A starry line-up of authors brought the literati to Cedars Hall in Wells for the opening weekend of the Wells Festival of Literature. So far more than 6,000 tickets have been sold for the nine-day event.

Several of the weekend's talks were sell-outs, including Sunday night's literature quiz at the White Hart, the first in the festival's 31-year history, and a book group event with the author Donal Ryan.

First up on Friday was Labour shadow minister Wes Streeting, a funny and fluent speaker who confessed to being a great fan of karaoke and regaled the audience with tales of his colourful family.

Wes Streeting (Photo: Jo Shepherd)

On a more serious note he spoke of gay and trans issues being used as a political wedge, child poverty and the importance of fostering enquiring minds through education.

The audience could happily have kept him there all evening, but Will Gompertz was next up with an illuminating talk on artistic perception – another entertaining speaker that led to his book See What You're Missing promptly selling out at Waterstones' on-site pop-up shop.

While Chris Patten and Polly Toynbee were both Saturday night sell-outs, it was Robin Ince, co-presenter with Brian Cox of radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage, who was that afternoon's star turn.

Robin Ince (Photo: Jo Shepherd)

The speed-talking stand-up comic bounced on stage with a pile of books purchased at Wells market that morning and enthused about the delights in his second-hand trove – even handing out some of the books to members of the audience.

Don't finish reading a book if it doesn't give you joy, he said, and ended with the advice that everyone should write of their own experiences so that they leave behind some wonderful stories.

And wonderful stories was what we got all weekend from a variety of speakers ranging from the priesthood to the medical world and from biography to engineering.

Engineer Roma Agrawal – designer of her own iconic geared earrings (as well as the rather bigger London's Shard building) – spent the Covid lockdown looking into the history and culture behind seven such tiny items in everyday use.

Who knew that such mundane items as the humble nail – once considered precious – could have a fascinating backstory? Or that the first successful dishwasher was designed by a woman in 1839?

Pop-up Waterstones at the festival (Photo: Jo Shepherd)

While Roma was riveting, if you'll pardon the pun, it was theatre director Dominic Dromgoole who brought the house down on Sunday night as the house erupted with cheers.

His were fascinating stories of first nights – theatrical, musical and artistic – of success and disaster across the world, and of the effect some of these had.

It was a great end to a fantastic weekend – and there's more to come every day during the week and on Saturday 4 November when the festival ends.