The HAPPY DAYS Enniskillen International Beckett Festival gets underway this evening with a Festival special event, a reading of Inferno - into the caves, at the Marble Arch Caves, with two events at 7.30pm and 9.30pm.

It kickstarts another five days of literary events across Fermanagh as the Festival, the world's largest annual multi-arts celebration of Irish Nobel Prize writer, Samuel Beckett.

Venues for readings contrast from the dining hall of Portora Royal School where Beckett was educated to the isolated islands of Lower Lough Erne where will be readings by Miranda Richardson, John Hegley, Adrian Dunbar and Anna Nygh, and Ronnie Golden. Labelled Purgatorio as part of the Dante's Divine Comedy theme for the festival, the sailings will be accompanied by a breakfast of black tea and dry toast, except for the Sunday trip to Paris Island when audiences will be served coffee and croissants.

Other Tellers, including Diana Quick, Juliet Stevenson, Neil Pearson, Frank Skinner, Miranda Richardson and Patrick McCabe, present some of Beckett's Tales, such as Dante and the Lobster, Worstward Ho, Fizzles, Fingal, Company and Ill Seen Ill Said at locations such as the kitchen and a bedroom in Castle Coole; a room in Enniskillen Police Station, a classroom at Beckett's old school, Portora Royal and on the stage sets of two ongoing productions at the festival.

This is the second year of the festival which is funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

For full festival listings and to book go to www.happy-days-enniskillen.com or call 00 44 28 6632 5000