnston, Harriet Walter and Celia Imrie
Small screen stars Jonathan Ross, Fern Britton and Terry Wogan
International adventurers Ben Fogle, Charley Boorman and Ranulph Fiennes
Political heavyweights Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, festival favourite Tony Benn and interviewer extraordinaire Jeremy Paxman
Comedy geniuses Frank Skinner, Shazia Mirza and Will Self.
Exclusive behind the scenes events with the stars of The Archers, Downton Abbey and Strictly Come Dancing
Family fun with The Wombles, Roger McGough, Horrid Henry and Julia Donaldson
…and brit-pop icon Jarvis Cocker!

And the already bursting programme just getting bigger, as we've just announced the following exclusive addition to the line-up...
Patrick Kielty Hacks Alastair Campbell
Saturday 8 October / 4pm / Tickets £10

The dirty war of phone hacking, played out in press and parliament this summer, has closed a newspaper and embarrassed a Prime Minister. In this unique one to one session comedian Patrick Kielty will ask former Downing Street Director of Communications and Strategy Alastair Campbell to hand his phone over to be hacked and with this will access and reveal the secrets stored in the best connected phone in the country.

Who does he have on speed dial? Will Tony still pick up? What name is Peter Mandelson stored under? And what sexed up photos are hiding in his camera? Alastair claims he has nothing to hide - which is just as well because once he hands over his phone, there’s no going back.

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival runs from 7-16 October 2011.

Tickets for all festival events are available from the Cheltenham Festival Box Office on 01242 505 444
Online at cheltenhamfestivals.com and in person in the Regent Arcade, or throughout the Festival, in both Imperial and Montpellier Gardens.
The full festival programme is available to browse below.

Explore Gloucestershire
26 September 2011

For further information.