Norwich is known on the world stage for being a UNESCO City of Literature, a prestigious status celebrated in the festival with a special programme of both local and international literary events.

Norwich Evening News: NNF14 - Literary Death Match. Photo: Timothy Faust.NNF14 - Literary Death Match. Photo: Timothy Faust. (Image: Timothy Faust)

The Norfolk and Norwich Festival has teamed up with Writers' Centre Norwich to present an eclectic mix for audiences to enjoy.

Ray Davies, from The Kinks, is among the authors to have already taken to the 2014 festival stage, a Literary Death Match will see authors battle it out with words in the Adnams Spiegeltent tonight, and there are many more events to come including the Harriet Martineau Lecture by novelist Kate Mosse next week and an afternoon with young adult fiction writers Darren Shan and Alexander Gordon Smith.

'What we hope to do is celebrate the city and county while looking out to the wider world,' said Chris Gribble, CEO of Writers' Centre Norwich.

'It's a way of exploring the world through books and through writing. We want to provide a reading adventure - you do not know where you will end up once you start.'

He said among the City of Literature highlights he was looking forward to were Norway's latest literary sensation Karl Ove Knausgaard talking about his My Struggle series, a literature festival in a day celebrating the lives of great women writers, and the Literary Death Match.

Visit www.nnfestival.org.uk