News

The 2024 Festival starts on Friday 18 October but if you were in Cedars Hall on 11 July, you might well have thought it had already begun! Those who were lucky enough to be invited to a packed Cedars Hall enjoyed a foretaste of what lies ahead. Mike Gunton, Creative Director of the BBC Natural […]

With only a few months left until this year’s Festival gets under way, activity behind the scenes is already evident. For a start, entries are flying into our International Competitions. The closing date for all four categories is 30 June – so get creating as soon as you can. The prize money is extremely generous! […]

The 31st Wells Festival of Literature is now over but it has left us some wonderful memories, every one of them different. Wes Streeting, who led the way with the opening event, featured on many ‘Top Ten’ lists.  So did Robin Ince, Chris Patten and Emily Kenway – all of them appearing on that first […]

As a Festival of Literature our chief passion, obviously, is for words! But there are occasions when figures speak louder and, as the countdown to the opening of the Festival gathers momentum, we thought we would share some of those numbers: 1 venue, 35 events, 36 speakers, 12 interviewers, 15 Competition Prizewinners, 18 sponsors, 5738 […]

Tania Branigan has now been shortlisted for two of the most prestigious prizes in the business: the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction and the equally influential Cundill History Prize. This is a magnificent achievement, particularly for a debut work, and we are looking forward to Tania’s event with renewed anticipation!  But Red Memory is by […]

When the speakers were announced a few months ago the Festival seemed a long way off. Even when tickets went on sale in July it seemed too easy to ‘wait until summer was over’. Summer is well and truly over and sadly there are too many would-be ticket-buyers who are now regretting those moments of […]

The programme is confirmed and made public; the brochure has appeared and can be picked up almost anywhere; ticket sales have got off to a racing start.  What more is there to say? A brilliant addition to the line-up – that’s what! Richard Mainwaring, the ‘frequency guy’ who made an unforgettable impact with Everybody Hertz at last year’s […]

The 2023 Festival starts on 27 October but on 4 July guests in a packed Cedars Hall enjoyed a foretaste of what lies ahead. Friends and supporters of the Festival were treated to a wonderfully inspiring conversation between Mariella Frostrup and Sarah LeFanu which covered a huge range of topics – from leaving school at […]

Somerset resident and one of the UK’s most recognised cultural critics, Mariella Frostrup is the natural choice to launch our 31st Festival! Having spent 20 years presenting Open Book on BBC Radio 4, she now helms a current affairs and culture show on @TimesRadio which airs at lunchtime on Monday to Thursday.  Mariella has also […]

As you can probably guess from Jo Shepherd’s comprehensive pictorial round-up of our 30th Anniversary Festival, it was a record-breaking event – and hugely welcome. Although we were proud of the fact that we kept the Festival going through the past two Covid-affected ‘lean years’, we were understandably saddened by the empty seats in Cedars […]