The Lincolnshire Echo has kicked off the Lincoln Book Festival 2004, after enjoying success with a similar event last year.

The festival – which runs until the end of May – is due to feature more than 40 events including book readings, talks, workshops, poetry recitals and dinners.

Famous guests will include satirist Sir Clement Freud, comedian Sean Hughes, Radio Four hosts Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis and cricket commentator Henry Blofeld.

In 2003 the Echo ran the Lincolnshire Echo book festival and this year it has teamed up with the City of Lincoln Council and Lincolnshire County Council to run a joint event. The Echo is also the main media sponsor.

Echo editor Mike Sassi, said: “We hope the Lincoln Book Festival will raise the profile of our city – and help aid its cultural and economic development.

“By pooling resources with Lincoln City Council and Lincolnshire County Council, the festival should become something we can all be proud of.”

Tickets are selling fast and the afternoon with children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo has already sold out with two schools on the reserve list for tickets.

Information about the festival in the programme reads: “The aim was to try to have a celebration based around books but also including some of the other art forms that books initiate and inspire – comedy, film, performance, conversation.

“Our programme includes writers and artists of international, national and local repute. Some are household names, others not so well know – but all offer the chance for you to be entertained and inspired by what they do.”