Bestselling author Jonathan Coe is a surprise addition to Bridport Literary Festival this year.

The Middle England writer stepped in at the eleventh hour to fill the slot on Friday, November 6 after Pointless' Richard Osman bowed out.

BridLit director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart said: "We were all very disappointed when Richard Osman had to withdraw from this year's BridLit. His Thursday Murder Club is a hilarious read.

"But we are delighted to welcome award-winning novelist Jonathan Coe whose new book, Mr. Wilder and Me has just been published in time for this year's festival.

"It is a novel based on the declining years of film director Billy Wilder set in Greece and not without a subtle innuendo towards #MeToo."

In the heady summer of 1977, a naïve young woman called Calista sets out from Athens to venture into the wider world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for the famed Hollywood director Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing.

But the time she spends in this glamorous, unfamiliar new life will change her for good.

While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his new film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich for the shooting of further scenes, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history.

Jonathan Coe is the author of 13 novels, all published by Penguin, which include the highly acclaimed bestsellers What a Carve Up!, The House of Sleep, The Rotters' Club, Number 11 and Middle England, which won the Costa Novel of the Year Award and the Prix du Livre Européen.

Coe's event is on Friday, November 6 at 4.30pm in the Electric Palace.

For the full festival line-up and more information, visit bridlit.com . Tickets can also be booked through Bridport Tourist Information Centre on 01308 424901.