Spring Festival: 8th-11th May 2025

'Excellent festival with great visitors. I intend making this an annual event for us .'

'I thought the Festival was fantastic. I attended 14 events and was inspired, emotionally moved, educated and impressed. I brought eight friends who all enjoyed their events. The organisation, staffing and delivery was smooth and friendly. The programme was eclectic and interesting in so many ways. Thank you.'

'This is such an excellent festival, exceptionally well run and a real treat every time we come. Thank you to all the staff and volunteers.'

BECOME A FRIEND and be part of the story!

Autumn Festival 2025: 30th October-2nd November

Our Build a Library Campaign 2024

The bestselling author/illustrator Rob Biddulph opens the five primary school libraries we've restocked with hundreds of books

Our Autumn 2024 Programme

Find out who joined us for our record-breaking weekend

Creative Writing Competition

To mark 200 years of the modern railway, our competition is to write a story inspired by a rail journey. Winners announced soon!

Book festivals improve our world

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

Film of the 2024 May Festival

See some of the highlights from this Spring's smash hit festival created by Rupert Barnes

Our Festival Ambassadors

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

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That way you won't miss out on news and offers, and you'll be the first to hear when our Festivals go on sale!

Become a Friend or Benefactor

You'll receive priority booking and be supporting our impactful literacy outreach work in schools, prisons and the community

Bridging the Literacy Gap

Please donate to help us in our work in schools to support literacy and all the benefits of books and reading on well-being and life skills

Julia Donaldson becomes Patron of our outreach work

The most popular author for young children in the UK has become 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

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

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 on education, literacy and well-being 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, and all of whom share one passion: a love of books, writing and reading.