Dear Festival Friends

And…we’re off!

Today we’re thrilled to reveal our first events for Stroud Book Festival 2022, which takes place on 2–6 November.

Our 2022 programme for adults will be headlined by Festival patron, Ian McEwan (pictured left), who will be talking about his new novel, “Lessons”. Legendary Guyana-born poet John Agard  will be here to give an evening poetry performance, as well as a Schools’ Day event. Novelist and Founder Director of the Women’s Prize Kate Mosse (below left) joins us to discuss her new non-fiction book about forgotten women of history, “Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World”. Acclaimed novelist Ali Smith will discuss her latest novel, “Companion Piece”. And we welcome renowned zoologist and TV presenter, Lucy Cooke, to talk about her new book, “Bitch: A Revolutionary Guide to Sex, Evolution and the Female Animal”.

Headlining our children’s programme, we are delighted to welcome the legendary Julia Donaldson back to Stroud for one of her unmissable shows featuring characters from her bestselling books. Also joining us is brilliant space scientist and “The Sky at Night” presenter, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock (right) to talk about her book, “Am I Made of Stardust?”. And fans of “Supertato” will be thrilled to hear that the picture books’ creators, Sue Hendra & Paul Linnet will be dropping into Stroud.

Programme Director Caroline Sanderson writes:

“It’s always an exciting moment when Children’s Programme Director Jane Churchill and I are able to reveal our first events because it marks the beginning of the build-up to another exhilarating Festival! We’re thrilled to be welcoming such a distinguished and diverse group of authors to Stroud Book Festival 2022, and we have plenty more events up our sleeves”.

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

We’ll be announcing further Stroud Book Festival 2022 events in the coming weeks, so as always, please do keep an eye on our Stroud Book Festival website for the latest news at stroudbookfestival.org.uk. And a reminder that if you are on social media, please follow us for updates.

Twitter: @bookstroud

Facebook: facebook.com/stroudbookfestival
Instagram: instagram.com/stroudbookfestival

With love from

The Stroud Book Festival team x