TOURISTS and history enthusiasts flocked to Malmesbury to hear talks from famous historians, authors and politicians during the second BBC History Weekend.

The second year of the festival took place from October 16 to October 19 and featured twice the number of speakers and talks, with two new venues added since last year.

A number of events sold out in advance with a few extra tickets being sold on the door and the town was teeming with activity from Thursday to Sunday.

Mayor of Malmesbury Sue Poole was delighted with the event and said that provisional talks about holding the event in the town next year were already underway.

She added: “All the feedback I’ve got from friends and people who have been to talks has been very very positive.

“As far as I know most of the talks were very well supported and there was a tremendous buzz in the town.”

Cllr Poole attended a talk about prisoners of war by Heather Jones on the Saturday of the festival and commended the speaker on her performance.

She said: “Hardly anybody ever mentions or even talks about prisoners of war from the First World War and she gave a very interesting talk which was very well researched.”

Malmesbury resident Tara Heath-Arnold also saw a selection of world class speakers during the weekend, getting tickets to see Hilary Mantel, Tracey Borman, Dan Snow and Dan Jones.

“The whole town was absolutely buzzing over the whole weekend and it was lovely to see so many people and have such high profile speakers in the town” said Tara.

“The choice was just fantastic.”

Lord Paddy Ashdown gave the first talk of the history weekend and also used the opportunity to pay a visit to North Wiltshire’s potential parliamentary candidate for the Lib Dems Brian Mathew.

He described Malmesbury as “An eye-wateringly beautiful little town” and posed for a photo with the town’s Lib Dem candidate.

He praised Brian’s wealth of international experience gained during his career as an aid worker and commended him on his commitment to fighting for the people of Wiltshire.

Speaking about local plans Lord Ashdown explained that he believed the gap between the governed and the government was widening and that giving people the power to make their own decisions through mechanisms like local plans was a good thing.

He concluded: “And if Malmesbury is leading the way on that, good on Malmesbury!”