The Wells Festival of Literature will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with two powerful accounts of survival and espionage.

Historian Anne Sebba will share the extraordinary story behind her book The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz, which tells of the 50 women and girls forced to perform music in the concentration camp to stay alive. The orchestra played both for the labourers and, chillingly, for the Nazi officers in charge.

Sebba's talk will explore how these women found the strength to play for the perpetrators of genocide in a place designed for death.

Also appearing is Tim Willasey-Wilsey, a former Foreign Office diplomat, who will discuss his book The Spy and the Devil — a newly uncovered account of Baron de Ropp, MI6's top agent in Nazi Germany during the 1930s. De Ropp had direct access to Hitler and offered rare insight into the Nazi regime, shaping British intelligence efforts before the war.

Both events are part of the October programme for this year's festival, which promises another packed line-up of speakers, authors and experts.

Friends of the Festival will receive early access to tickets, discounts, and an invite to a special event with Professor Danielle Schreve from the University of Bristol, who will discuss fossil finds in a Mendip cave system.

More details and ticket information are available at www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk.