Welcome to
our Festival
Save the Date
16-24 October 2026
Set up in 1992 to celebrate the written word
Wells Festival of Literature
Celebrating its 34th Year in 2026
Wells Festival of Literature is a registered charity entirely run by a committee of volunteers, funded by ticket sales, competition entries and generous local sponsors and Friends.
IN 2025
VISITORS A YEAR
Education projects
Fleur Hitchcock visits Longvernal Primary
Dicheat School Book Club meet to discuss The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll
St John’s enjoy a visit from Tracey Corderoy
Wookey Sch reading their new books
Waterstones visit by Bishop Henderson Sch
Emily Lloyd-Gale at St John’s
Following a visit from A.F. Harrold:
“It was an enriching session that enhanced our pupils’ appreciation and understanding of poetry. Huge thanks to the Education Team at The Wells Festival of Literature for organising and funding this visit!”
Fairlands Middle School – Cheddar
News
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Small boats, big Hearts
We Came By Sea, by Horatio Clare, gives a different side to the small boats crisis from the one we hear on the news every day. Instead, the travel writer and memoirist reveals a side to the British people that is rarely acknowledged. It is the story of the volunteers who help thousands of refugees…
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Top award for Masud Husain
Festival speaker, neurologist Masud Husain, has won the 2025 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize for his book Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain. The prize exists to bridge the divide between science and the public, championing non-fiction books that use captivating narratives to open science to a…
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justice for war crimes
Will we ever see Vladimir Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu on trial, asks Steve Crawshaw in Prosecuting the Powerful. As someone who has devoted his career to the pursuit of international justice, working for the likes of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Freedom From Torture, he replies with the answer that the possibilities of justice…
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Pre-Festival orders at Waterstones
Pop up to Waterstones in Wells High Street to pre-order copies of books by any of the speakers you look forward to hearing at the Festival. Waterstones will also be running its Cedars Hall Festival Bookshop during the Festival, and all available copies of the featured books will be displayed in the pop-up, and not…
