Guildford Book Festival 2024

Karen Neville

Guildford book festival

A whole world of words awaits at the 2024 Guildford Book Festival, October 6th to 20th at venues across the borough and it’s jam packed with authors and books to suit all tastes

Big names and bright young stars are on the programme at this year’s Guildford Book Festival, now in it’s 25th year.

Highlights of this year’s festival include worldwide bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith with his latest book in the hugely popular No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series; multi award-winning crime fiction author and Prime Suspect creator, Lynda La Plante, sharing stories from her new memoir; Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas has Dance to the Death; Great British Sewing Bee favourite Patrick Grant urges us to rethink our relationship with clothing in Less; Olympian and former World Champion athlete Iwan Thomas shines a light on his career highs and brutal lows, and award-winning wildlife gardening TV presenter Kate Bradbury shows us how to take a stand against the climate crisis in our own back gardens.

Multi-million-selling authors Kate Mosse and Alison Weir return with their latest historical novels, and Linda Porter explores The Extraordinary Life of Margaret Tudor, elder sister of Henry VIII.

This year’s History Day at West Horsley Place features Nicola Tallis with her biography of young Elizabeth I, Melita Thomas introduces the lives of 1000 Tudor People, David Gibbins shares his History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks and Saul David discusses Sky Warriors – British Airborne Forces in the Second World War.

Image by: Ruth Crafer

Image by: Blake Ezra

Kate Summerscale tells the riveting true story of The Murders at 10 Rillington Place. Leading expert and correspondent on China Michael Sheridan discusses his new biography of Xi Jinping, arguably the most powerful man in the world.

This year’s Readers’ Day includes bestselling authors Louise Candlish and Freya North and multi-million bestselling local author Adele Parks will discuss her latest novel, First Wife’s Shadow, at this year’s Literary Dinner.

This year’s programme is packed with events for children and young people. Dinosaur detectives can discover Dig Dig Dinosaur with Anjali Goswami at Leith Hill Place, Oi Dinosaurs! with Kes Gray and How to Draw Dinosaurs with Jonny Duddle. There’s a nature art workshop with Yuval Zommer at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village and a nature treasure hunt with Moira Butterworth at Dapdune Wharf.

Image by: Gemma Day

Image by: Kirsty Anderson

For the first time, the festival is presenting a special event in partnership with Books Beyond Words, a national charity co-creating word-free stories for people with learning disabilities. Rose Gets in Shape takes place at Guildford Library. The Festival’s ever-popular Creative Writing Course returns too.

Alex Andrews, Guildford Book Festival Director, said: “We’re really excited about this year’s line-up, which includes some of the biggest names along with bright new stars discussing a huge range of genres and topics. Whether you’re a fan of fiction, fascinated by crime or fancy learning something new, there’s lots to discover and enjoy this year!”


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Guildford Book Festival

Round & About

Guildford book festival

Guildford Book Festival, 6th-13th October, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Over the years it has hosted some very well-known names but it began in 1989 with a free lunchtime event with an at the time little-known author, Sebastian Faulks. His first novel The Girl at the Lion d’Or had just come out, the first part of the French trilogy which went on to include the emotional First World War best-seller Birdsong and later the Second World War story of heroine Charlotte Gray.

Events this year include Chris Ryan (Electric Theatre, 6th October) speaking about his experiences in the SAS and how events such as Brexit may impact in intelligence sharing and our security, as well as talking about his latest book Black Ops.

David Suchet, better known as Poirot, will talk about his passion for photography, his life and career, with Michael Buerk (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, 6th October). Behind the Lens: My Life in Photos features images from his life which he’ll be sharing.

Monday 7th includes the start of a week-long creative writing workshop; Deborah Moggach and Nicholas Coleridge at the Literary Lunch; broadcaster Kirsty Wark will be talking about her second novel The House by the Loch and historian Max Hastings will be looking at Operation Chastise – The Dambusters Story 1943.

If you haven’t already got a ticket you’re too late to enjoy a coffee morning with The Countess of Carnarvon when she’ll be sharing secrets of Christmas of Highclere, aka the fictional Downton Abbey, but there are a host of other great events to enjoy on Tuesday 8th.

There are still a few tickets left for William Clegg QC’s Under the Wig – A lawyer’s stories of murder, guilt and innocence, John Craven’ sHeadlines and Hedgerows and Luke Jennings is talking about No Tomorrow, the second in the Killing Eve trilogy, now a hugely successful BBC series.

Among the highlights on Wednesday are a look at life on the glamorous French Riveria with Anne de Courcy’s Chanel’s Riviera – Life, Love and the Struggle for Survival on the Cote d’Azur, 1930-1944. Virginia Nicholson takes us into the 1960s with How Was It For You? Women, Sex, Love and Power in the 1960s and there’s the chance to enjoy Cocktail Night with Signe Johansen’s Spirited – How to create easy, fun drinks at home.

Thursday puts the spotlight on Leonardo da Vinci with Ben Lewis’s book The Last Leonardo, Andrew Lownie shares secrets of The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves while Paul Arnott looks at Windrush – A ship through time and Professor Mike Berners-Lee examines the ‘very hot’ topic of the environmental and economic challenges we face in There is no planet B – A handbook for the make or break years.

Fans of Dirty Dancing – and who isn’t – will be excited by the showing of this eighties classic on Friday evening after Katy Brand’s talk on her book, I Carried a Watermelon – Dirty Dancing and Me which tells of the comedian’s lifelong obsession with the movie in her love letter to the iconic film.

Saturday is Readers’ Day with the mini festival in a day, which is already sold out – book very early for next year! There’s still fun to be had courtesy of Pam Ayres with her collection of verse, Up in the Attic.

Guildford Book Festival winds up on Sunday 13th with an extra session of Peter FiennesA Walk in the Woods, Steve Backshall shares his latest adventures in Expedition – Adventures into Undiscovered Worlds before it winds up with an evening with Louis de BernieresCaptain Correlli and Beyond.

More info

For details about all these events and more visit