• Small boats, big Hearts

    We Came By Sea, by Horatio Clare, gives a different side to the small boats crisis from the one we…

  • Top award for Masud Husain

    Festival speaker, neurologist Masud Husain, has won the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize for his book Our Brains,…

  • justice for war crimes

    Will we ever see Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu on trial, asks Steve Crawshaw in  Prosecuting the Powerful. As someone…

  • Pre-Festival orders at Waterstones

    Pop up to Waterstones in Wells High Street to pre-order copies of books by any of the speakers you look…

  • The Lost Girls of Autism

    Why is the history of autism male? This is a question asked by neuroscientist Gina Rippon whose eponymous book delves…

  • Collision of destinies

    Troubled minds and dysfunctional families meet head on in Edward St Aubyn’s latest book Parallel Lines, a sequel to his…

  • Passion in Love and Art

    Artists through the ages have been inspired by love, whether in the throes of an affair or the pain of…

  • This Book Is The Business

    Congratulations to innovative academic Tim Minshall who has been long listed for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of…

  • From night owls to nightshifts

    Nightmares, nightshifts and night owls all get a mention in Dan Richards‘ fascinating book Overnight in which he travels, goes…

  • Regency romp revisited

    Comedian Rachel Parris, best known for her TV appearances on The Mash Report and Late Night Mash, brings some racy…