Hampstead has been synonymous with the artsy-fartsy, literary, chattering classes for as long as I can remember. Past residents from the world of words include Kingsley and Martin Amis, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Stephen Spender, John Galsworthy, Ian Fleming, T S Eliot, Katherine Mansfield, George Orwell, D H Lawrence and
John Keats. It is therefore fitting that the fourth
Hampstead and Highgate Literary Festival will take place this September.
Full details of all events can be found on the website, but read on for a taster of what can be expected over the three days of the festival, which includes walking tours of Hampstead, workshops, conversations between writers, chaired discussions, and talks given by authors. The diversity on offer ranges from cookery writers

The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden (picture courtesy of the HHLF website)
to humorists

John O'Farrell (picture courtesy of the HHLF website)
detective novelists

Jonathan Freedlands's alter ego: detective writer Sam Bourne (picture courtesy of the HHLF website)
newspaper columnists

Michele Hanson (picture courtesy of the HHLF website)
politicians

Peter Hain MP (picture courtesy of the HHLF website)
and Man Booker prize winner Howard Jacobson.

Howard Jacobson (picture of the HHLF website)
It may not be the acclaimed Hay Festival, but this smaller London version looks as it if will be as diverse and interesting as Hampstead itself.