By Jennie Buzaglo

The 2019 Dorchester Literary Festival is now a closed book after finishing on Sunday following the outstanding line-up of stars who visited the county town.

Organisers said they were delighted by the success of the festival, which saw ticket sales up by 20 per cent.

The festival began with a special appearance from Alexander McCall Smith who revealed that even in his 70s, he still writes for two to three hours a day. The best-selling author explained he never suffers from writer’s block because “there tends to be too much in my head and my notebooks to be able to use”.

Bake Off’s Prue Leith was among the stars in attendance, and she bought her love for food with her.

The restaurateur told the audience about the years she’s spent working to improve food in schools and hospitals and said how “with moderation – you can eat anything you want”.

Also bringing food was Henrietta Lovell who provided cream tea supplied by The Posh Partridge. The author later advised audiences to ditch the conventional tea bag for both environmental and humanitarian reasons.

Friday morning saw the arrival of Victoria Hislop who explained that her new book is written in Greek. The Sunday Times number one bestseller described how her latest book is a combination of the emotions she feels for Greece and her own knowledge.

Raynor Winn came later on Friday and revealed that she wrote her book, The Salt Path, only for husband Moth. After the book gained widespread recognition, the bestselling author revealed that had she known it would sell more than 250,000 copies she might have ‘left out a few of the more personal details.’

Farrow & Ball designer Joa Studholme displayed her passion for interior design spending over an hour inspiring the audience to change the way they paint their living rooms.

Comedian Dom Joly took centre stage to explain all about his new book The Hezbollah Hiking Club. He went on to discuss the deep emotions he felt and the therapeutic benefits of walking across Lebanon.

Co-director of the festival Janet Gleeson said: “We are over the moon with the way the festival went this year. Ticket sales were up by about 20 per cent but more importantly, and what really makes us proud, is seeing how much enjoyment visitors get from hearing some of the biggest names in publishing talk about their books. We were privileged to listen and learn from such a variety of fascinating authors.”

Next year’s festival takes place from Tuesday, October 13 to Saturday, October 17. Entries for next year’s Hall & Woodhouse Local Writing Prize festival close on March 15. Visit www.dorchesterliteraryfestival.com