BOOKSHOP owner Matt Taylor can be pretty sure his recipe for book signing events is working after Nigella Lawson asked to come back.

Mr Taylor welcomed the celebrity chef back to the Chepstow Bookshop in St Mary Street last week after her publishers requested a spot before she appeared on stage at the Cheltenham Literature Festival.

Around 200 people queued up St Mary Street for the opportunity to get their copies of her new book, Nigelissima, autographed last Wednesday.

The bookshop has been running book signings from big-name authors to local writers and poets for a number of years.

Mr Taylor said: "Nigella was here in 2010 and that was a very successful event and she asked to come back with her new book.

"We had about 200 people here on Wednesday and it went very well.

"If you have an event and there is a good response to it then it becomes easier to persuade others to come.

"Our location helps – we are only two hours from London and close to Cheltenham."

Nigella was not the only well-known name at an event organised by the bookshop on Wednesday.

Journalist John McCarthy – who spent five years as a prisoner of militiamen in Lebanon from 1986 – spoke to a capacity audience at the Drill Hall about his new book.

The book, You Can't Hide the Sun, is a journey through Israel and Palestine, and looks at the experiences of people who live under constant threat.

The next author visit to the bookshop will be tomorrow (Thursday) when broadcaster Claire Balding will be signing copies of her autobiography My Animals and Other Family.