Tickets are going fast for Bridport Literary Festival, with some events selling out within hours of going on sale at the end of August.

A dazzling line-up of writers is set to brighten the dark days of winter when the 19th annual festival takes place between November 5 and 11 at venues all over the town.

Said BridLit director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart: "Talks by broadcasters Clive Myrie and Jeremy Bowen have already sold out, as has the book club event with author Patrick Gale, which has been switched from the Bull Hotel ballroom to Bridport Arts Centre because there is so much interest."

Jon Woolcott's homage to the county, Real Dorset, is proving popular with audiences and is another sell-out, as is Tracy Borman with Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I, a story of the mother daughter relationship which sheds new light on two of the most famous women in history.

But there are plenty of other events to suit all tastes.

On Sunday, November 11, cricketing legend Mike Brearley will be at the Electric Palace looking back on a lifetime of the sport from joyful childhood games to his captaincy in the 1981 Ashes, leading England to one of their most famous victories.

A trained psychoanalyst, Brearley's memoir, Turning Over the Pebbles, is full of his private passions as he reflects on an extraordinary life and career.

Keggie Carew, who is at BridLit at the Bull Ballroom on 7 November, has been shortlisted for The Wainwright Prize in the writing on conservation category for her book, Beastly: A New History of Animals and Us.

The book is about the 40,000-year story of our changing kinship with the animal world – from the smallest microbe to the largest creature that ever lived. Exploring this relationship through history, culture, science and inspiring examples, Carew makes the case that animals are the key to the planet's health, but only if we can save them.

In her book, The Seaside: England's Love Affair, Madeleine Bunting explores England's great coastal resorts to understand their origins and their heyday, their ongoing influence and their current struggle to survive.

Says the Guardian: "The author's love of English coastal resorts shines through in this sharp and deeply moving study of the places that symbolise this country's decline."

She will be at the Bull Ballroom on Thursday, November 9.

Husband and wife broadcasters Peter Snow and Ann MacMillan's Kings & Queens: The Real Lives of the English Monarchs will be under the spotlight when they give a talk, hosted by The Sir John Colfox Academy, on Thursday 9 November.

Never has there been such intense interest in Britain's royal family and speculation about its very survival, yet unlike most other royal dynasties around the world, somehow the British monarchy has survived the ravages of history. 

Max Porter returns to BridLit on Tuesday, November 7 at the Bull Ballroom in conversation with Jon Woolcott. His new novel, Shy, is described by the Guardian as "stylistically unorthodox, a little mystical, with a big heart and a small page count".

About a young delinquent boy facing up to a harsh life in 1995, Shy was chosen as the Guardian's book of the week.

Described by The Telegraph as a "witty and perceptive" writer, Amanda Craig will be talking about her ninth novel, The Three Graces, on Friday, November 10 at Bridport Arts Centre.

It brings back a family trio: three elderly expat women in the last decade of their lives, teetering on the brink – with four breasts, five eyes and three hip replacements between them – and determined to make more than the best of things.

The Telegraph call it a "smartly-plotted but ultimately lightweight holiday read".

Tickets for all BridLit events can be booked through Bridport Tourist Information Centre in Bucky Doo Square, telephone 01308 424901.