Tribal Voices II, the Senhouse Museum's literary festival in Maryport begins today.

The festival was due to start this morning with a prose writing workshop followed by poetry writing this afternoon.

Lord Melvyn Bragg, festival patron, is due to officially open the festival at 7.30pm when he will talk about his latest book, Now is the Time, inspired by the Peasants' Revolt.

The weekend will provide a huge variety of literature in all its forms. The Lakeland Dialect Society will perform a play tomorrow and a local memoirs group will present some of their writing on Sunday.

Full details can be found on the Senhouse Roman Museum website.