Kick off your summer of reading at the Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival's annual Summer Launch Party - a special evening celebrating great writing in good company, and the unveiling of our full 2026 programme.
Our guest of honour is Patrick Gale, one of Britain's most beloved novelists, in conversation with BLF Artistic Director Kate Sawyer about his brand new book LOVE LANE.
Love Lane is the story of Harry Cane, a Canadian wheat farmer who, forced to sell up, sails home to England to seek reconciliation with the daughter he left behind decades earlier. His arrival triggers unwelcome self-examination for the family he abandoned, and for whom he has never been more than a distant myth. Spanning the rural plains of Canada to 1950s Liverpool and Yorkshire, it is a searing and deeply moving exploration of escape and entrapment, secrets and reconciliation — and of what home and family can really mean. It can be read as a standalone novel or as a companion to Gale's earlier bestseller A Place Called Winter.
After the conversation, Kate Sawyer will step into her role as the Festival's new Artistic Director to unveil the full BLF 2026 programme. Then the bar and Harris & Harris bookshop will open and the festivities continue with book signings, a chance to meet Patrick, and time to mingle with the BLF team over a drink and a slice of cake.
All attendees of this special event will receive 48-hour priority booking access plus a 25% discount on festival tickets before the Box Office opens to general sale.
