ACTOR, comedian and radio presenter Miles Jupp will be one of the headliners at the Coleford Festival of Words this summer.

The 37-year-old performer, who lives in Monmouth with his wife and five children, will be introducing his new novel Egg and Soldiers: A Childhood Memoir (with postcards from the present) at the 10th anniversary event, which runs from July 3 to July 9.

His new book is a fictional memoir from Jupp’s alter-ego Damien Trench, the fussy food writer and protagonist of the BBC Radio 4 sitcom In and Out of the Kitchen.

Also lined up for the festival are crime writer M R Hall, who also lives near Monmouth, and performance poet Hollie McNish.

There will be a programme in and around the town of public readings, while new writing will be part of an open competition judged by chart topping Diamond Dagger award-winning author Andrew Taylor, who lives in Coleford.

Theatre Adorno will revisit Forest writer Dennis Potter, while you can also enter a quiz team and come along to the Taste ‘n’ Tales USA where food and Charlie Marwick’s stories compete.

There’s also a family story walk, a screening of the HOOF (Hands Off Our Forest) film, and on Sunday, July 9, an event to commemorate the 800th year of the Charter that recognised the Forest of Dean at Hopewell Colliery.

For more information about the festival, go to www.wyedeantourism.co.uk.