Book for Farnham Literary Festival

Karen Neville

Enjoy more than 50 different events taking place across over a dozen venues from March 6th-16th at this year’s Farnham Literary Festival as co-rdinator Theresa Gooda tells us

More than 100 authors, performers and presenters will descend upon Farnham for the 2025 Farnham Literary Festival this spring.  

Straight out of the jungle and headlining this year’s festival is the cleric, broadcaster, and writer, the Reverend Richard Coles. We will also be welcoming literary novelist Louis De Bernières, (best known for Captain Corelli’s Mandolin) in the opening weekend and bestselling children’s author David Walliams joins the festival line-up for the final weekend. 

For crime devotees, Kate Summerscale (The Suspicions of Mr Whicher), BBC’s Death in Paradise writer Robert Thorogood, and psychological thriller author Nicci French will all make an appearance, plus B.A. Paris and Guy Morpuss. 

Country Living columnist Sally Coulthard is set to discuss all things nature, while John Long will get his teeth into the secret history of sharks. We’re also delighted to welcome Lennie Goodings to talk about the history of groundbreaking feminist publisher Virago Press, while renowned pop music video director Tim Pope will share stories about working with the biggest names in the music industry. 

Historians will enjoy Lissa Evans, Clare Chambers and their visions of post-war England, plus Eagles of the Empire author Simon Scarrow; not to mention the full History Day at Waverley Abbey House with Damien Lewis, Alison Weir, Nicola Tallis and Louise Morrish.  

For those keen on current affairs, authors Michael Sheridan and Julian Evans will debate recent events in China and Ukraine.  

Local authors will feature at a special event at Farnham Library and there are plenty of other poetry, theatre and comedy performances across the 11 days of the festival, including Luke Wright, the Booming Lovelies, Lights & Bushels, Daniel Bye, and Andy Zaltzman. For writers, there are poetry, memoir, flash fiction and how to get published workshops to choose from. 

Together with Blue Bear Bookshop, Farnham Town Council has organised a great schools’ programme. Authors and illustrators including Thiago de Moraes, Andy Seed, Alex Strick and Steve Antony will go into Farnham schools to share the enjoyment of books and reading with children and young people. 

Farnham Literary Festival is organised by Farnham Town Council alongside a number of key partners and organisations. Principal sponsors are Frensham Heights and Leightons Opticians and Hearing Care, with Moonflower Books sponsoring the panel events. This support enables some of the events to be free of charge and helps make the festival a truly local community event.