Dear Festival Friends

It’s October, and with Stroud Book Festival now only five weeks away, the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us.

We know that the arrival of shorter days and darker nights can be a difficult transition for some. So given that our Festival takes place in the smoky, damp month of November, we have programmed two alluring events on the evening of Friday 6 November that really tune into the atmosphere of this season.

Because the Night, with Arifa Akbar and Dan Richards

With the nights drawing in, we invite you to embrace the darkness with two acclaimed non-fiction writers, Arifa Akbar and Dan Richards.

As chief theatre critic for The Guardian, Arifa is used to keeping nocturnal hours. Prompted by her encounters with other nighttime workers, she embarked on a marvellously multi-faceted exploration of the night for her book, “Wolf Moon: A Woman’s Journey Into Night”.

Dan’s “Overnight: Journeys, Conversations and Stories After Dark” is a hymn to nighttime wildlife, travel, dreams and art which details his encounters with a fascinating array of people who labour while the rest of us sleep, bringing their work into the light.

Scare Stories, with Claire Fuller and Leigh Radford

We’ll be just past Halloween but the spookiness will stay in the air as we take a brave look at why so many of us love scary stories, and tales that inject an element of horror into our reading.

Set in 1987, award-winning novelist Claire Fuller’s “Hunger and Thirst” centres on a mysterious house whose owners met a terrible end. It’s an addictively propulsive and haunting story of loneliness, of female friendship, and of horrors without and within.  Influences on the novel include classic horror movies like The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives.

Leigh Radford’s much-acclaimed debut novel “One Yellow Eye” is a subversive undead love story set in a time of zombie pandemic. Kesta’s husband Tim has been bitten, but he’s not quite dead. In fact he’s tied to a bed in her spare room while Kesta tries to find a cure that will bring her back to him.

Leigh told The Bookseller: “Horror is an amazing language to be able to tap into. It is our way of saying things that are unsayable to most people.”

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Tickets for all our 2026 Stroud Book Festival events are on sale now.

You can book:

• Online: thesubrooms.co.uk
• By phone via the Sub Rooms Box Office: 01453 796880 (opening hours Tues-Sat, 10.00am -4.00pm)
• In person at the Sub Rooms Box Office (opening hours as above)

Tickets for a few of our events are being sold via other providers – please check the event copy for details.

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While Stroud Book Festival happens but once a year, our friends at Hawkwood have an amazing roster of author tutors on their writing courses all year round. This forthcoming course features Horatio Clare, also one of our author guests at this year’s Festival.

Bring Your Story to Life! 11–15 October

How do you turn the raw material of life into compelling literature? Acclaimed writers Ali Millar and Horatio Clare guide you on this four-day residential course to explore the craft of life writing. They’ll take you through workshops, discussion and dedicated writing time to help you discover how to shape your memories and experiences into stories. Plus, guest speaker Laura Cumming, writer, memoirist and journalist, will be offering her writing insights and expertise during a relaxed evening Q&A.

Book your place here: https://www.hawkwoodcollege.co.uk/our-programmes/programme/28909-bringing-life-writing-alive

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More news from Stroud Book Festival HQ next week! In the meantime – happy reading, and do keep your eye out for our now regular posts if you do social media.

With love from

The Stroud Book Festival team x