Bridport Literary Festival ended on a high at the weekend, with actor Simon Russell Beale charming the audience at the Electric Palace.

The 20th festival was a resounding success, with a record number of events and packed houses in venues in and around the town, and another event – Wayne Sleep next week – still to come.

‘It was a fantastic festival and such a joy to see so many people enjoying the stellar line-up this year,’ director Tanya Bruce-Lockhart said.

‘BridLit comes of age next year and there is plenty to celebrate. From little acorns, big oak trees grow.’

Spawned from the now internationally celebrated Bridport Prize, the festival was conceived as the brainchild of Mark Culme-Seymour, then director of Eype Church Centre of the Arts, who, with Chris Huxley, then director of Bridport Arts Centre, and Tanya, who was director of the Beaminster Festival. Between them, they created, incubated and delivered a programme of literary events for the local community and audiences across West Dorset.

Tanya said: ‘The stature of BridLit is now huge, not just on the local cultural scene but much, much further afield, as our reputation has spread far and wide, with audiences from away planning Dorset breaks around the BridLit date and top writers clamouring to be a part of it.’

Highlights of the week included first generation local farmer and chef Julius Roberts hosting a supper club at Mercato Italiano, Bridport, Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant and award-winning historian, author and broadcaster Bettany Hughes.

Dancer and entertainer Wayne Sleep is at Bridport Electric Palace for a special event on Wednesday 20 November at 2.30pm.

In his memoir, Just Different, Sleep looks back on the extraordinary times through which he has lived.

Despite dancing with ballet legends Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, partying with Freddie Mercury and dancing with Princess Diana – who became a close friend – Sleep has always felt like an outsider. Behind the glitz and glamour, he reveals the difficulties for a working-class, gay man in handling the prejudices of his generation and living through the Aids epidemic.

In conversation with writer and broadcaster, Natalie Wheen, Sleep will convey the many moving and laugh-out-loud stories and gossip on his way to success, fulfilment and love.

Tickets from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online