A former Royal Navy Captain has written a book on one of the oldest churches in the county to launch an annual music festival held there.

Graham Laslett CBE has lectured on and conducted tours round Edington Priory Church since he returned to the village in 1983, having first lived there between 1963-7.

The former Naval Captain, who retired five years ago, has now published a book called Edington The Bishop’s Legacy.

The book will be launched outside church to coincide with the annual Edington Festival of church choral music which will run from Sunday to August 29.

Edington The Bishop’s Legacy includes coverage of the life of the sponsor of the church rebuild in the fourteenth century, Bishop William de Edyndon. It also contains profiles of characters down the 650 years to the present.

Mr Laslett said: “It’s a particularly important church because it marks a change in style in architecture to the perpendicular of the late middle ages."

For more details on the festival, which was started in 1956 and will feature singers from many of the great cathedral and collegiate choirs, visit www.edingtonfestival.org