All About

Welcome to Winchester Books Festival.

Winchester Books Festival is a Community Interest Company.

Co-founders Sophie Liardet and Sian Searles share an unwavering passion for bringing the most exciting and thought-provoking authors to Winchester—a city steeped in culture and the perfect setting for a world-class books festival.

Their bold vision and ambition for the Winchester Books Festival shines through their creative and forward-thinking partnerships.

Highlights for 2025 include the exclusive Bombay Sapphire festival cocktails, adding a dash of sophistication to the celebrations, and the eye-catching Partridge of Hampshire festival green fleet, ensuring branded cars turn heads across the city.

Together, they’re redefining what a literary festival can be, combining innovation, style, and a love for the written word.

Book cover of Why Tyrants Fall
One Day pbk
You Are Here - final jacket
web logo WBF
The New Neighbours Claire Douglas
Nature Needs You jacket Hannah Bourne-Taylor
An English Vision Ben Pentreath Cover
Much more to come book cover
Much Ado About Numbers cover
In Search Perfect Peach
Any Trout About COVER
How to Design a Garden (jacket cover)
Glorious Exploits, paperback jacket
Oh What a Knight Cover
Alberta_A cautionary tale cover

Newsletters

Read about all the latest news and events in our 2 May 2025 news bulletin.

2 May 2025
Watch the David Nicholls event (1)

Watch our David Nicholls event

We were lucky enough to be joined by the acclaimed playwright and author of “One Day” in February 2025.
You can watch the recording here for free anytime on any device or share with a friend.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we did and look forward to seeing you at an event soon.

Watch the David Nicholls event

We have had two previous festivals which were fantastic. Thank you all for joining in.
Here are the authors we’ve met at the Winchester Books Festival so far.

2024

Dr. Sohom Das  – In Two Minds
S.J. Parris – Alchemy – the latest Giordano Bruno mystery
Wendy Joseph KC – Unlawful Killings: Life, love and murder: Trials at The Old Bailey
Governor James Bourke – Doing Time: 175 years of Winchester Prison
Frank Gardner – Outbreak
Hugh Petter – Living Tradition: the Architecture and Urbanisation of Hugh Petter
Daisy Goodwin – Diva
Alison Weir – Winchester’s Queens (a bespoke talk for Winchester Books Festival)
James Holland – The Savage Storm: The Brutal Battle for Italy 1943
Edward Bulmer – The Colourful Past: Edward Bulmer and the English Country House
Dr. Brian Klass – Fluke: Chance, Chaos and Why Everything We do Matters
Liz Earle MBE – A Better Second Half
Sarah Freethy – The Porcelain Maker
Claire Fuller – A Big Book Club event
Children’s writers:
Andy Hussey – There’s No Deer Around Here, Any Trout About 
Margaret Sturton – Alberta
Chitra Soundar – Creative Writing Workshop – Write Away with Nikhil and Jay
Lauren Child – Clarice Bean – Smile
Sam Sedgman – The Clockwork Conspiracy

2023

Emma Sims-Hilditch – The Evolution of Home

Earl Spencer – The White Ship

Alice Loxton – Uproar!

Mandy Hickson – An Officer Not a Gentleman

Jennie Maizels – Pop-Up London

Marc Morris – The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginning of England

Claire Fuller  – The Memory of Animals

Chibundu Onuzo – Sankofa

Frances Liardet – Think of Me

Gill Hornby – Godmersham Park

Bill Browder – Freezing Order

Marina Wheeler QC – The Lost Homestead

Rebecca Abrams – Licoricia of Winchester

Sue Stuart-Smith – The Well Gardened Mind

Charlie Corbett – 12 Birds to Save Your Life

Contact us

Say hello to our little but lovely team by sending an email to info@winchesterbooksfestival.com

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Keep up to date with our latest events and announcements

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