A journalist, radio presenter and poets all feature alongside authors as the top ten must-see events, according to the director of one of the country’s biggest literature festivals.

Rachel Feldberg, director of the Ilkley Literature Festival, which kicks off later this month, has admitted she never gets to see as many events as she likes, but has picked out her highlights from more than 200 events this year.

And Ms Feldberg says there is still time for people to get hold of tickets for some of the headline events, despite sales being better than ever.

Tickets are still available for headline acts like, Chris Mullin, Paddy Ashdown, Darren Shan and Andrew Motion as well as the likes of Colin Grant, Amiri Baraka, Pawel Huelle and David Constantine.

Grant and Huelle also feature among Ms Feldberg’s top picks for the festival.

She describes Huelle as “Poland’s leading writer”.

“When else do you have the opportunity to meet outstanding writers from another country?” she said.

While Grant is a “Radio 4 presenter and polymath who did such a great event last year, we had to have him back to talk about his memoir of his Dad, a charming rogue who wanted the best for his son”.

Other highlights, according to Ms Feldberg, include Dan Hind, two crime writers, M Y Alam and Jake Arnott, award-winning novelist Romesh Gunesekera and Katherine Bucknell, a highly regarded expert on Christopher Isherwood and WH Auden.

She also recommends the Contemporary Black British Writing event, two “exciting” theatre performances, Speak of Me as I Am and Backward Glance and top poetry events by Blake Morrison and Lemn Sissay.

House of Fiction, “one of Australia's most important novelists, Elizabeth Jolley, recalled by the woman whose father left home to follow Jolley half way across the world” is also mentioned as a highlight by Ms Feldberg.

Go to the website at ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk for more information about the festival including ticket details.