HOUSEHOLD names are set to feature at this year’s programme for the always highly anticipated Hexham Book Festival.

Get your pulse racing by joining best-selling author Luke Jennings as he discusses his second novel in the hit cat-and-mouse thriller Killing Eve, now a major TV show on BBC.

Investigative journalist Misha Glenny will lift the lid on the seedy underworld and lawless chaos of global organised crime in his nonfiction cult book McMafia.

Thought provoking readings from writer and historian David Olusoga, as he talks about the history of black Britain in his new book Black and British, will be complemented by BBC journalist Kamal Ahmed as he discusses his experiences in his biography The Life and Times of a Very British Man, growing up mixed race in 1970s London, where he was subject to many and varied forms of racism, intended and not.

TV treasure and judge on The Great British Bake Off Prue Leith will join the line-up, and will speak with audiences about her new romance novel The Lost Son, the third and final book in the Angelotti trilogy.

Farming and our relationship with the land is important in this year’s festival programme, with face of Spring Watch and Countryfile Kate Humble hosting a talk about her life working closely with animals and wildlife, as well as a discussion about Genetically Modified (GM) foods with one of the original GM field wreckers and environmental author, Mark Lynas who published non-fiction book Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet to great success.

Guardian columnist and writer Lucy Mangan will also be in attendance, discussing her memoir Bookworm, and the pivotal role which reading and books played in her life.

Local lass Sally Urwin discusses the rewards and challenges of life on High House Farm in Matfen, the topic of her debut book A Farmer’s Diary.

Little ones can enjoy a performance from Michael Rosen – one of the UK’s most-loved children’s writers and poets – and the voice behind the iconic storybook We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, which generations have enjoyed in classrooms and at bedtimes for decades.

A wealth of events for younger audiences including storytelling performances with North-East writer Chris Bostock, a competition to design a new book cover, and events for the over-8s focused on dinosaurs and the magical world of Harry Potter.

From 2020, children can also enjoy the use of the festivals 180-seater Spiegeltent, which will pitch up on Sele Park, and will be home to a new children’s book festival which will run alongside the traditional book festival programme.

The venue will also be host to schools during the weekdays, with funding available to bring children from far-reaching areas of Northumberland, but in the evenings, a new, vibrant programme featuring a selection of comedy, spoken word and cabaret performances will be on offer.

This year, the festival will run the Silence in the Library pod, a event which has touring libraries across Northumberland since September last year, and offers a specifically-built sanctuary in libraries for those wanting to read in total silence or listen to poetry and prose being read.

The event will be in residence at the Queen’s Hall Art Centre.

Hexham Book Festival will run from Friday, April 26 to Sunday, May 5. For tickets visit: www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk