Booking now open for Lichfield Literature Festival 2026
Lichfield Literature Festival is back for its 20th year, to inspire, inform and entertain!
As always, we are joined by a star-studded line-up of award-winning writers from the worlds of history, politics, science, the arts, current affairs and fiction. Festival favourites Tracy Borman and Alison Weir return, alongside first visits for broadcasting royalty, John Suchet, and comedians Rob Newman and Pierre Novellie. Political insight aplenty comes via former Tory Chief Whip, Simon Hart, Guardian sketch-writer and satirist John Crace and distinguished historian Professor Vernon Bogdanor.
One of the books of 2025 sees us welcome Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s biographer, Andrew Lownie, with further insight on the related trial of Ghislaine Maxwell from lawyer and journalist, Lucia Osborne-Crowley. Other biography events include Robert Colls’ study of George Orwell, and a celebration of the tercentenary of architect Sir John Vanbrugh (Charles Saumarez Smith), with arts and heritage also featured in stonemason Andrew Ziminski’s paean to the churches of the British Isles. Other history events look at key periods in Britain both between the wars (Alwyn Turner) and afterwards (Tom McTague), alongside a riveting history of post-war East Germany in Katja Hoyer’s Beyond the Wall.
If the life scientific is your preferred reading, then three thought-provoking books should catch your eye: Arthur Snell and Tim Minshall look, respectively, at how climate change and our obsession with mass manufacturing affect the way we live, and award-winning neurologist, Masud Husain, delves into the mysteries of the human brain. Meanwhile, if you’re a foodie, craving further epicurean excitement for 2026, then Ben Benton’s chef’s tour of Britain should sate your literary hunger.
There’s something for everybody at this year’s Festival. Please do book early to avoid disappointment and we’ll look forward to seeing you in March.