We are already hard at work on this year’s festival. We will keep the website, our Facebook page and Twitter updated with the latest news and events .

Events last approximately one hour. There will be enough time in between each event to enable you to attend consecutive events,, although in some cases you may have to change venues.

After every event Waterstones will be providing the author’s books for you to buy, and there will be the opportunity to meet authors and have a book signed. To avoid queuing books can be ordered in advance from Waterstones.

We had a fantastic 2019 festival with a great array of writers, all of whom entertained and enlightened us. In our final event former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy joined us at Thomas Hardye’s School Theatre to read and talk about her work.

This was a truly memorable close to our festival which began with an evening in which Alexander McCall Smith regaled the captivated audience with hilarious stories about his writing career. The festival continued with appearances from novelists Tracy Chevalier, Tim Pears and Victoria Hislop who shared insights about their creative processes. Historians A N Wilson, Simon Heffer, Kate Williams, Fiona Davison, Martin Kemp and Leo McKinstry discussed subjects that included Prince Albert, World War 1, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I, forgotten gardeners, Leonardo and Attlee and Churchill. Cookery writers Prue Leith and Sabrina Ghayour revealed what lies behind their food inspiration. Intrepid travellers Raynor Winn, Henrietta Lovell and Dom Joly, talked about their adventures. Nature writers John Wright, Tristan Gooley and John Copley enlightened audiences on how to eat a flying ant, tell the time from shadows and what lives in the deepest oceans. The Countess of Carnarvon lifted the veil on life in Highclere Castle, the real Downton Abbey, and Adam Nicolson explored poetry in Somerset with Wordsworth and Coleridge. Farrow and Ball colour specialist Joa Studholme told us how to decorate our houses. All in all we hope we achieved our mission and there was something for every literary taste.

Planning is under way for this year’s festival so do keep in touch with the latest news via our website. Meanwhile, scroll down to see  some pictures of last year’s highlights.

You can download the 2019 programme as a PDF file here.

Courtesy of DorchesterLiteraryFestival