Stonyhurst College celebrates its rich history this weekend with the first Stonyhurst Literary and Film Festival.

Visitors from across the country will share a programme of captivating authors, speakers and open-air cinema.

For popular fiction lovers, the festival programme includes literary experts on popular fiction, including J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and the world of J.R.R. Tolkien – who wrote Lord of the Rings while staying in the Ribble Valley.

Read more: Derelict group wants to be at ‘the art of the city’

Headline speakers at the two-day festival include:

• Actor, author and director, Simon Callow
• Former politician and author, Ann Widdecombe
• Award-winning comedian and best-selling author, Dr Adam Kay
• English theatre and television writer and producer, Debbie Horsfield
• International Emmy award-winning filmmaker, David Barnes

The programme also features an interview conducted by historian Simon Robinson, with two Lancashire ‘Secret War’ Veteran Sisters, responsible for publishing their father’s memoirs entitled 1,000 Days on the River Kwai.

The sisters were recently featured on Clare Balding’s Radio 4 show, Ramblings, both of whom were also code-breakers in their own right during WWII.

The Stonyhurst Collections and Old Chapel Museum will be open throughout the festival and feature some of the great works in literary history, which we are proud to share.

Amongst these works, are a variety of first editions, including Shakespeare’s First Folio, Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist, Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

The Stonyhurst Literature & Film Festival will culminate on the Saturday evening, with an open-air cinema screening of the Oscar winning film, Bohemian Rhapsody, in the magnificent grounds of the College.

Tickets are available through Seetickets.

Read more: See what’s on in Preston