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Poet and thinker Dante Alighieri wrote one of the seminal works in world literature, The Divine Comedy.  A N Wilson paints a new portrait of the 14th-century writer who has influenced so many writers who have followed. Wilson argues that it is impossible to understand Dante’s great poem without understanding medieval Florence, the feuding Italian states and competition between the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. He also explores Dante’s immortalisation of Beatrice, a woman he greatly admired but barely knew.

Wilson has written 20 novels. The most recent, Winnie and Wolf, was long-listed for the Man Booker in 2007. His non-fiction work includes Tolstoy, Betjeman: A Life, and C S Lewis: A Biography. He will be discussing Tolstoy at a separate event at this year’s festival.