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Wells Festival of Literature

Welcome to
our Festival

Save the Date
16-24 October 2026

Set up in 1992 to celebrate the written word

  • FRI
    16th
    OCT
  • SAT
    17th
    OCT
  • SUN
    18th
    OCT
  • MON
    19th
    OCT
  • TUE
    20th
    OCT
  • WED
    21st
    OCT
  • THU
    22nd
    OCT
  • FRI
    23rd
    OCT
  • SAT
    24th
    OCT

2026 Speakers

  • Patrick Gale

    Fiction

  • Stephen Sackur

    Current Affairs

  • Katja Hoyer

    History

  • Adrian Wooldridge

    Current Affairs

  • Louisa Young

    Literature

  • Jess Venner

    History

  • Jonathan Dimbleby

    Current Affairs

  • Martin Sixsmith

    Current Affairs

  • Martin Gayford

    Art

  • Rachel Seiffert

    Literature

  • Richard Elwes

    Science

  • Rory Cormac

  • Wells Literary Quiz

    Quiz

  • International Competitions

    International Competitons

  • Damien Lewis

    History

  • Peter Ormerod

    Music

  • Elizabeth Goldring

    Art

  • Daisy Fancourt

    Health

  • Arthur Snell

    Current Affairs

  • Sophia Smith Galer

    Language

  • Sara Wheeler

    Biography

  • Florence Hazrat

    Literature

  • Oz Clarke

    Food and Drink

  • Henry Normal

    Poetry

  • Amy Jeffs

  • Gavin Francis

    Health

  • Oliver Bullough

    Current Affairs

  • Kate Williams

    History

  • Rebecca Seal

    Health

  • Dan Cruickshank

    Art

  • Andrea Wulf

    Biography

  • Ping Coombes

    Food

  • Nicholas Crane

    Travel

  • Lady Hale

    Current Affairs

  • Cathy Rentzenbrink

    Health/Centenary

  • Blake Morrison

    Memoir

  • Maggie Aderin

    Memoir

2026 Brochure

Download PDF Brochure View Digital Brochure

Our 2026 Sponsors

Principal Festival Sponsor

Become A Friend – Enjoy Priority Booking 17 August
General Sales Open 24 August

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

Education projects

  • Sam Sedgman – Year 6 Festival Event
  • Launch of Make The Sunshine in Shepton Mallet supported by WFL.
  • Students from Whitstone visit Blossoms Cafe to discuss their new books from Waterstones.
  • Ashcott & West Pennard meet as part of the Small Schools Book Club
  • Books donated to Bishop Henderson Sch
  • A.F. Harrold at St Aldhelm’s
  • St Aldhelm’s visit Waterstones
  • High Sheriff of Somerset visits the Festival

  • Hugh Sexey Middle Sch visit to Waterstones
  • Emily Lloyd-Gale at St John’s
  • Dicheat School Book Club meet to discuss The Somerset Tsunami by Emma Carroll
  • Wookey Sch reading their new books
  • Fleur Hitchcock visits Longvernal Primary
  • St John’s enjoy a visit from Tracey Corderoy
  • Waterstones visit by Bishop Henderson Sch

Wells Festival of Literature

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.

SPENT IN 2025 ON PROJECTS IN LOCAL SCHOOLS
CHILDREN INVOLVED
IN 2025
EVENTS
HAPPY FESTIVAL
VISITORS A YEAR

News


  • 2018 Pre-Festival Event: For Friends and Supporters

    If you have ever considered becoming a Friend of the Festival, but never quite got round to it, now is definitely the time to act! The countdown to our 2018 Festival has begun, and over the next few weeks we will reveal our speakers and the huge range of subjects they will be covering; this…

    4 June 2018
  • Poetry. An Inspiration for the Young

    As part of the Wells Festival of Literature Education Committee’s programme of work in local schools, the poet AF Harrold visited Hemington School on 20 March. All the children involved in the day’s poetry activities were so inspired by the visit that they joined forces to say ‘thank you’ in verse. This goes to show that…

    27 March 2018
  • 2018 Festival: A New Outlook

    The Festival venue is moving – to the city’s newest performance facility, Cedars Hall, a comfortable, modern and convenient venue at the heart of Wells. Our aims, however, have not changed. We will continue to celebrate the written word and encourage a love of books and reading.  So the end result will remain the same: an…

    1 March 2018
  • Another Anniversary

    Wells Festival of Literature celebrates its 25th Anniversary in October and we are proud to be sharing that celebration, albeit on a longer timescale, with the Reformation and Martin Luther. In October it will be 500 years since Luther famously posted his 95 Theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. In a…

    17 September 2017
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Competitions
Education
Friends
  • Nick Trend with visitor
  • Physics Students meet Frank Close

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