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2017 Festival

See our 2017 speakers

2017 Gallery

All photos by Charles Glover

2017 Speakers

Here is a list of the speakers who appeared at the Wells Festival of Literature in 2017

EventSpeaker/sSubject
Talk at Wells CathedralSimon JenkinsEngland's Cathedrals
In Conversation Nick Clegg and Jonathan RugmanPolitics: between the Extremes
In ConversationMike Brearley with Mark HamlinOn Form
TalkAC GraylingThe Age of Genius
TalkAdam RutherfordThe Stories in our Genes
TalkJohn BoyneThe Heart's Invisible Furies
In ConversationSusan Beale and Helen Stevenson with Emma CraigeThe use of memoir in fact and fiction
In ConversationAlan Johnson with Jackie LongThe Long and Winding Road
In ConversationAndy Hamilton with Max CottonThe Star Witness
Book Group EventSarah PerryThe Essex Serpent
TalkMartin Brown Illustrating Children's Books
PoetryGillian ClarkeZoology
PerformanceLocal wordsmithsWrite Up! Speak Up!
TalkAnne SebbaLes Parisiennes in the 1940s
TalkJohn McAvoyRedemption: from Iron Bars to Iron Man
Performance poetryHollie McNishPlum
TalkTessa HadleyBad Dreams and other stories
TalkMatt FreiDonald Trump and American Politics
TalkDaisy GoodwinVictoria: A Novel of a Young Queen
TalkAndrew MartinNight Trains: the Rise and Fall of the Sleeper
TalkJoanna MoorheadThe Surreal Life of Joanna Carrington
TalkDr Scilla EllworthyThe Business case for Peace
In ConversationDavid Goodhart with Paul BroksThe Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics
TalkFergal KeaneWounds: a memoir of love and war
TalkGraham TomlinLuther's Gospel: Reimagining the World
TalkRebecca FraserThe Mayflower Generation
TalkWilliam and Caroline WaldegraveThe Heseltines' garden at Thenford (and other anecdotes)
PoetryOwen SheersThe Green Hollow
In ConversationPeter Gordon and Rowley Leigh with Caroline WaldegraveSavour: Salads for all Seasons
In ConversationHelen Rappaport with Jamie CoomarasamyCaught in the Revolution
TalkMalcolm GuiteA Visionary Landscape: Coleridge in the West Country
In ConversationHarriet Harman with Lois RogersA Woman's Work
In ConversationStephen Westaby with Dr Rachel ClarkeFragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon's Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table
TalkHelen CzerskiStorm in a Teacup:
The Phyics of Everyday Life