WELLS Festival of Literature returns for its 35th year, following last year’s most successful event, with a packed programme of talks and book-related events at Cedars Hall, from Friday 16th October to Saturday 24th October.

From popular novelists to leading journalists, including Jonathan Dimbleby, historians, cultural commentators, archaeologists, biographers, activists and campaigners, the 2026 Wells Festival of Literature will be nine days of remarkable talks and events.

The distinguished reporter Stephen Sackur’s new book, Hard Truth: Investigations That Shook The World – And Why they Matter Now, is a rallying call for the vital role of investigative journalism in holding the powerful to account. Three of the heroic journalists whose stories he tells are Daniel Ellsberg, who exposed the Pentagon papers, the late Alexei Navalny, and the late Daphne Caruna, who took on systemic corruption in Malta.

Stephen Sackur will be speaking at the Cedars Hall on Friday 16th October at 7.45pm.

Later in the week, Jonathan Dimbleby will be talking about the new edition of his 1980 book The Palestinians, with photographs by Don McCullin, and Martin Sixsmith will look at the terrifying parallels between Trump’s America and Putin’s Russia, in his book Despots. Both talks are on Saturday 17th.

Katja Hoyer’s Weimar – Life on the Edge of Catastrophe was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and those who heard it will surely be interested to hear the historian author talking about the research that helped her to create this powerful and gripping story of life during the rise and regime of Hitler.

Katja Hoyer will be at Cedars Hall at 10.30am on Saturday 17th.

Elizabeth Jane Howard created a memorable cast of characters in her Cazalet Chronicles. Her niece Louisa Young has continued the saga, and will be at Cedars Hall on Saturday 17th at 2pm, talking about the latest instalment, The Golden Hours.

Another leading woman writer speaking on Saturday 17th, turning the clock back nearly 2000 years, is Jess Venner in The Lost Voices of Pompeii – The Final Day in Seven Lives. Drawing on the latest archaeological discoveries she brings the doomed city to life through the stories of real people, including a female entrepreneur and a freed slave.

Peter Ormerod describes himself as a David Bowie superfan, and in his book David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God, he explores the musician’s quest for spirituality. His talk is on Monday 19th at 7.45pm.

Many of our pictures of the Tudor court of Henry VIII are derived from paintings and portraits by the German-born court painter Holbein – but who was this man? This year marks the 500th anniversary of Holbein’s arrival in England, and Elizabeth Goldring has published a beautifully illustrated biography, which features rarely seen paintings from private collections as well as the famous works in major galleries.

Elizabeth Goldring will be talking about Holbein at a literary lunch on Tuesday 20th at 12.30pm.

In her book, How To Kill a Language, subtitled Power, Resistance and the Race to Save Our Words, Sophia Smith Galer investigates the ongoing loss of thousands of languages around the world. She was inspired to investigate this cultural extinction by her realisation, after the death of her beloved nonna, that her grandmother’s language was a northern Italian dialect that might be understood by her grandchildren, but that they could not speak.

Sophia Galer will be speaking on Tuesday 20th at 7.45pm.

From how we speak to how we write … Florence Hazrat’s On The Mark is a history of punctuation, from ancient Egypt to the latest emojis, showing how these marks turn words into meaningful language. She is speaking at 4.15 on Wednesday 21st.

At the literary lunch on Wednesday 21st October, Sara Wheeler will be talking about her biography of Jan Morris, a brilliant journalist and writer, but a complex character who made an impact on British society in so many ways.

Historian Kate Williams is the speaker at the literary lunch on Friday 23rd, talking about Regina: A New History of Women and Power. She delves into the worlds of queens, empresses, mistresses and more, revealing their trials and triumphs – going behind the stories that have mainly come to us through the words of men.

Malaysian-born, former Masterchef winner Ping Coombes pays homage to one of the world’s greatest food staples, in her new book, Rice. On Saturday 24th she will be in conversation with fellow food-writer Caroline Waldegrave at 10.30am.

The festival ends with the remarkable Dame Maggie Aderin, who will be talking about her book Starchild: My Life Under the Night Sky. Now one of this country’s most popular scientists, a natural communicator who has brought her passion for space into the lives of so many people, Dame Maggie had to overcome prejudice and adversity in her journey to the stars.

Just a few weeks after a near-total eclipse of the sun and particularly spectacular Perseid meteor showers, this is a great way to round off what looks to be a memorable festival – on Saturday 24th at 7.15pm.

For full details visit www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk