Lavenham Literary Festival 2026

This year’s Lavenham Literary Festival is taking place over the weekend of Friday 13 to Sunday 15 November 2026.

There will be well-known authors and new talent, international and local writers, fiction and non-fiction and talks on every subject from history and politics to nature and nurture.

Tickets now on sale!

The 9th Lavenham Literary Festival features Andrew Lownie, author of the headline provoking Entitled: The Rise & Fall of the House of York, his dual biography of the former Prince Andrew and the now plain Sarah Ferguson.

The paperback of his worldwide success went directly to the number one spot on  The Sunday Times bestseller list and remained in the Top Ten for several weeks this summer.  With a 10,000 word update, his forensic reporting has made Entitled the most discussed Royal biography for more than thirty years.     

On publication Entitled was warmly welcomed as a book of the year by The Times and Financial Times and Camilla Long in the Sunday Times offered:

‘This isn’t a book; it’s a case for revolution’.

We are thrilled to welcome Rachel Joyce who will be discussing her instant Sunday Times bestselling novel The Homemade God, in conversation with Paul Venables. It recounts the story of Goose and his three sisters, who gather at the family's house by Lake Orta in Piedmont, Italy. Their father, a famous artist, has recently remarried a much younger woman and decamped to Italy to finish his masterpiece. Now he is dead and there is no sign of a painting.

Extraordinarily compelling, at heart this is a novel about sibling relationships and those hairline cracks that can appear within a family: what happens when they splinter, and what it would take to mend them.

The Observer called it 'a masterly and deeply satisfying exploration of art, grief and familial bonds.'

Joyce is the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, which won a National Book award, and was long listed for the Booker Prize and adapted into a film starring Jim Broadbent. She has since published six other novels.

Professor Jerry Brotton will be sticking to facts as he points us in the right direction with his latest success The Four Points of the Compass which reveals the cultural significance of North and South, East and West, from early cultures to our digital age.

He reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east; why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps; why early Islam revered the south; why the Aztecs used five colour-coded cardinal directions; and why no societies, primitive or modern, have ever orientated themselves westwards.

Professor Brotton will also be drawing on his bestselling A History of the World in Twelve Maps, an entertaining approach that helped readers navigate a wealth of art, politics, history, travel writing and literature. The book was complemented by a three-part BBC4 TV series, and called 'fascinating, panoramic, wonderful' by Tom Holland.

Dianne Boucher will be discussing her latest work Out of the Shadows: Rediscovering Maria Cosway, which explores the life of the Anglo-Italian painter, musician, and educator.

Cosway exhibited forty-one paintings at the Royal Academy summer exhibition between 1781 and 1801, and counted among her friends Thomas Jefferson, the Prince of Wales, Pasquale Paoli, the artist Jacques-Louis David, the opera singer Luigi Marchesi, the Duchess of Devonshire, the actress and writer Mary Robinson, and members of the Bonaparte family. Out of the Shadows recently enjoyed an extensive and enthusiastic appraisal in the London Review of Books.

Along with much to discover there will be plenty of fun: Don’t miss Colin Sell, the much-loved pianist from I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, with Janet Ellis, bringing musical wit and charm on Sunday evening!

‘A really thought-provoking inspirational day – thank you’

‘Loved the writing workshop, found it very encouraging and useful’

‘Excellent talk on Remembrance, carry on with the good work and congratulations to all involved’

‘I loved the evening, everyone was so warm and friendly. It was great fun.’ – Alison Steadman