Life on the edge at next month's Senhouse Literary Festival

The festival, at the Senhouse Roman Museum in Maryport, runs from Friday, March 3 to Sunday, March 5.

This year's theme is Living on the Edge, reflecting Roman Maryport's place as the farthest edge of the Roman empire, its place on Hadrian's Wall and its proximity to the sea.

Some of the speakers will definitely reflect that theme.

Eminent landscape photographer Malcolm McGregor will launch the event on Friday evening with his photographic journey into the Namib Desert.

Landscape photographer Malcolm McGregor in the Namib desert (Image: Submitted)

And Sir Brian Donnelly, for instance, was a former ambassador to both Serbia and Zimbabwe under the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe. His talk, 'Diplomacy on the Brink', should recall a fascinating and sometimes frightening life.

READ MORE: The man Robert Mugabe accused of being a spy

His wife Julie Newsome, who taught English as a second language around Europe and Africa, will take her audience on a time travel adventure from modern Cumbria to ancient Greece.

Ambassador to Zimbabwe Sir Brian Donnelly and his wife Julie Newsome who are both guests at this year's Senhouse Literary festival (Image: Tom Kay)

Other tales of adventure and living on the edge will include Alastair McIntosh's grueling 12-day walk through the Hebrides, as outlined in his Poacher's Pilgrimage: a Journey into Land and Soul, while Lee Schofield will look at farming on The Wild Fells.

Fiction, fact, poetry and painting will all feature at in this little festival with a big punch - and sometimes two will be combined, as in the painting and poetry workshop on Friday morning.

With Lord Bragg of Wigton as its patron, the festival has become a fixture on the literary calendar.

For full details of who is on and when, visit the Senhouse Roman Museum website.