This year’s festival sees hundreds of writers, thinkers and performers taking part in more than 250 events. Already feeling baffled by the choice? Here’s a selection of big names to start you off.

Antony Beevor
Shot to fame with Stalingrad, the battle that changed the course of World War Two.

Louis de Bernières
Best known for Captain Corelli's Mandolin, book, film and cause célèbre.

Bob Geldof
Musician, high profile Dad and tireless campaigner against Third World debt.

Germaine Greer
Flamboyant feminist, devastating intellectual and challenging author.

Doris Lessing
Towering novelist and committed campaigner for human rights in South Africa.

Ken Loach
Radical film director who changed hearts, minds and the law in the 1960s with Cathy Come Home.

Ian McEwan
Award-winning lion of British literature, his latest successful novel is Atonement.

Orhan Pamuk
Turkish writer who won international acclaim with My Name is Red, set in 16th century Istanbul.

Tony Parsons
Journalist, Essex boy and chronicler of the condition of modern men.

Zadie Smith
Prodigy whose first novel, White Teeth, won her a prodigious advance and who has gone on to fulfil expectations.

John Updike
One of America's greatest writers, author of the compelling Rabbit novels.

Arnold Wesker
Playwright who rocked the literary establishment with hard-hitting plays about ordinary people.

Jacqueline Wilson
Stupendously successful author of vivid, realistic novels for children and young people.

Benjamin Zephaniah
Poet, performer, musician and campaigner whose Jamaican rhythms reach the hearts of his audience.