Festival Events
Our Book Group Event
The event is always a big attraction at the Wells Festival of Literature, partly because there are lots of lively book clubs in the city, and also because it’s so special – the author comes too.
In 2025 award-winning writer Howard Jacobson took the chair to discuss his latest novel with a full house of eager readers. It was a rip-roaring success.
His new book What Will Survive of Us is a romance, a mid-life romp that opens up new worlds for Lily and Sam when they unexpectedly fall for each other.
He has already written 17 novels and six works of non-fiction, winning the 2010 Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question, and shortlisted again for the prize in 2014 for J.
Literary Lunches
Eat and meet is the theme of the Festival’s popular Literary Lunches which give audiences and authors the chance to get together informally in the Cedars Dining Hall.
Each occasion offers a different topic to digest along with a light lunch of soup, artisan bread and a wickedly delicious pudding.
The 2025 speakers involved Midge Gillies with tales of the six women who battled to be the first to fly solo across the Atlantic in the early 20th century; gardener Carol Klein digging deep into her autobiography; journalist Lucy Mangan on her passion for books; and James Canton on how to re-nature even if all you have is a single window box.
Wells Literary Quiz
Quirky quiz conundrums
Quirky quizmaster Gary Wigglesworth returned for a third time in 2025 – this time in the foyer of Cedars Hall – with a range of testing teasers for Festival book lovers. Teams of six competed to be crowned the brainiest of brainy bookworms.
It was an entertaining evening of page-turning thrills and a novel experience for some.
