Stuck in a reading rut? Keen to broaden your reading horizons? Then in this National Year of Reading, our 2026 Stroud Book Festival opening night event is one for you.

We welcome three expert readers, all of whom are have thought and written about what it means to read deeply and widely.

We guarantee you will take away a raft of recommendations to rewild your reading, feeling inspired to make reading a highlight of your daily routine.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. His book Look Closer: How to Get More Out of Reading is an illuminating masterclass in the art of reading attentively.

Ann Morgan is a writer who has read a book from each of the world’s 196 independent countries (plus one other). Her own books are Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer and Relearning to Read: Adventures in Not-Knowing.

Sarah Shaffi is a journalist, editor and interviewer. She is literary editor at Red magazine, deputy editor at the Jhalak Review, and co-director for Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of Colour.

In Association with Read for Good

Chaired by Caroline Sanderson

Venue: Sub Rooms

Tickets: £14, on sale from 11 September from the Sub Rooms box office