Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen, playwright Tom Stoppard and biographer Lady Antonia Fraser are to appear at a literature, art and ideas festival.
Irish novelist Colm Tóibín, criminal barrister Jeremy Hutchinson, Juliet Stevenson and BBC gardener Monty Don are also among the eclectic minds due to appear at the 26th Charleston Festival.
Tickets go on sale this week for the festival from May 15 to 25 in the former home of the Bloomsbury group of artists and writers at the foot of the South Downs near Lewes.
Themes this year range from the Magna Carta to gardening. Highlights include a new musical work paying homage to Virginia Woolf and Benjamin Britten featuring the London Conchord Ensemble and Juliet Stevenson.
The actress will also read from the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Professor Sen will deliver the inaugural Maynard Keynes lecture on May 23. Visit charleston.org.uk/festivals.
Tickets are on sale from today at the Brighton Dome box office. Telephone 01273 709 709.
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