News
Read all the news from the Wells Festival of Literature. If you would like to be kept up to date with news from the Festival, please subscribe to our newsletter.
2020 Festival: Reaching New Audiences
June 23 2020This year’s record-breaking International Competitions (most ever entries, biggest prize-money) have been leading the way for our 2020 Festival by attracting more entries from more countries than ever before. And with October not far away, our plans for the Festival itself look set to copy that pattern by also making our superb programme more widely […]
2020 Festival: Book Group Event Confirmed
June 14 2020We are delighted to announce that Max Porter will be our author for the Festival’s ever popular Book Group Event, due to take place at 2.30pm on Sunday 18 October. Max’s first book Grief is the Thing with Feathers attracted a string of accolades and awards, including Young Writer of the Year. His second, Lanny, […]
2020 Festival: First Speaker Announced
May 13 2020With the current situation still so uncertain, we would like to reassure you of one certainty: our intention is still to hold our annual festival – our 28th – one way or another. We have already almost finalised the programme and to illustrate our determination, we are announcing one of our speakers here and now! […]
2020 International Competitions: Now Open
April 1 2020The first day of April is a very familiar date! But as far as Wells Festival of Literature is concerned, that’s because it’s the day our competitions traditionally open. And this year, despite all the change and uncertainty around us, is no exception – we are delighted to declare our competitions officially open. Entries can […]
2019 Festival: Starts with Pizzaz!
October 19 2019The 27th Wells Festival of Literature opened yesterday evening with a packed audience at a sell-out event – Diarmaid MacCulloch’s fascinating revelations about Thomas Cromwell. Following the life of Cromwell, we were treated to the life of Johnny Normal, brought to us by his dad Henry. This brilliant and inspirational talk about life with an […]
2019 Festival: Change of Speaker
October 14 2019We are sorry to report that Peter Hennessy, who was due to speak at a Literary Lunch on Friday 25 October, has had to pull out of the Festival for health reasons. Lord Hennessy was due to discuss his book Winds of Change with Festival Patron William Waldegrave and we are very grateful to Lord […]
2019 Festival: Additional tit-bits!
September 29 2019Our 29th Festival will be jam-packed with appetising events – including a mouth-watering discussion between Felicity Cloake and Caroline Waldegrave at 10.30am on Saturday 26 October: One more Croissant for the Road. Other appetising attractions include our Literary Lunches which take place in the Dining Hall, a short stroll across from Cedars Hall. The speaker […]
2019 Festival: Change of Speaker
September 17 2019We are sorry to report that Kamal Ahmed, who was due to speak in Wells on Saturday 19 October at 7.30pm, has had to pull out of the Festival for personal reasons. In his place we are delighted to have engaged Steve Richards the popular TV presenter and political columnist who regularly presents The Week […]
2019 Festival: Updates to the Programme
September 9 2019Ticket sales for the forthcoming Festival are selling fast with Chris Patten’s First Confession now sold out and several other events looking set to reach sell-out point before long. The grand finale featuring Roger McGough and Little Machine already has limited tickets left, and the signs are Kate Humble will be in that position soon. […]
2019 Festival: Chris Patten’s Event Sold Out
August 28 2019Tickets for Chris Patten’s First Confession on Saturday 26 October at 2 pm have now sold out, with further events looking set to follow. Which one will sell out next? No one knows for sure; there are several contenders. Here’s a small sample of the huge variety of topics on offer during the Festival: Finding […]
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