Will include Simon Mayo, Charles Spencer, Toby Young, series on 'Women at War'

The speakers at the 6th Chiswick Book Festival were announced this Friday (August 8th). Tickets are already on sale for the much-anticipated annual event from the Festival's official web site.

As always, the Festival, a non-profit community event, will be based at St. Michael and All Angels. This year the event will run from Thursday September 11th to Monday 15th 2014.

Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, brother to Princess Diana and uncle to William and Harry, is due to talk at the Festival about a topic with some personal resonance to him - the Regicides of 1649, subjects of his new history Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared Execute Charles I.

Simon Mayo, (pictured left), Radio 2 DJ and co-presenter of Kermode and Mayo's Film Review on Radio 5 Live, has also been announced as a speaker. This Autumn, Mayo will be releasing his 3rd novel for teens, Itchcraft, about a fourteen-year-old boy who discovers a new element.

The Festival is due to be opened at Chiswick House by Simon Thurley (right) , chief executive of English Heritage. Thurley will be talking about his new book The Building of England, which unearths the inextricable links between this country's cultural past and its most significant building developments, including Chiswick House and Bedford Park.

In keeping with the centenary of the First World War, a trilogy of the Festival's sessions will focus on 'Women at War'. Jane Thynne (left), and Elizabeth Buchan will talk about their fictional heroines going undercover in World War II, while Elisa Segrave and Caroline Moorehead will discuss real-life wartime heroines. Juliet West and Elizabeth Speller will speak about their books set in World War I in the closing session, at Chiswick Library at 6pm on Monday September 15th.

This year's Festival will also see talks by a trio of famous Telegraph journalists. Toby Young, (right), best-selling author and founder of the West London Free School, will be talking about his new book What Every Parent Needs to Know: How to Help Your Child Get the Most Out of Primary School, which seeks to help guide parents guiding their children through early education.

Bryony Gordon will be talking about her recently-released memoir The Wrong Knickers: A Decade of Chaos, about her years as a young writer in London. Peter Oborne, chief political commentator at the Daily Telegraph and acerbic critic of New Labour, will be talking about his latest work of cricketing non-fiction, Wounded Tiger: The History of Cricket in Pakistan.

More details of this year's programme, including the full list of speaker's at Chiswick Book Festival, can be viewed at www.chiswickbookfestival.net.

August 11, 2014