More tickets go on sale for Charleston

From art to literature, science to medicine, from politics to fashion, and film to theatre, the Charleston Festival offers a diverse programme of events.

This promises to be the most eclectic and entertaining festival in its 27 year history and it boasts 39 different events between opening on May 20 and the last day on May 30.

The Astronomer Royal, the founder of the world wide web plus leading writers, artists and media personalities are among the line-up for this year’s event.

Among the novelists are three Booker and three Orange Prize winners, Michael Morpurgo, Rose Tremain, Ian McEwan, Joan Bakewell and Graham Swift. Art is represented by Edmund de Waal and Julian Bell.

James Shapiro, Nicholas Hytner, Jeanette Winterson and Eileen Atkins mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Shakespeare.

Science is covered by such heavyweights as the Astronomer Royal Lord Rees and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who is winner of this year’s John Maynard Keynes Prize.

Award-winning investigative journalist Steve Silberman will speak about his new book on autism, Neurotribes, which has already won the Samuel Johnson Prize and is now shortlisted for the £30,000 Wellcome Book Prize.

The 100th anniversary of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant coming to live at Charleston - turning their home into the country meeting place of the Bloomsbury Group - is marked with this starry festival opening featuring Carmen Callil, Christopher Hampton, Virginia Nicholson and Claire Tomalin in conversation with author and screenwriter William Nicholson. For ticket availability contact 01273 709709 or visit www.brightonticketshop.com