Molly Housego will be appearing as Anne during the Boleyn Festival at Blickling Hall that opens today

Tickets are being snapped up for a four-day literary festival which is set to bring the history of Anne Boleyn and her Norfolk connections to life.

The event features activities, talks, performances and displays dedicated to Henry VIII’s second wife and opens today at Blickling Hall. The north Norfolk mansion is widely regarded by historians to be the birthplace of the famous queen and her family had strong links with Norfolk.

The festival will feature several key note speeches and discussions from a number of acclaimed historians and novelists who will be exploring and examining the Boleyns in Norfolk.

A spooky story-telling session will be held on Saturday - the anniversary of Anne’s execution - culminating in a midnight vigil to spot her headless ghost, which is said to haunt the mansion’s grounds.

Among the speakers attending the festival, which runs until Sunday, May 20, are best-selling novelist and historian Alison Weir, Eric Ives, who penned the definitive Anne Boleyn biography, The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth Griffiths of Exeter University, who will examine the family’s links to Blickling.

Tickets for today’s opening talks and Saturday’s activities are sold out but there are still places available for tomorrow and Sunday’s events.

● For more details visit www.boleynfestival.co.uk.