FORMER Telegraph editor Max Hastings, news presenter Louise Minchin and television historian Sam Willis will be among the speakers at a new-look Wantage Literary Festival this year.

Garden designer Diarmuid Gavin will opening this year's week-long festival on Saturday, October 20, and historian James Daybell will also speak.

For families, Oxford musician Nick Cope – former lead singer of Britpop hitmakers The Candyskins – will lead a singalong, while the Vale and Downland Museum will host a free Roald Dahl-themed family activity day.

The biggest change for this year's festival, though, may be the name.

Organisers announced this week that, 'with support from the local and national Betjeman Society', they had changed the name from the ‘Wantage Not Just Betjeman Literary Festival’ to the more straightforward Wantage Literary Festival.

Festival director Vicki Luker explained: "The ‘not just Betjeman’ could be misleading and previously implied that we were mostly Betjeman, where we now celebrate a large genre of literature and arts."

She went on: "Thanks to sponsorship and all but one of the team being volunteers, tickets as always will be priced lower than most other festival to encourage people to attend several events.

"We will still be including a Betjeman themed-event and our educational outreach program with schools."

More performers will be announced at wantageliteraryfestival.co.uk