Two weeks of world-class events at Rye Arts Festival

Running from September 13-29, there will be a packed programme of events to enjoy.

Here are some highlights from the first week:

Saturday, September 14 marks an inaugural cRYmE Day, a festival within a festival where people can meet, listen to and eat with four crime writers – Simon Brett, Martin Edwards, William Shaw and Lynne Truss – and find out their tricks of the trade.

Adam Nicolson returns to Rye Methodist Church on September 17 to talk about his new book The Making of Poetry. He took a year out to go to the Quantocks to research the year 1797-98 when the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth went to stay in the same Somerset landscape.

Sophie Hannah is a bestselling writer of her own fiction, but in 2014 her career took a new turn when she got the blessing of Agatha Christie’s estate to write a new Poirot novel – The Monogram Murders. Find out how Sophie got inside the mind of the sleuth on Thursday, September 19 (7pm).

Moving on to contemporary music, Saturday, September 14 (8pm), serves up a real treat. Nancy Kerr (vocals, fiddle, viola, autoharp and guitar) and James Fagan (vocals, bouzouki, guitar, mandolin and piano) have been showered with awards.

The National Youth Jazz Orchestra makes a welcome return to Rye on Sunday, September 15 (7pm), at the Milligan Theatre, Rye College, with a 24-piece orchestra.