Three distinguished authors will put their literary knowledge to the test as part of this year's star-studded Wimbledon Book Festival.

Actress Juliet Stevenson, TV presenter Clare Balding, comedian Paul Merton and renowned writers Ian McEwan and Alexander McCall Smith, are all part of the line-up.

This year's festival will see Roehampton University lecturer Adam Foulds, Daisy Goodwin and Rachael Johnson discuss which text would most appease them if they were stranded on a desolate desert island, writes Kazim Ukka.

The speakers will have the opportunity to put forward their arguments in favour of their choice of book, explaining their fondness and appreciation of its storyline and ultimately its message.

Foulds says: "Everyone who enjoys a good read will have that one book that influenced them, or made them think, or triggered an emotion, or just made them want to know more about a person or event.

"When I talk to students at Roehampton about their favourite books we have some great and quite inspirational suggestions, so it’s going to be very interesting to see what Wimbledon and Wandsworth people think of our choices."

Fiona Razvi, director of Wimbledon BookFest adds: "To have a line up of three established writers with such different tastes will guarantee a great evening’s discussion, all in the best traditions of Desert Island Discs of course.

"Adam, Rachel and Daisy all have strong opinions on their best ever reads and I’m sure everyone will be looking forward to some great ideas for their own winter reading as a result."

The Desert Island Books discussion is one of more than 60 events at this year’s Wimbledon BookFest, others include film screenings, a literary pub quiz, poetry readings, sports nights, events for schools and numerous literary discussions.

Desert Island Books; Big Tent on Wimbledon Common, Wimbledon; October 5, 8.15pm; £15; visit wimbledonbookfest.org