Marlborough LitFest has just announced the latest additions to their 2022 line-up, who will be joining the likes of Jacqueline Wilson.

The fresh names include Kamila Shamsie, Pam Ayres, Clover Stroud, and Benedict Allen, who will join the 2022 Golding Speaker, Ali Smith, as well as Patrick Gale, Max Hastings and children’s author, Jacqueline Wilson during the festival weekend from 29 September – 2 October 2022.

Pam Ayres MBE has been entertaining audiences for over 40 years as a writer and broadcaster and is the author of several bestselling poetry books, including The Works, Surgically Enhanced, You Made Me Late Again! and The Last Hedgehog.

On radio she is a regular on Just a Minute, has had six series of her own Ayres on the Air, and has appeared twice on the legendary Desert Island Discs.

Award-winning novelist Kamila Shamsie makes a welcome return to Marlborough LitFest on Saturday 1 October to talk about her latest book, Best of Friends.

Born in Karachi in 1973, Shamsie wrote her first novel while still in college and is regarded as one of Pakistan’s most prolific novelists.

Her most recent novel Home Fire won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2018, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 and shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award and her work has been translated into over thirty languages.

Clover Stroud will also be making an appearance on Sunday 2 October to talk about her latest book, The Red of My Blood.

This moving memoir charts Clover's fearless passage through the first year after her sister's death from breast cancer, aged 46, exploring the experience of grief, death and life.

Clover’s first book, The Wild Other, was shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize. Her critically acclaimed second book, My Wild & Sleepless Nights: A Mother's Story, was rated one of the 'best books of the year, 2020' by the Observer and the Telegraph and the Sunday Times, and was a Sunday Times bestseller.

Benedict Allen who has been travelling the world for more than 30 years will be appearing at LitFest on Saturday 1 October.

He has survived adversity in some of the world’s most inhospitable and inaccessible terrains, from the Amazon to the Arctic, has made numerous BBC TV shows and is the author of 10 books.

The new Friends of Marlborough LitFest scheme is now up and running, giving priority booking in advance of general ticket sales.