You may know Brian Cox from his recent incarnation as Logan Roy, the patriarch of the appalling Roy family and founder of the Waystar Royco media leviathan, in the critically acclaimed and hugely successful HBO series Succession.

Perhaps you know him as the first on-screen iteration of Thomas Harris’ serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, or in one of the many Shakespeare roles he has taken on stage such as his award-winning performance as King Lear. You may have read his recent memoir, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat.

But you’ll be able to get to know the Scottish actor even better when he appears at the Melbourne Writers Festival and Sydney’s Antidote this September.

Along with comedian Jenny Slate and author Mohsin Hamid, he is one of three international guests who will appear in person at the writers’ festival when face-to-face sessions return after a two-year hiatus imposed by the pandemic.

Slate is the writer, comedian and actor who had a bestseller with her book Little Weirds and created the Marcel the Shell with Shoes On series of short comic films. Last year Marcel graduated to the big screen in a film featuring Slate, Thomas Mann and Isabella Rossellini.

Hamid has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize – for his second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and his most recent, Exit West. His latest novel, The Last White Man, which begins intriguingly with a man’s skin changing colour, has been compared to Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and will be published in August.

Former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker will also be appearing at the two festivals, albeit by live video cross, to discuss his latest release – a book called Good Pop, Bad Pop, a memoir and meditation on music prompted by objects he found while clearing out his home and billed as “not a life story. It’s a loft story”.

MWF artistic director Michaela McGuire said the four “are just the beginning of an extraordinary line-up” for the festival.