If reading is a pastime that truly floats your boat, this is a ship you’ll want to board with haste. The Cunard and Cheltenham Literature Festival at Sea is drawing in book lovers, and an impressive line-up of authors, for a unique voyage.

In collaboration with The Times and Sunday Times, the literature festival afloat will bring Ian Rankin, Alexander McCall Smith, Prue Leith, Joanne Harris, Simon Armitage, and Pam Ayers, among others, along for the seven-night ride.

The festival begins on 1 December 2020, and includes a seven-day program of literary events, talks and workshops aboard the Queen Mary 2, which will set sail from Southampton to New York.

Prue Leith said, “It’s been a dream to cross the pond on the Queen Mary 2. I love literary festivals because the audience are interesting readers, and one’s fellow speakers are, like me, delighted to take a break from solitary writing and join the chatting, eating, drinking real world — if a luxury liner par excellence can be called the real world.”

Related travel news: 2020 vision: here’s the cruising trends you can expect to see at sea next year.