Take a walk round York any night of the week and you are all but guaranteed to bump into a man wearing a top hat and looking a little pale.

Ghost tours have long been big business in the city, but as it prepares to host its second annual literature festival, it is hoping to promote some markedly less macabre chapters in its history.

The Walk Around Literary York is a new addition to the programme and takes people to a series of buildings, streets and other locations that feature in well-known novels, the places they stayed and the scenes which inspired their work.

Museum Gardens

The York-born author Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread prize for Behind the Scenes at the Museum and, while she now lives in Edinburgh, her home city features heavily in her work. She is a fellow of York St John University.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum features the line: "All the trees in the Museum Gardens are now in leaf and high above Bunty's head the sky is solid blue."

York Minster

A literary tour wouldn't be complete without the mention of Charles Dickens. The 19th-century novelist made several visits to York to give public readings of his works, staying with Minster organist John Cammidge and attending Sunday services. Of particular interest is the Minster's Five Sisters window, which is mentioned in Nicholas Nickleby. While there are various theories as to the origins of its name in Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens recounts one of the most popular versions in which five sisters commissioned the window in the 13th-century as a memorial to their late sister.

54 Bootham

Following the centenary celebrations last year, WH Auden's connection with York received international attention. A plaque marks the poet's birthplace in 54 Bootham and he is arguably one of the city's most famous sons. While his most famous poem is Night Mail, his work Funeral Blues reached a mass audience thanks to John Hannah's rendition in the hit film Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Treasurer's House

Laurence Sterne was never far from controversy. The author, nephew of Jacques Sterne, precentor of York Minster and great-grandson of an Archbishop of York, had more than enough inside information when he wrote Political Romance, a scandalous set of stories based on the local clergy. Not surprisingly, the material fell foul of the censors and was swiftly burnt by the church. Undaunted, in 1759 Sterne went on to write Tristram Shandy, which played with the traditional narrative and poked fun at everything from impotence to the military. Partly written when he stayed with his uncle in York, 500 copies were printed in the city and within two months it had become a sensation.

St Mary's Abbey

For many years each of the city's trade guilds would take part in the Mystery Plays in the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. Tied to the Feast of Corpus Christi, the performances took place in late May or early June, but during the Reformation, they were deemed to be a potential hotbed of dissent and were not performed from 1569 onwards. The plays were revived for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and performed on the same site every four years until 1988. In later years, the event has taken place both in York Theatre Royal and the Minister, but discussions are currently ongoing as to whether the plays will be staged again.

The Guildhall

Another literary visitor to York was Daniel Defoe, who began Robinson Crusoe with the line: "I was born in the year 1632 in the city of York of a good family..." A stained glass window in the Guildhall features a figure of Crusoe, in tribute to the author, who also praised the city in A Tour Through The Whole Island of Great Britain.

Coney Street

While now home to the likes of Next and WH Smith, Coney Street has been graced by the presence of some real literary greats.

In the early 1800s Percy Bysshe Shelley stayed there, and later both Anne and Charlotte Brontë visited on their way to Scarborough.

York Literature Festival 2008 runs from Mar 1 to 15 and the literary walk will take place on Mar 8.
Full details of the programme are available at www.york.gov.uk.