Books festival of the week: Cheltenham Festival of Literature, various venues

The main theme of this year's festival is memory, marking the 100th anniversary of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past and the centenary next year of the start of the First World War.

Jung Chang opens the event on Friday lunchtime, talking about Empress Dowager Cixi, her new biography of the woman who ruled 19th-century China for 50 years, while among other highlights over the 11-day run are Ray Davies, Stephen Poliakoff, Helen Fielding, Sebastian Faulks, Ian Botham, Allan Mallinson, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Blake, Brian Sewell, Cerys Matthews, Charles Moore, Philip Ziegler, Jonathan Coe and Dominic Sandbrook.

0844 880 8094; cheltenhamfestivals.com, Friday to 14 October