Dates have been announced for this year’s Folkestone Literary Festival.

It will be held from Friday, November 6 until Saturday, November 14, and will be renamed the Folkestone Book Festival.

Quarterhouse, in Tontine Street, Folkestone’s newly-opened performing arts centre, will be the new home for the festival, although events will also be held at other venues in the town.

Festivals manager Roberta Spicer said: “It will be an exciting year for the festival. The new name is designed to help the festival appeal to a wider audience with an interest in books and reading.

“Planning for this year’s festival is well under way and following the success of last year’s history weekend, strong links to historical topics are likely to feature throughout the programme.”

The Folkestone Book Festival is organised by The Creative Foundation, which is leading a programme of regeneration in Folkestone, based on arts and education.

Since 2002 the festival has been known as the Folkestone Literary Festival, which replaced the long-established Kent Literature Festival.

Creative Foundation spokesman Yvette Illsley said names of those who would appear in this year’s festival had not yet been announced.

Last year the festival included film, theatre and television actress Maureen Lipman, comedy writer and television presenter Denis Norden, historian and television and radio presenter David Starkey, authors Will Self and Joanna Trollope and lexicographer and resident dictionary expert from the television programme Countdown, Susie Dent.