With several favourites, like local celebrity Michael Eavis, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Rachel Johnson, Gina Millar and Michael Wood, all sold out at Cedars Hall for the Wells Festival of Literature there is no need to despair.

Thanks to the festival live streaming of all the events you can watch all your favourites online. Don't miss out, register now by going to https://www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/live-streaming.

This year has presented everyone with many challenges. Not least of these has been the challenge of putting on a Covid-safe festival at Cedars Hall.

This has proved an expensive, but necessary, undertaking. The audience at Cedars is limited to accommodate social distancing.

This means a drastic reduction in ticket sales. The result of this, combined with the cost of the live streaming, means that the festival will not receive nearly as much money as usual to undertake the educational work in several local communities, for which it is known.

In order to continue with this throughout the coming year, organisers are relying on the goodwill of those live streaming the many exciting, stimulating and entertaining events to help out by making a donation.

The festival's Education Group is continuing to pull out all the stops and recently arranged a virtual author visit from Abi Elphinstone to Ashcott School.

Each participating child has also received a personalised and signed copy of Abi's new book Jungle Drop.

The educational work, promoting a love of books and reading, is invaluable to teachers and pupils alike.

The Wells Festival of Literature is run entirely by volunteers, so all donations are put to very good use.

Not long to wait now until the festival opens in Cedars Hall, Wells. There is a wealth of events to enjoy from Friday October 16 until Saturday October 24.

There are several events most days and many authors who will come and talk on a wide variety of subjects to inspire and engage you. You can still support the festival by buying tickets and coming along to join in.

All tickets are refundable should Cedars Hall be forced to close due to the pandemic and authors will live stream free online.

For ticket sales please go to https://www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/2020-festival. All ticket sales will help support the educational work.

Festival organisers are delighted that Helen Taylor, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Exeter, has stepped into the breach to replace Donal Ryan when he had to withdraw from the festival.

On Saturday October 24, she will be discussing her book Why Women Read Fiction. In this thought-provoking book, she draws on extensive interviews with women readers and writers to examine just how precious fiction is.

Come along and discover why women are the main buyers of fiction, members of book clubs and attendees at literary festivals.

Helen Taylor has also stepped in to replace Sarah le Fanu as interviewer. On Tuesday October 20 Helen will be in conversation with Pragya Agarwal discovering how unconscious bias affects every aspect of our lives and yet remains a challenging concept to explain and understand.

Pragya is a prize-winning behavioural scientist, activist and writer, whose book SWAY is a thought-provoking work.

It unravels how our unintentional biases affect the way we communicate and how insidiously they affect our decision-making, even in life and death situations. Come and see how you fare.

On Friday October 23, Helen will be in conversation with Janice Hadlow, author of The Other Bennet Sister.

In this, her first novel, Janice takes the prim, pious and proper middle sister in Pride and Prejudice and turns her into a heroine in her own right.

This life-affirming, witty story examines what happens when a young woman discovers that she can, against all the odds, take her rightful place in the world.

Janice's book is also a warm homage to Jane Austen. Come along to Cedars Hall and cheer for a Mary Bennet you never dreamt you would meet.

The festival looks forward to your support for its on-going educational projects, either by purchasing tickets for events at Cedars Hall or by making a donation for live streaming these events.