Arifa Akbar – Jason Arday – Rob Biddulph – AK Blakemore – Keith Brymer-Jones – Emma Carroll – Horatio Clare – Joseph Coelho – Mark Cummings – Katie Fforde – Ben Garrod – Colin Grant – Daniel Hahn – Matt Haig – Sally Hayden – Sue Hendra – Amy Jeffs – Jeneba & Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason – Paul Mason – Hollie McNish – Ben Miller – Rachel Morley – Leigh Radford – Sophie Raworth – Dan Richards – Kate Riordan – Stephen Sackur – Sathnam Sanghera – Sam Steele – Stroud Short Stories – Tweedy – Jacqueline Wilson – Greg Wise

We are today thrilled to announce some of the authors coming to Stroud Book Festival 2026. And we are also delighted to unveil our signature design for this year’s Festival, commissioned from local illustrator Tom Sears to celebrate the National Year of Reading with a distinctly Stroud flavour. We hope you love it as much as we do.

To headline our 2026 children’s programme, we welcome the awesome Rob Biddulph, multi award-winning author and illustrator, and the creative force behind the viral #DrawWithRob phenomenon. We’ll also be joined by renowned children’s author and actor Ben Miller and Gloucestershire legend Tweedy. And we’re thrilled to present a family event with that total legend of children’s books, Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

Headlining our Schools’ Days for local primary school children are the brilliant Joseph Coelho and Emma Carroll, both of whom are making return visits to Stroud Book Festival. We also welcome Children’s Laureate for Wales, Nicola Davies to our schools’ programme.

Among the non-fiction authors joining us for our 2026 adult programme are former economics editor at BBC Newsnight and Channel 4 News, Paul Mason; BBC broadcaster and marathon runner Sophie Raworth; Jason Arday, author and Cambridge University’s youngest ever Black professor; actor and writer Greg Wise; Orwell Prize-winning journalist, Sally Hayden; author and Times columnist, Sathnam Sanghera; and potter and star of Channel 4’s “The Great Pottery Throwdown”, Keith Brymer-Jones.

Fiction lovers can look forward to events with renowned novelists AK Blakemore, Claire Fuller and Matt Haig. Bestselling Stroud authors Kate Riordan and Sam Steele will present their latest crime novels; and our own queen of romantic fiction Katie Fforde will treat us to an exclusive preview of her Stroud-inspired new novel.

For our fabulous Stroud Book Festival 2026 finale, we are thrilled to present “Jane Austen’s Piano”, an enchanting performance in words and music featuring writer Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason and her recording artist daughter, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason at the piano.

This year’s programme will also feature the announcement of the winners of the Laurie Lee Prize for Writing 2026, as well as the latest event from Stroud Short Stories, and a wealth of other Five Valleys writing talent at our Saturday Salon event.

We’ll be announcing further Stroud Book Festival 2026 events in the coming weeks so please keep an eye on our website and social media.

 In the meantime, here are some dates for your diary:

Late August                       all events available to browse via our website

11 September                     tickets on public sale

Mid-late September       Stroud Book Festival printed brochure available from venues around Stroud

4- 8 November                  Stroud Book Festival 2026!

Finally… just a reminder that our previously announced event with Hollie McNish, our amazing Stroud Book Festival 2026 Guest Poet is almost sold out. So if you’d like to book tickets for her event at the Sub Rooms on Friday 6^th November, we suggest you do so here pronto.

More soon. Meanwhile, Happy Reading!

With love from

The Stroud Book Festival team x