WILDLIFE presenter and environmental campaigner Chris Packham will be the keynote speaker at Clifton LitFest.
The festival, which takes place from November 15-17, will be the most ambitious to date with a range of writers, artists and musicians taking part in more than 50 events.
Others lined up so far include novelist Kate Mosse, biographer Harriet Baker, local historian and television journalist Jonathan Dimbleby and poet Kim Moore.
Moses Mckenzie makes a welcome return to discuss his latest novel, Fast By The Horns. To mark the 200th anniversary of the founding of the RNLI, Helen Doe discuss her book One Crew while Carol Vorderman will talk about how to fix broken Britain with her new book, Now What?
More contributors to the festival will follow soon.
Festival chair David Parker said: “We are absolutely thrilled that Chris Packham is our keynote speaker at this year’s festival. Through his work for the BBC’s Natural History Unit Chris has a long and deep relationship with the city of Bristol and this, together with his tireless commitment and campaigning for many environmental causes, will ensure a massively successful beginning to the weekend’.
Chris Packham said: ”I’m greatly looking forward to joining the Clifton LitFest this year. My wildlife career is very much rooted in Bristol soil having been taken under the Natural History Unit’s wing in 1984 as a trainee cameraman. A few years later I had moved from behind the camera to present the Really Wild Show. These distant decades seem a very long time ago as we now face and fight catastrophic biodiversity loss. Bristol boasts a strong activist movement which is another reason why I feel uplifted when I visit.”