Sarah Smyth, Artistic Director

This year's Times Cheltenham Literature Festival puts the family at centre stage: how does it shape who we are and how we live, read and write? We ask why particular families became dynasties shaping entire nations, and explore the myriad uses to which writers have put their family experiences.

As we approach the US elections in turbulent economic times we welcome leading commentators and thinkers, from Nicholas Nassim Taleb and A.C. Grayling to Jeffrey Sachs and Asne Seierstad. Other features include an exploration with the RSC of the challenges of staging Shakespeare, spellbinding performances from some of Europe's most captivating storytellers and Writing Medicine, our series investigating the fascinating relationship between medicine and literature.

Fiction and poetry are as ever at the heart of the Festival, and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Man Booker Prize, five past winners - John Banville, Ben Okri, Penelope Lively, D.B.C. Pierre and Graham Swift - perform exclusive new work. We also welcome writers from all over the world, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, David Guterson, and in a special post-Festival event, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Finally, no Festival would be complete without Book It!, our fun-filled children's extravaganza - this year bigger than ever.

With more than 450 writers and some 350 events, join us for a ten-day celebration of the pleasures of reading, writing and thinking aloud.

Kate Adie, Guest Director, October 11-12

As a longstanding visitor to the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, I'm delighted to be returning this year to programme my own series of events over the first weekend of the Festival.

During my two days at Cheltenham I'll be talking to a range of writers and thinkers, asking them to consider - or perhaps confront - the blue pencil of political correctness. Among the questions we'll be tackling: just how did we erect new barriers to expression? Out of enlightenment or fear of offending? Political correctness was meant to promote equality - some, however, argue that it has turned language into a minefield. Edward Stourton will be discussing It's a PC World: What it Means to Live in a Land Gone Politically Correct, his fascinating new book about the pros and cons of PC behaviour.

There'll also be firm views from Clarissa Dickson Wright, while Nick Cohen, author of the acclaimed What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way, will be considering the prospect of a politically correct future. And does “suitable” language bother the contributors to the BBC Radio 4's much-loved From Our Own Correspondent - Misha Glenny and Mark Mardell?

I'll be talking to them both as well as the programme's producer Tony Grant, in search of a suitable answer.

It is sure to be a weekend of outspoken, provocative and enjoyable debate with some of the most interesting and controversial voices around today.

Ian Rankin, Guest Director, October 18-19

1968 is one of my favourite years.

I was only eight at the time, but I appreciate the music, film and literature that came out of that period of social and cultural turmoil.

Forty years on, my weekend of curating at Cheltenham will see some of my favourite authors, performers, thinkers and doers look back to notions of censorship, sex, and the taboo, as well as looking forward at the future of the written word and the so-called “creative industries”.

There will be art, crime, dissent and even, perhaps, a helping of controversy. It should be fun.

The Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, October 10-19
Book tickets on 0844 5767979 or at cheltenhamfestivals.com

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