FROM a history of Afghanistan to new books inspired by Jane Austen, whose 250th anniversary is celebrated this year, Wells Festival of Literature’s 2025 line up is as exciting and eclectic as ever. Running from 17th to 25th October, the festival features some hot-off-the-press books, none more so than Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York.
Since its publication in August, Andrew Lownie’s latest book has stirred up a storm of interest with its sex and finance revelations about Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
Lownie spent four years interviewing hundreds of people and tracing the lives of the couple through childhood, courtship, marriage and careers. The result is a revelatory joint biography that delves deep into their relationships, lifestyles and scandals, including the Prince’s links with the late Jeffrey Epstein.
The festival promotes a love of reading, of the pleasure to be found in picking up a book and discovering new worlds, fresh ideas or fascinating characters within its cover. For more than 30 years, the Wells event has attracted a wide range of writers, novelists, scientists, politicians, poets, food writers, historians and more, to come and inspire audiences.
The festival also works year-round with local schools and colleges. An exciting programme of author visits and classroom workshops all help youngsters to discover the joy of reading for themselves.
While Andrew Lownie’s talk is unsurprisingly close to selling out, it is not the only event to be proving very popular – tickets for the BBC international correspondent Lyse Doucet, talking about her book, The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan, were snapped up immediately and other headliners, including festival openers Sebastian Faulks and Tim Spector, are expected to sell out as are daytime speakers broadcaster, chef and food-writer Prue Leith and gardener Carol Klein.
Sebastian Faulks will be talking about his latest book, Fires Which Burned Brightly: Ten Essays in place of a Memoir. Tim Spector’s new best-seller is Ferment: The life-Changing Power of Microbes.
Prue Leith has borrowed a famous quip from novelist and fellow food-writer Shirley Conran, Life’s too Short to Stuff a Mushroom, for her new cookbook, and Carol Klein will be the speaker at the festival literary lunch, talking about her memoir, Hortobiography: A Gritty Woman’s Tale Of People, Places And Plants.
Other fascinating speakers include Horatio Clare, Edward St Aubyn. Howard Jacobson (his latest book is What Will Survive of Us), Mike Berners-Lee on A Climate of Truth: Why we Need it and How to Get it, scientist Masud Husain, Lucy Mangan, Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper on his World Cup Fever: A Footballing Journey in Nine Tournaments, Emily Hauser on her fascinating new book, Mythica: A new History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It and Anne Sebba on The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival.
The Jane Austen anniversary has inevitably spawned countless tributes, plays, new film or television versions of her novels. Two speakers at Wells are on the trend: Ros Ballaster will talk about her new book, Jane Austen’s Fashion Bible, and Rachel Harris will be speaking about her latest, Introducing Mrs Collins: A Pride and Prejudice Novel.
For bookings and more information, visit https://wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/
Pictured: Lyce Doucet, and the book covers of Entitled and Carol Klein’s new memoir.