DOWNTON Abbey creator Lord Julian Fellowes lifted the lid on life with the Crawley family and their servants as he made the keynote speech at the 33rd Winchester Writers’ Conference.

His talk ‘We Do Not Know Anything More Than You Do’, took place at Winchester University’s Stripe building and was followed by a series of writers' workshops.

Held every summer, the conference includes talks by literary figures and competitions for aspiring writers, such as short stories and poetry.

This year more than 70 novelists, poets, playwrights, literary agents, commissioning editors and book industry specialists gave workshops, lectures, seminars and one-to-one appointments.

But the event will be the last for its creator and director Barbara Large, who is to step down after this year’s programme, having been at the helm of the conference since its foundation in 1980.

She will be succeeded by Judith Heneghan, who has written more than 40 books for children and has been teaching creative writing at Winchester University since 2006.