Wednesday 20 August 18:30 - 19:30
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Ah, history… musty, stuffy, cobwebby stuff, right? Wrong – with Anthony Delaney’s Queer Georgians and Alice Loxton’s Eighteen, you’re getting history that’s as fizzing with verve and wit as its authors. Join two of the brightest young historians today…
Wednesday 20 August 18:45 - 19:45
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Former Secretary of State for Business and leader of the Liberal Democrats, the astute economist Vince Cable has settled into life after frontline politics as a prolific author on global affairs and the world economy. Today, he talks to us about…
Wednesday 20 August 19:15 - 20:15
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We believe that everyone has a story to tell and that stories help us make sense of our world. We’ve challenged local writers and poets, this year, to respond to 2025’s Festival theme: Repair. Join us as we bring them together to perform their work: a…
Cancelled
Wednesday 20 August 19:30 - 20:30
Wednesday 20 August 20:15 - 21:15
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How did things get so bad, and how can we begin to try and make them better? Turkish political commentator, novelist, poet, and winner of the El Mundo International Journalism Award, Ece Temelkuran joins us to unpack two books attempting to answer both…
Wednesday 20 August 20:30 - 21:30
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- BSL interpreted
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Winner of the 2020 Parliamentary Book Award for Best Non-Fiction and the first MP to celebrate his civil partnership in the Palace of Westminster, Chris Bryant brings his candid new memoir, A Life and a Half, to this year’s Festival…
Thursday 21 August 10:00 - 11:00
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Start your day with the facts. In our First Edition events you can join leading journalists from across the media (and the world) as they discuss the day's breaking news over a cup of coffee…
Thursday 21 August 10:15 - 11:15
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Hear this giant of Australian letters, joining us remotely from Queensland, discussing her astounding work and being a 'massive antidote' to short attention spans…
Thursday 21 August 11:00 - 11:45
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Meet the incredible authors shortlisted for 2025’s YA Book Prize…
Thursday 21 August 12:00 - 13:00
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We all know to shop second-hand, avoid microplastic fibres, and celebrate re-wearing – but is this enough to make fashion sustainable? How much power do we really have as consumers? Today Aja Barber (author of Consumed), Anna Freemantle-Zee (founder of……
Thursday 21 August 12:45 - 13:30
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Meet the incredible authors shortlisted for 2025’s YA Book Prize…
Thursday 21 August 13:15 - 14:15
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Our planet teems with life – across four billion years of evolution, organisms have adapted to thrive in even the most inhospitable environments. This fascinating conversation will take you from the highest peaks to the ocean’s depths as David Farrier……
Suitable for age 12 - 14
Thursday 21 August 13:30 - 14:15
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Laura Bates gives the inside scoop on Sisters of Fire and Fury, the sequel to her bestselling Sisters of Fury, conjuring a world of old magic, battles, and a mythic showdown - and explores how we can move through fear to find our courage…
Thursday 21 August 13:45 - 14:45
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More than 30 years after her indelible debut, Hideous Kinky, Esther Freud brings us her 10th novel, My Sister and Other Lovers: a scalpel-sharp exploration of intrafamilial intimacies, concerning a mother and two daughters…
Thursday 21 August 14:00 - 15:00
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The disquiet of modern life, a feeling of the past living alongside the present, the push and pull of rural places calling you home - each are overlapping preoccupations of award-winning author Mary Costello's new story collection, Barcelona, and Elaine……
Thursday 21 August 14:15 - 15:15
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The approach to both mental health and neurodivergence in clinical settings has changed enormously in the 30 years that Dr Sami Timimi has been a practicing psychiatrist…
Thursday 21 August 15:00 - 16:00
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Could literature have the power to heal us? In an event that provides a testament to why books matter, the authors chat with Daniel Hahn about the power of reading on young lives…
Thursday 21 August 15:00 - 16:00
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Diane Abbott's journey to Westminster as the UK's first Black female MP is borne of sheer determination. She speaks about her inspirational memoir, A Woman Like Me…
Thursday 21 August 15:30 - 16:30
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Over three decades the Women's Prize for Fiction has established itself as one of the world's greatest celebrations of female creativity in the world. Join us to look back on the prize's pioneering origins, and consider its lasting legacy…
Thursday 21 August 15:45 - 16:45
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Today, we're joined by the luminous Gerda Stevenson: award-winning Scottish filmmaker and poet, theatre director and singer, songwriter and actress, author of plays and stories…
Full 2025 Book Festival programme is announced with key theme of Repair 
