Some alternate-history novels have envisioned a separate Texas, notably 1990's "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, which explores what might have happened to the world had computers been perfected in Britain a century earlier.

WSJ: In Texas, the Secession Movement Blooms in Fiction

The court heard on Monday how Bruce's friend William Davies took the gun and used it to kill Llangadog pub landlady Caroline Evans in February.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | Murder gun owner is fined

Ian Hutchinson, Bruce Anstey, Guy Martin, Adrian Archibald, Martin Finnegan, William Dunlop and Ryan Farquhar are among the other big names expected to compete at the meeting.

BBC: UGP 125cc race given full status