Cheltenham Literature Festival sets ticket sale record‎

JK Rowling is among the famous names at this year's festival

A record number of tickets for the Cheltenham Literature Festival have been sold for this year's event.

Organisers say 126,000 tickets have been sold so far. A total of 119,000 were sold during the whole festival last year.

Famous names such as JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie, Michael Palin, Kofi Annan and Sir Roger Moore will appear at events in the town over the next 10 days.

Festival director Jane Furze said: "Ticket sales are absolutely amazing."

Other authors due to speak about their works include PD James, Ian Rankin, Sir Terry Pratchett and Ian McEwan.