Event Programme: confirmed authors for our two-day Festival on 10th & 11th October 2025.
Event Programme: confirmed authors for our two-day Festival on 10th & 11th October 2025.
Joanna Quinn in Conversation
Joanna will be talking about her debut bestselling novel, ‘The Whalebone Theatre’.
Michelle Ogundehin and Alice Vincent in Conversation
At the festival Michelle and Alice will be in conversation talking about their books and the process of writing for wellbeing.
Happy Inside: How to Harness the Power of Home for Health and Happiness by Michelle Ogundehin
Hark: How women Listen' and 'Why Women Grow' by Alice Vincent.
Julia Raeside and Joel Morris
Author and journalist Julia Raeside will be in conversation about her brilliant new novel ‘Don’t Me Laugh’ with comedian and writer Joel Morris, author of ‘Be Funny or Die’ and co author of the Ladybird Books for Grown-ups series.
Non-Fiction Creative Writing Workshop with Lulah Ellender
Lulah’s first book, Elisabeth’s Lists, was published by Granta in 2018 and her second, Grounding: Finding home in a garden (Granta), came out in April 2022.
Professor James Stevens Curl
Professor James Stevens Curl has established an international reputation for wit combined with compassion, thoroughness of research, and lucidity of style. He is the author of many scholarly books, including major studies of Georgian, Victorian, and Modern Architecture. On the occasion of its annual Prizes & Medals Ceremony (2017), the British Academy awarded him the President’s Medal for “outstanding service to the cause of the humanities and social sciences” in his wider study of the History of Architecture, covering a vast range of periods and topics, in Britain and Ireland. The event at the museum sees the launch of the Professor’s new book ‘The Life and Work of Thomas Downes Wilmot Dearn’.
Seth Insua
Seth will be telling the audience about his debut novel, Human, Animal which has been chosen as a BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick for 2025.
Michael J Warren and Alex Preston in Conversation
Alex and Michael will be in conversation about their shared love of birds, nature and literature.
Sarah Winman and Vanessa Nicolson in Conversation
Sarah and Vanessa will talk about their passion for Florence, their love of history and storytelling referencing Still Life and Angels of Mud.
Adele Parks in Conversation
Adele will in conversation about her new book ‘Our Beautiful Mess’, which is published in September. This explosive and deeply emotional family drama explore the lengths a parent will go to protect a child - there’s nothing stronger than a woman whose family is under threat.
An Evening with Clare Chambers
Clare Chambers’s first job after university was working for Diana Athill at André Deutsch. Her first novel Uncertain Terms was published in 1992 and she is the author of eight other novels. Small Pleasures, published in 2022, became a word-of-mouth hit on publication, was selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers book club and for BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime, and was selected as a Book of the Year by The Times, the Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Spectator, Metro, Red and Good Housekeeping. It also won Pageturner of the Year Award at the British Book Awards 2022 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021. Her new novel Shy Creatures is published this August.
The Reverend Richard Coles in Conversation
Richard Coles is a writer, broadcaster and an Anglican priest. He co-presented Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 for eleven years and appears, from time to time, on QI, Have I Got News For You, and Would I Lie To You? He has won Christmas Masterchef, Celebrity Mastermind twice, and captained Leeds to victory in Christmas University Challenge in 2019. A contestant on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017, he scored a lamentably low mark for a Paso Doble.
For mobility access please use the Jockey Lane car park if you can and follow the left hand path around the church which will take you to your entrance. Otherwise someone will direct you to the accessible entrance.
Purchasing books will be available at our event bookshop.
An Evening with Crime Writer Elly Griffiths
Acclaimed crime author Elly Griffiths worked in publishing before becoming a full-time writer. She is best known for her award-winning Dr Ruth Galloway series and The Brighton Mystery series. In 2018, Elly wrote her first standalone novel The Stranger Diaries. The novel was a top 10 paperback bestseller, selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club, as a summer 2019 Richard and Judy book and won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in the USA. Her second standalone The Postscript Murders followed, and her third standalone Bleeding Heart Yard was published to glowing reviews in October 2022.
Purchasing books will be available at our event bookshop.
