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Stratford Literary Spring Festival 2026

7th May – 10th May

Book festival tickets

Stratford Literary Autumn Festival 2026

29th October – 1st November

Tickets released in Sept 2026

Festival Highlights

Mark Gatiss

A Life in Stage and Screen

Sun 10 May 7:15pm

£21.38

students £19.24

Natalie Haynes

No Friend to this House

Fri 8 May 8:00pm

£19.24

students £17.1

Dr Tony Juniper

Just Earth: How a Fairer World Will Save the Planet

Fri 8 May 11:00am

£16.04

students £13.9

Festival News

See festival info

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Frequently Asked Questions

All you need to know to make sure you have an enjoyable visit to the Festival

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Festival Ticketholders’ Discount

Discounts for Festival-goers

Terms and Conditions

Please read carefully

Meet the Team

The Stratford Literary Festival was set up in 2008 – meet the team

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Ambassadors

Like fairy godparents, they beaver away on our behalf helping us to build and develop the Festival

Michael Ball and Tim Hubbard sitting down and laughing.

Our Event Chairs

Meet our brilliant team of interviewers

Work with us

Find out how to get involved with the Festival

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Festival Faces

A portfolio of everyone who has attended the Festival since 2015 by photographer Lorentz Gullachsen

Press

Get in touch for more details or to arrange an interview

Festival Vouchers

The perfect gift for a book lover

Mary Berry smiling on stage at the Festival.

Contact

Get in touch

In the Community

See our outreach

Our Spring 2026 Programme

Download the full Spring 2026 programme here and see the full line-up, news about our partners and all the information you'll need to make sure you have a brilliant visit!

Support us!

Please help us deliver our important outreach work in schools, prisons and the community

Book festivals improve our world

A joint statement from nine leading literary festivals – read it here!

Books for Kids 2026

Too many children don't have a book at home. Can you help us change that?

National Year of Reading 2026

What we're doing to support this important initiative

Our Festival Ambassadors

Meet our brilliant team of fairy godparents who champion the Festival and our outreach work

Treat someone to a Festival Voucher

The perfect present for a book lover - a voucher to the Festival in Spring or Autumn. Buy one here!

Sign up for our newsletter

Be the first to hear when our Festivals go on sale, and stay updated on our news and special offers

Bridging the Literacy Gap

Find out more about what we do in schools and help us continue our valuable work with a donation

Julia Donaldson is Patron of our literacy outreach work

The most popular author for young children in the UK is Patron of the work we do in schools, the community and prisons banging the drum for all the brilliant benefits of books and how they can change lives.

Find out about our Outreach Work

Read all about our charity projects in schools, the community and prisons

View all

Spreading the Word

Since 2008 we’ve been bringing you an exciting mixture of debate, ideas, celebrity author events, workshops and humour in spring and autumn. We’re also a charity promoting the benefits of reading and writing for education, literacy and wellbeing with activities and workshops in schools, the community and prisons.

The Festival is one of the most significant literary festivals in the UK, attracting thousands of people to the world-famous literary town of Stratford-upon-Avon, all of whom share one passion: a love of books, writing and reading.