AlastairMcKenzie.com

The 15^th century Swan Hotel at Lavenham, Suffolk is offering a special weekend package to tie in with the town's first autumn literary festival, which takes place between Friday 20 and Sunday 22 November. Priced from £245 per person, it includes tickets to the Literary Dinner at the hotel on Friday evening; three festival events and dinner on Saturday, and two nights B&B for two sharing a double/twin room.

Friday’s Literary Dinner will be held in the Swan’s elegant two AA Rosette Gallery Restaurant. The tickets (£50pp) include a drinks reception with canapés, three-course meal and talk by the Right Honourable Lord Philips of Sudbury, OBE about his life in the media. Lord Philips, who has lived in Suffolk all his life, has had a distinguished career in Parliament, public service and the law. He is probably best known for his 26 year stint as the ‘Legal Eagle’ on Jimmy Young’s radio show where he gave fascinating advice in plain English to the programme’s millions of listeners.

Tickets for Saturday’s three speakers in Lavenham Village Hall are also included in the weekend package. The day’s programme begins at 10am with Ronald Blythe talking about his literary career and close association with many East Anglian writers. Rose Tremain, author of ten novels and four collections of short stories, will take the stage at 2.30pm, when she will speak about the power of the imagination and the challenge of trying to inhabit unfamiliar worlds in her fiction. And completing the day’s programme at 5pm, popular historian Alison Weir will present her latest book, which explores the enigma that was Anne Boleyn.

The Swan Hotel will also be hosting a creative writing masterclass by crime fiction writer and lecturer Mike Ripley on the Saturday morning from 9am – 1pm. Intended for budding writers interested in the crime and thriller genres, the workshop is priced at £65pp to include a two-course lunch.

To book a room for the Swan Hotel Literary Festival weekend package call the hotel on 01787 247477; details can also be found on the website. For more information about the Lavenham Literary Festival and a programme (available from early September) call the local tourist information centre on 01787 248207.