The seventh annual Hexham Book Festival, which will take place this year from 23 April to 3 May, has announced its line-up, with a variety of writers coming to the region to meet readers and entertain us with their stories.

This year’s festival will be celebrating the brightest and best of new fiction; a rich mix of gardening, food, and travel writers; and trenchant views on art, politics and philosophy.

Headlining the Hexham Book Festival 2012 former poet laureate Andrew Motion, who’ll be introducing his new take on children’s classic Treasure Island. will be speaking on Thursday 3 May.

The festival is also hosting veteran politician Tam Dalyell and political commentators Polly Toynbee and David Walker, who between them will provide an insight into the Labour party over recent decades. Their events will take place on Saturday 28 April.

Novelist Iain Banks will be talking about his new novel Stonemouth on Saturday 28 April, and debut novelists SJ Watson (Before I Go To Sleep), Rachel Joyce (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) and Corbridge-based new crime writer Mari Hannah (The Murder Wall) will be discussing their new books.

Brian Sewell, Britain’s most celebrated art critic, has finally written his memoirs and will be talking about his rackety childhood, what it was like to be young and ‘queer’ in 1950s England and his relationship with art historian and Soviet spy Anthony Blunt. He will be speaking on Friday 27 April.

On Saturday 28 April, Martin Gayford will present an extraordinary record of nearly a decade of conversations with the ‘world’s most popular living painter’, David Hockney. Through anecdote, discussion and reflection, author and art critic Martin Gayford reveals Hockney as an incisive and original thinker.

There’s also something for food lovers, with chefs and food writers Claudia Roden, Gerard Baker and Joanna Blythman taking part in the festival and talking about their new books. Claudia will be taking us on a comprehensive culinary tour of Spain, whilst Gerard Baker and Joanna Blythman will be discussing the similarities and differences in modern cooking and that in the day of Mrs Beeton on Friday 27 April.

On the same day, philosopher AC Grayling will draw on two and a half thousand years of non-religious thought to attempt to understand our humanity to present his new work The Good Book-A Secular Bible. On Tuesday 1 May, acclaimed writer/thinker and former bishop Richard Holloway will talk about the experiences which threw up difficult questions on faith which he explores in his book, Leaving Alexandria- A Memoir of Faith and Doubt, in a special event at Hexham Abbey.

There are also many events for writers to draw inspiration from, with workshops from several authors appearing at Hexham, including Sarah Moss, Meg Rosoff and Helen Oyeyemi, and a chance to hear from self-published author Alison Baverstock.

Hexham Book Festival is also presenting a new initiative with A Novel Event, a chance to win an in-depth critique of your novel from Hexham Book Festival’s panel of an agent, publisher and editor.

“I’m delighted with the breadth and variety of authors speaking at Hexham Book Festival this year, which, along with audiences, is another way in which the festival is growing,” says festival director Susie Troup. “We’re particularly pleased and grateful to the Gillian Dickinson Trust which is supporting the festival over the next 3 years, as well as regional businesses like Sintons. Local support is vital to ensuring we can continue to grow and bring great authors to Hexham in the future.”

The festival will also be venturing further into Northumberland this year. Words Across Northumberland, a new separately funded initiative from Hexham Book Festival, will feature special events in Alnwick, Haltwhistle, schools events in Bedlington and authors taking a ride on the Northumberland library van service, visiting readers county-wide.

Hexham Book Festival runs from 23 April to 3 May 2012, and ticket prices range from free to £12.

Full programme and booking details are available at www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk.