A British adventure athlete who swam around Sark and two top football writers who have come together to write about on the Manchester United/Liverpool rivalry are among the many speakers coming to Guernsey to speak at the Guernsey Literary Festival.

Laura Kennington is an adventure athlete, author and speaker with a passion for the endurance capability of the human body. Previous adventures include kayaking a section of the Volga River in Russia, solo cycling the world's longest coastal route in Ireland, running the length of Fuerteventura in four days and circumnavigating three of the Channel Islands using three different sporting disciplines. Guernsey and its wonderful open water swimming community feature in her book Kairos as part of Laura’s Channel Islands adventure.

‘I was new to open water swimming (and long distance swimming in general) when I came up with the Channel Islands Triathlon. Fortunately for me, I was put in touch with local swimmer and all round wonderful human being Adrian Sarchet,’ she says.

‘From there I was quickly welcomed into the enthusiastic and incredibly supportive swimming community of Guernsey. Adrian's generosity didn't stop there as he actually swam around the island of Sark with me, too!’

Laura’s talk, which is supported by Vive La Valette, is on Friday 12 May at the Princess Royal Centre for Performing Arts from 6 to 7pm. Tickets and more details of all the Festival events are available from the website guernseyliteraryfestival.com.

The rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United has been described as the ‘fiercest rivalry in world football’, a point of view endorsed by football writers Phil McNulty and Jim White in their book Red on Red.

One of them is a scouser and the other a Manc, so this is a rare collaboration, and the book addresses the divide by talking to those involved in 10 seminal football matches.

It speaks to the characters who patrolled and provoked the rivalry: Sir Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Gary Neville, among many others. Also questioned are the fans, the administrators, the referees, the police and politicians. And through each legendary game, its authors tell the full story of the most extraordinary division not just in football, but in modern Britain.

Phil McNulty has been BBC Sport’s chief football writer since 2000 and has covered five World Cups and Five European Championships. He also does analysis for BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 4 and the World Service.

Jim White worked at the Independent, the Guardian and has covered major sporting events for the Daily Telegraph since 2003. He is a Manchester United supporter and writes a regular column for fanzines United We Stand and The Telegraph. He also writes articles for Yahoo! Eurosport. The event will be chaired by Tony Curr of the Guernsey Press.

Phil and Jim’s talk Red on Red, sponsored by St Pierre Park Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, is at the St Pierre Park Hotel, Spa and Golf resort on Thursday 11 May from 7.30 – 8.30 pm. Tickets are available from the Guernsey Literary Festival website guernseyliteraryfestival.com.