Dear Festival Friends,

Drum roll! We’re absolutely delighted to reveal some of the authors who will be appearing at our tenth annual festival, which this year takes place from 5-9 November. And we are equally delighted to unveil our glorious design for the 2025 Festival, created by Katie Beard of Stroud’s Rooksmoor Press.

To headline our 2025 children’s programme, we welcome the world-famous, the beloved, the one-and-only Julia Donaldson. Kes Gray, author of the fantastically popular “Oi!” picture books series will present the latest, “Oi Dinosaurs!”, while bestselling author Robin Stevenswill unveil her new mystery novel. And we’re honoured to present two legends of children’s books, Sir Michael Morpurgo and Stroud’s own Jamila Gavin, talking about World War One stories.

Headlining our Schools’ Days for local primary school children are the brilliant Cressida Cowell of “How to Train Your Dragon fame”, and Frank Cottrell Boyce, the current Children’s Laureate.

To our 2025 programme for adults we welcome prize-winning author and renowned expert in international law, Philippe Sands; and legendary poet, Roger McGough. Friday night at Stroud Book Festival brings you Ian McEwan talking about his masterly latest novel; and Robert Macfarlane on his marvellous latest non-fiction work, “Is a River Alive?”.

On Saturday, fiction lovers will be treated to events with renowned Turkish-English novelist and activist, Elif Shafak; and winner of the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize, Abi Daré. And renowned BBC broadcaster Lyse Doucet will join us to discuss her debut non-fiction book, “The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People’s History of Afghanistan”.

On Sunday, we’ll hear from retail guru and activist Mary Portas about “I Shop, Therefore I Am”, her highly entertaining new memoir in which she shares stories from her heady Harvey Nicks days. And renowned printmaker Angela Harding will join us to discuss her hugely popular work and its seasonal inspirations.

This year’s programme will also feature the announcement of the winners of the Laurie Lee Prize for Writing 2025, as well as the latest event from Stroud Short Stories.

Tickets for all these events and more will be on sale in September both online, and in-person from the Stroud Sub Rooms box office.

We’ll be announcing further Stroud Book Festival 2025 events in the coming weeks, so please do keep an eye on our Stroud Book Festival website for the latest news at stroudbookfestival.org.uk. If you are on social media, you can also follow us for updates.

Facebook: @stroudbookfestival

Instagram: @stroudbookfestival

Blue Sky: @stroudbookfestival.bsky.social

Thank you so much – as ever – for supporting what we do!

With love from

The Stroud Book Festival team x