The brains behind Port Elliot Festival have organised a series of free literary events in Helston, the first of which features special guests who will discuss the connection between exploration and the written word.

Award-winning author Philip Marsden will be joined by historian Huw Lewis-Jones and explorer Kari Herbert, who will be discussing their co-authored book, Explorer's Sketchbooks.

The first of the 'Word Nights' events, organised by Colin Midson who organises the literary programme at Port Elliot Festival, will be held on Saturday, January 21.

Admission to the event is free of charge, and will be held at CAST Café on Penrose Road in Helston, who will be offering a £10 supper after the event.

Huw Lewis-Jones is a historian, editor, broadcaster and formerly a Curator of Art at the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.

Kari Herbert is the daughter of polar explorer Sir Wally Herbert and spent the first few years of her life living on a remote island in the Arctic with the Polar Inuit of Northwest Greenland, and has continued to travel extensively ever since.

Together they have co-authored a book which was released in September 2016, which brings to life the accounts of intrepid explorers and visionaries.

At the event at CAST the duo will be talking about the relationship between exploration and the written word.

Philip Marsden is the award-winning author of a number of works of travel, fiction and non-fiction, including The Bronski House, The Spirit-Wrestlers and The Levelling Sea.

His most recent book, Rising Ground, tells the story of a walk through Cornwall from Bodmin Moor to Land's End, exploring the idea of place and the relationship to landscape.

During the evening at CAST Mr Marsden will be reading from a work in progress, and will talk about some of his encounters along the way.