Lewes Literary Society

All Saints Centre, Friars Walk, Lewes, from Tuesday, October 20, 8pm, £10 single event/£30 season ticket, www.lewesliterarysociety.co.uk

LEWES Literary Society dates back to 1948 when two local writers founded what was to become known as the Monday Lit.

Among the guests booked in by former president Leonard Woolf were E M Forster and John Betjeman. And in the years since those appearing in Lewes have included Beryl Bainbridge, Ian McEwan, AS Byatt, Stella Rimington and Steve Bell.

“The Lewes Literary Society is not all about authors flogging their latest wares,” says Eleanor Knight from the society.

“It’s about a conversation between writers and readers. Visiting writers get a chance to share their passions and readers get to pick their brains. More how and why than Hay on Wye.”

Opening this new season is 2014 Booker and Costa shortlisted novelist Neel Mukherjee, who will be talking about The Lives Of Others. The book, which won the 2015 Encore Prize for best second novel, follows the story of a young man drawn into extreme political activism in 1960s Calcutta.

Also on the bill later this year are novelists Bernadine Evaristo and Mick Jackson, Meg and Mog creator Jan Pienkowski, beauty columnist Sali Hughes, and the translator who brought Asterix to English-speaking audiences Anthea Bell.

Romesh Ranganathan

Ropetackle Arts Centre, Little High Street, Shoreham, Saturday, April 23, 8pm, £14, 01273 464440

CURRENTLY enduring the horrors of his Sri Lankan homeland in BBC Three’s travelogue Asian Provocateur, Crawley-based former maths teacher Romesh Ranganathan is coming home with his new tour Irrational.