The Isle of Wight Literary Festival starts next Thursday and will welcome a wide range of speakers over four days.

Based primarily at Northwood House, the long-running event has a feast of talks to choose from, featuring many famous faces and big names in the world of literature.

Here's some of the top picks:

THE REAL PRIME SUSPECT: FROM THE BEAT TO THE SCREEN. MY LIFE AS A FEMALE DETECTIVE

Jackie Malton, the inspiration for legendary TV detective Jane Tennison in Lynda La Plante’s Prime Suspect, joined the police force in the 1970s. It was the time of sex segregation in the police force. Male recruits were given truncheon; female recruits received a handbag and were assigned social work duties. But Malton desperately wanted to become a detective.

Feisty and determined, Malton made her way into some of the most male-dominated departments of the police force. She worked in CID and the famous flying squad before rising to become one of the only three female detective chief inspectors in the Metropolitan Police. Malton will describe the struggles she faced as an openly gay woman in the Metropolitan Police, where sexism and homophobia were rife.

A chance meeting with writer Lynda La Plante changed the course of her life. Together they worked on shaping Jane Tennison, one of TV’s most famous police characters, in the ground-breaking series Prime Suspect. 

UNLAWFUL KILLINGS: LIFE, LOVE AND MURDER: TRIALS AT THE OLD BAILEY

Wendy Joseph KC recently stepped down as one of only a handful of judges qualified to preside over murder trials at the Old Bailey. And one of the few female ones at that.

For the first time, she can talk about what it’s really like presiding over and ruling on life-changing cases. Through six extraordinary stories, Joseph will explore why we kill, what happens in court and what this teaches us about the society we live in.

Joseph has presided over many of the high-profile cases that all too often grab our attention in dramatic media headlines. 

Joseph will describe how cases unfold and illustrate exactly what it’s like to be a murder trial judge and a witness to human good and bad. 

RUSKIN PARK: SYLVIA, ME AND THE BBC

Rory Cellan-Jones knew he was the child of a love affair between two BBC employees.

But until his mother died and he found a file labelled “For Rory” he had no idea of the extent of their relationship, and why his unconventional childhood had so tested the bond between him and his mother.

What Cellan-Jones uncovered in the papers, letters and diaries is a romantic relationship between Sylvia and James, the restrictive forces of post-war respectability and the prejudice that ended it.

MICHAEL MORPURGO’S TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE

Michael Morpurgo will present the re-tellings of ten of Shakespeare’s plays, beautifully written with Morpurgo’s warm, accessible, and inimitable style. A perfect introduction to the Bard, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo an Juliet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Winter’s Tale.

OLD RAGE

Now in her ninth decade, funny, feisty, honest Sheila Hancock, who was born in Shanklin, will be brilliant company as she talks about her life as a daughter, a sister, a mother, a widow, an actor, a friend and looks at a world so different from the wartime world of her childhood.  

She will reflect on our changing world from the passing of Queen Elizabeth II to the rise and fall of Liz Truss and more revelations on life. Hancock will explain that despite age, despite rage, there are always reasons for joy.

THE ACCIDENTAL DUCHESS: FROM FARMER’S DAUGHTER TO BELVOIR CASTLE

Her Grace, Duchess of Rutland will be delving into her past to share her extraordinary journey from Welsh farmer’s daughter to becoming the Duchess of Rutland.

She discloses the hard work and determination that is needed to run and to maintain a successful working Estate, alongside raising her five children.

THE RUSSIAN CONUNDRUM: HOW THE WEST FELL FOR PUTIN’S POWER GAMBIT – AND HOW TO FIX IT

Martin Sixsmith will tell the story of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once a successful oil tycoon and one of the richest men in Russia, Khodorkovsky spoke out against the corruption of Putin’s regime and was punished by the Kremlin, stripped of his entire wealth, and jailed for over ten years.

Khodorkovsky is now free and working as a pro-democracy campaigner in enforce exile.

Sixsmith will discuss the current situation in Russia – the call for Putin’s removal from power; the growing disillusionment of the Russian population; and the need for the West to support Ukraine by increasing the supply of weapons and block the assets of Putin’s collaborators.