THE 2016 programme for the Chalke Valley History Festival has just been announced with tickets now on sale.

Headlining for the first time this year, will be the historian Niall Ferguson, broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, former Secretary of State Peter Mandelson, biographer Hermione Lee, philosopher AC Grayling, and musician Mark Knopfler.

Also making their debut appearance will be the former Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, former head of the British Army Field Marshall Lord Bramall, political commentator Jonathan Dimbleby, scientist Matt Ridley, television presenter Dan Cruickshank, and former Beirut hostage Terry Waite.

Festival favourites making a welcome return include Max Hastings, Michael Morpurgo, Dan Snow, Suzannah Lipscomb, Ian Hislop, Andrea Wulf, Michael Wood, Tracy Borman, Dan Jones, Alice Roberts, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Charlie Higson.

A festival spokesman said: “Veterans of the Second World War have always been a huge draw at the festival, and this year we are thrilled to be welcoming Herr Günter Halm, a German veteran of North Africa and Normandy and Knight’s Cross winner – awarded to him in person by Field Marshal Rommel in 1942.

“Johnny Johnson, the last surviving Dam Buster, will also be discussing the Dams Raid and his time in Bomber Command, while Joy Hunter, one of Churchill’s wartime secretaries, will be discussing with Andrew Roberts her memories of working for the Prime Minister, plus the incredible events she witnessed and people she met.

“The annual Prospect Debate is bound to be controversial with the motion ‘Trident: Britain’s Nuclear Deterrent Should be Consigned to History’ - contested by Professor Lord Hennessy and Philip Dunne, Minister of State for Defence Procurement against Professor David Edgerton and Kate Hudson, General Secretary of CND - as relevant today as it has ever been.”

Migration will also be discussed by historians Peter Heather and Keith Lowe, as well as Jack Straw, while ‘Baiting the Russian Bear’ is the title of another discussion when writers and opinion formers, Peter Frankopan and Edward Lucas, along with Marina Litvinenko, will discuss the fragile relationship between Russia and The West, chaired by Mary Ann Sieghart.

 The full literary programme of over 140 speakers can be found online at cvhf.org.uk.

The festival runs from June 27 to July 3. It is the largest festival dedicated entirely to history in the UK.