LLANGWM is braced to welcome Rebecca John to this year’s litfest in a year when the talented Welsh painter Gwen John has been so brilliantly celebrated at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.

Rebecca, granddaughter of Augustus John and a talented artist of botanicals in own right, will discuss the mysterious great aunt who was born in Haverfordwest, and trained at the Slade, before eventually settling in Paris. Some believe that Gwen John’s affair with Rodin and the shadow of her brother Augustus, detracted from her reputation, but this year’s exhibition might have changed that. Rebecca has enjoyed rare access to family papers and has decoded Gwen’s colouring scheme. The talk will be an intimate insight into a private person from Haverfordwest who achieved great things, which have withstood the test of time. This event is proudly supported by the London Pembrokeshire Society.

And from North Wales, Llangwm is looking forward to welcoming Miranda Kaufmann, author of Black Tudors and Heiresses. Kaufmann peers beneath our pastel-hued, Jane Austen inspired image of the Georgian heiress to reveal a murky world of inheritance, fortune-hunting and human exploitation. She also unearths the stories of the people the heiresses enslaved, whose labour funded their lifestyles with whom their fates were intimately intertwined.

The mysteries and sleuthing continue with the Venerable Paul Mackness, Archdeacon of St David’s and his talk to mark 50 years since the passing of Agatha Christie. This will be followed by a fancy-dress Death on the Nile-style feast at Llangwm’s SS Sudan (The Cottage Inn). Rumour has it that Haverfordwest’s Bridge Street has already sold out of sequins and pearls.

The festival takes place between August 7 and 9 in Llangwm, Pembrokeshire. For more information on the festival, contact [email protected], or visit the website: www.llangwmlitfest.co.uk .