A five-day celebration of all things literary has begun with the launch of this year's Lincoln Book Festival.

The wide range of genres, events, speakers and workshops means the festival has something for everyone.

First of the guest speakers was BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner whose talk about his new book Far Horizons saw the Lincoln Drill Hall sell out yesterday.

"This book is a celebration of intrepid travel to unusual places," said Mr Gardner.

Mr Gardner, who was shot while on assignment in Saudi Arabia in 2004, first came to the book festival in 2006 to promote his debut book Blood and Sand.

"It was one of the first events we did and it was a real pleasure to meet the audience after spending my time in the studio and that is why I love coming somewhere like this," he said.

"I went around the castle and the cathedral and I thought it was really impressive."

The festival has grown in popularity every year and now involves a number of venues in the city.

It will run until Sunday, with a whole host of events planned every day, including celebrations of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 200th birthday.

Arts and cultural sector officer for the City of Lincoln Council, Sara Bullimore, said: "We took the decision to make it five days instead of 10 so we could have even more events going on at once and involve lots of different partners.

"People think that because it is a book festival it is an academic thing but there are all different types of writing celebrated including fiction, non-fiction newspaper writing and writing for the stage."

For more on the Lincoln Book Festival, see Thursday's Echo.