Dear Festival Friends, With Stroud Book Festival 2025 now under three weeks away, we’d like to thank you for your support, and for reading this now weekly bulletin which aims to give you the latest news, including some background behind some of the events we have programmed this year. This week, with the announcement of…

Dear Festival Friends, This week, one happy announcement, and some very sad news. We were so sorry to learn of the death of Dame Jilly Cooper, who lived locally for many years and loved our part of Gloucestershire. We were lucky enough to welcome Dame Jilly to Stroud Book Festival a few years ago, and…

Dear Festival Friends With just under five weeks to go until Stroud Book Festival 2025 begins, we’re busy finalising arrangements for our guest authors and chairs. We are so looking forward to welcoming them all to this year’s Festival. If you haven’t yet picked up your free printed Stroud Book Festival brochure there are still…

Dear Festival Friends We’re delighted with the response to our 2025 programme so far. Ticket sales have been booming and we’re so grateful to everyone who has been buying. While we couldn’t do the Festival without the support of our loyal funders and sponsors, we also couldn’t make it happen without healthy ticket sales; the…

When I visit Angela Harding’s modest HQ in Oakham in Rutland in early December, one of her now six-strong team is heading out to the post office, loaded down with outgoing mail order parcels of Harding merchandise. “The sleigh is very full today,” she calls cheerily as she leaves. Meanwhile, Harding and I sit down…

In her acceptance speech after winning a BAFTA Best Actress Award for her lauded TV series, “I May Destroy You”, actor and writer Michaela Coel dedicated her win to Ita O’Brien, saying: “Thank you for your existence in our industry, for making the space safe, for creating physical, emotional and professional boundaries so we can…

Dear Festival Friends, We’re happy to announce that our 2025 Stroud Book Festival brochure is now available to pick up free from Stroud Bookshop, Stroud Sub Rooms, Stroud Library and many other venues across the Stroud Valleys. We hope you enjoy browsing through it and find plenty of events to inspire you. When you’ve chosen…

Dear Festival Friends, We’re delighted to announce that tickets for our tenth annual Stroud Book Festival are now on sale. We suggest you first browse the 2025 programme on our website – stroudbookfestival.org.uk to choose the events you’d like to book.  You can then click through to buy your tickets online via thesubrooms.co.uk. Tickets can…

Dear Festival Friends This is your Friday reminder that tickets for Stroud Book Festival 2025 go on general sale one week from today on Friday 12th September (from 9am). If you’re a Sub Rooms Patron or Member, you’ll be able to buy them a day or two earlier. Once on sale, you can purchase tickets…

Dear Festival Friends, A quick update from the Stroud Book Festival control room to let you know that our entire 2025 programme is now available to browse on the Stroud Book Festival website – www.stroudbookfestival.org.uk. Tickets will go on general public sale via Stroud Sub Rooms box office from 10am on Friday 12th September, with…