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Tickets for our 2025 festival will go on sale in spring.
Continue reading below to find out more about our guest authors from previous festivals.
2024
Martin Figura
Martin Figura’s collection The Remaining Men was published in February - "not only Martin's finest book but one of the best you are likely to read this year" George Szirtes. The book and show Whistle were shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award and won the Saboteur Award for Best Spoken Word Show, an award his second show Dr Zeeman’s Catastrophe Machine was shortlisted for. He lives in Norwich with Helen Ivory and sciatica. His new Spoken-Word show Shed will be touring in 2025 after successful performances at Ink Festival and The Cockpit Theatre, London as part of the Poetry Plays Festival.
W: www.martinfigura.co.uk IG: @martinfigura1
W: www.martinfigura.co.uk IG: @martinfigura1
Catherine Emmett
Catherine Emmett grew up in Newcastle Upon Tyne and spent all of her childhood reading books. Then she grew up and she spent 15 years making spreadsheets and not reading any books at all. After advising a group of young girls to find a career that they loved, she decided to take her own advice. She packed up her husband and her three young boys, moved to rural Essex and started to write picture books. She now spends her days surrounded by words, animals and noisy boys. Catherine’s books include The Pet, The King of The Swamp, Sammy The Striker And The Football Cup and The Dodo Who Dreamed She Could Fly. Her books have won awards, been on the BBC News and appeared on CBeebies Bedtime Stories.
W: https://catherineemmett.co.uk/ IG: @catherine_emmett_author X: @emmett_cath
W: https://catherineemmett.co.uk/ IG: @catherine_emmett_author X: @emmett_cath
Kiran Millwood Hargrave & Tom de Freston
With books that are rich in storytelling, adventure and timeless themes this will be a session suitable for all ages - with a focus on their beautiful collaboration novels for middle-grade (8-12) Julia and the Shark (shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year) and Leila and the Blue Fox (Winner of The Wainwright Prize) books that inspire young people to engage with the natural world in the face of climate change. But undoubtedly Kiran will talk a bit about the two books in her new Geomancer trilogy - In the Shadow of The Wolf Queen and The Storm and The Sea Hawk and her novels for children and young people, including the award winning The Girl of Ink and Stars.
Kiran Millwood Hargrave was born in Surrey in 1990, and her earliest ambition was to be a cat, closely followed by a cat-owner or the first woman on Mars. She has achieved only one of these things, but discovered that being a writer lets you imagine whatever you want.
W: https://www.kiranmillwoodhargrave.com/ IG: @kiran_mh X: @Kiran_MH
Tom de Freston is an artist and writer based in Oxford.
IG: @tomdefrestonart
Kiran Millwood Hargrave was born in Surrey in 1990, and her earliest ambition was to be a cat, closely followed by a cat-owner or the first woman on Mars. She has achieved only one of these things, but discovered that being a writer lets you imagine whatever you want.
W: https://www.kiranmillwoodhargrave.com/ IG: @kiran_mh X: @Kiran_MH
Tom de Freston is an artist and writer based in Oxford.
IG: @tomdefrestonart
Sam Leith
In a pioneering history of children’s literature, from the ancient world to the present day, Sam Leith reveals the magic of our most cherished stories, and the ways in which they have shaped and consoled entire generations. Excavating the complex lives of beloved writers, Leith offers a humane portrait of a genre – one acutely sensitive to its authors’ distinct contexts.
Sam Leith is the literary editor of the Spectator and the author of several books including You Talkin' To Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Trump... and Beyond, and Write To The Point: How to Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page
X: @questingvole
Sam Leith is the literary editor of the Spectator and the author of several books including You Talkin' To Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Trump... and Beyond, and Write To The Point: How to Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page
X: @questingvole
Patrick Barkham
Patrick Barkham is an award-winning author and natural history writer for the Guardian. He is the author of eight books including The Butterfly Isles, Badgerlands, Wild Child and The Swimmer, a biography of maverick swimmer Roger Deakin. He is President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and lives in Norfolk with his family.
Sarah Marsh
Sarah Marsh was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish prize in 2019 and selected for the London Library Emerging Writers programme in 2020. A Sign of Her Own is her first novel, inspired by her experiences of growing up deaf and her family’s history of deafness. She lives in London.
X: @SarahCMarsh IG: @SarahMarshWrites
X: @SarahCMarsh IG: @SarahMarshWrites
Bobby Palmer
Bobby Palmer is an author and journalist. His critically acclaimed debut novel, Isaac and the Egg, was published in 2022 and was a Waterstones Paperback of the Year. He co-hosted the literary podcast Book Chat with Pandora Sykes, and his writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan and more. His second novel, Small Hours, is out now.
W: https://www.bobbypalmer.co.uk/ IG:@thebobpalmer X:@thebobpalmer
W: https://www.bobbypalmer.co.uk/ IG:@thebobpalmer X:@thebobpalmer
Georgina Moore
Georgina Moore is an award-winning book publicist who has worked in the publishing industry for twenty years. She has worked with a huge variety of authors across all genres and at all stages of their careers – from debuts to household names. Her most recent PR campaign for Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet has won the FutureBook and PPC awards for campaign of the year and is Nibbies nominated.The Garnett Girls is Georgina’s first novel and is set on the Isle of Wight where Georgina and her family have a holiday houseboat called Sturdy.
W: https://www.georginamoore.co.uk/ IG: @georginamooreauthor X: @PublicityBooks
W: https://www.georginamoore.co.uk/ IG: @georginamooreauthor X: @PublicityBooks
Tom de Freston
Tom de Freston is an artist and writer based in Oxford. He is the author of Wreck: Géricault’s Raft and the Art of Being Lost at Sea and Strange Bodies: A Story of Loss and Desire and the illustrator of Julia and the Shark (Waterstones Children’s Gift of The Year) and Leila and the Blue Fox (The Wainwright Prize for Children’s Fiction) and Skellig: the 25th Anniversary Illustrated Edition.
IG: @tomdefrestonart
IG: @tomdefrestonart
Kiran Millwood-Hargrave
Kiran Millwood Hargrave is an award-winning poet, playwright, and novelist. An author, playwright and poet, Kiran Millwood Hargrave is best known for her award-winning children’s fiction, including her bestselling debut, The Girl of Ink of Stars, (Waterstones Children’s Book Prize), Julia and the Shark (Waterstones Children’s Gift of The Year) and Leila and the Blue Fox (The Wainwright Prize for Children’s Fiction). Her historical adult fiction The Mercies (The Sunday Times Bestseller, Betty Trask Award 2021, Le Prix Rive Gauche à Paris Finalist for the Prix Femina. Shortlisted for the Prix des Lecteurs. Longlisted for Not the Booker Prize.) and The Dance Tree (HWA Gold Crown Award and picked for the BBC2 Between The Covers) have seen her have brought her vivid storytelling to older readers, bringing true historical events to life with women's experiences at the forefront.
W: https://www.kiranmillwoodhargrave.com/ IG: @kiran_mh X: @Kiran_MH
W: https://www.kiranmillwoodhargrave.com/ IG: @kiran_mh X: @Kiran_MH
Dominique Valente
Dominique Valente is the author of the bestselling Starfell series. She was born in South Africa, and has one hand. Her disability has inspired her latest magical series Witchspark which is set in Suffolk where she lives.
W: https://dominiquevalente.com/ IG: @dominiquevalente X: @domrosevalente
W: https://dominiquevalente.com/ IG: @dominiquevalente X: @domrosevalente
Matt Gaw
Matt Gaw is a writer, journalist and secondary school English teacher, who lives in Suffolk, and is the author of the acclaimed The Pull of the River; A Journey into the Wild and Watery Heart of Britain and Under the Stars; A Journey into Light. His journalism has been published in the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Times and Countryfile magazine.
Phoebe Morgan
Phoebe Morgan is a bestselling author and award-winning editor. Her five thrillers The Doll House, The Girl Next Door, The Babysitter, The Wild Girls and The Trip can be read in any order, and one of her short stories is currently being adapted into a short film. Her books have sold over 250,000 copies worldwide and been translated into 10 languages. They are also published in the US, Canada and Australia. She is also the Commercial Fiction Publishing Director at Hodder & Stoughton, part of Hachette UK. She has worked with a range of Sunday Times and Kindle bestsellers including Sophie Hannah, Abigail Dean, Cara Hunter, Stephanie Garber, Lucy Score, CL Taylor, Alan Titchmarsh, Catherine Cooper and more, and is passionate about finding new voices. In 2022 she was shortlisted for Editor of the Year at the British Book Awards; in 2021 she was awarded the Bookseller Shooting Star award; and in 2018 she won a Trailblazer Award in association with the London Book Fair.
W: www.phoebemorganauthor.com X: @Phoebe_A_Morgan IG @phoebeannmorgan FB @PhoebeMorganAuthor
W: www.phoebemorganauthor.com X: @Phoebe_A_Morgan IG @phoebeannmorgan FB @PhoebeMorganAuthor
JM Hewitt
J.M. Hewitt is a crime and psychological thriller author. Her work has also been published in three short story anthologies. Her writing combines the complexity of human behaviour with often enchanting settings. In contrast to the sometimes dark content of her books, she lives a very nice life in a seaside town in Suffolk with her dog, Marley.
IG: @j.mhewitt X: @jmhewitt
IG: @j.mhewitt X: @jmhewitt
Janice Hallett
Janice Hallett is the author of four best-selling novels. Her debut, The Appeal, was awarded the CWA Debut Dagger of 2021 and was a Sunday Times’ Bestseller, Waterstones’ Thriller of the Month and Sunday Times’ Crime Book of the Month. Her second novel The Twyford Code was named Crime & Thriller Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2023. It was also a Sunday Times’ Bestseller and a Financial Times book of the year. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels was an instant Times and Sunday Times bestseller on its launch in January 2023, as was her novella The Christmas Appeal published in October 2023. Her latest novel The Examiner was published in August.
IG: @janice.hallett X: @janicehallett
IG: @janice.hallett X: @janicehallett
Jill Dawson
Jill Dawson is the award-winning author of eleven novels, all published by Sceptre. They include The Bewitching, Fred and Edie (shortlisted for the Costa and Orange Prize) and The Great Lover, which was a best-seller and Richard and Judy pick. Her novel The Crime Writer, about the novelist Patricia Highsmith, won the East Anglian Book of the Year in 2016 and is in development as a mini series. Jill founded and runs Gold Dust, a mentoring scheme for writers. Her new novel, Pixie, about a psychic and tarot artist of the early twentieth century, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2025.
W:https://jilldawson.co.uk/ IG: @jilldawsonauthor X: @jdawsonwriter
W:https://jilldawson.co.uk/ IG: @jilldawsonauthor X: @jdawsonwriter
Jessica Moor
Jessica Moor studied English at Cambridge before completing a Creative Writing MA at Manchester University. She was selected as one of the Observer's debut novelists of 2020, and her debut, Keeper was chosen by the Sunday Times, Independent and Cosmopolitan as one of their top debuts of the year. Keeper was nominated for the Desmond Elliott Prize and an Edgar Award. Young Women was her acclaimed second novel, her third novel Hold Back The Night was published in May 2024. Jessica is based in Brixton, South London.
W: https://www.jessicamoor.com/ IG: @ms_jessica_moor X: @jessicamoor
W: https://www.jessicamoor.com/ IG: @ms_jessica_moor X: @jessicamoor
Kirsty Capes
Kirsty Capes works in marketing and lives in Slough with her golden retriever, Doug. She holds a PhD from Brunel University London; her thesis investigates representations of the care experience in contemporary British fiction. Her first novel, Careless, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2022. Girls is her third novel.
IG: @kirstycapes.author X: @kirstycapes
IG: @kirstycapes.author X: @kirstycapes
Clare Chambers
2023
2022
2021
2019
2017
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