2020 Festival: Heading Towards a Sell-Out

Tickets for our 28th Festival have been on sale for a very short time and yet events are already beginning to sell out.

Luckily, there are 33 events lined up over the nine days. So you still have plenty to choose from: events of such great variety that a week in Wells will feel more like a journey round the world!

Sophy Roberts journeys through Siberia, Alexander Watson discovers Przemysl in WW1 Poland, Olia Hercules introduces us to the ‘summer kitchens’ of Ukraine and Janice Hadlow travels all the way back to Jane Austen’s Hampshire to discover a ‘new’ Bennet sister. Other authors travel in different ways and in a variety of directions, all of them inspirational. Iain Dale urges us to be kinder, Pragya Agarwal how to avoid the dangers of unconscious bias, and Hashi Mohamed tells of his apparently ‘impossible’ journey – from Somali refugee to successful British barrister. Two of our speakers simply take on the world! Carolyn Steel examines how food lies at the heart of essentially everything, whilst A.C. Grayling challenges the very existence of true democracy anywhere at all.

If you can’t get to the Festival in person, we will bring Wells to you – wherever you are in the world. All events will be live-streamed, so keep an eye out for registration details.

Inevitably there are a few changes to the programme: Donal Ryan has had to withdraw from the Festival; Adam Kucharski will now be talking about The Rules of Contagion in a virtual event; Rachel Clarke will be discussing Dear Life with Julia Samuel.