Dear Festival Friends

We know that many of you enjoy browsing our Stroud Book Festival printed brochure so we’re delighted to announce that our 2026 edition is now available to pick up from venues around Stroud and beyond, including Stroud Bookshop, Stroud Sub Rooms, Stroud Library, Borderless Books and the Yellow Lighted Bookshop.

For the first time ever, you have a choice of cover designs – we just couldn’t pick only one from the three fantastic illustrations designed for us by Tom Sears this year. So we have printed some of each, meaning you could even collect all three!

A reminder that tickets are now on sale for all our 2026 Stroud Book Festival events, and many are already selling fast so please book soon to avoid disappointment. For the majority of our events, here’s how to do so:

• Online: thesubrooms.co.uk
• By phone via the Sub Rooms Box Office: 01453 796880 (opening hours Tues-Sat, 10-4)
• 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.

Doom Painting by A K Blakemore

This week’s highlighted adult event is “Doom Painting” with A K Blakemore on Thursday 5 November, 8.30-9.30pm, at Stroud Sub Rooms.

A K Blakemore is one of the UK’s most acclaimed literary novelists, and her latest novel, “Doom Painting” – out this month – has received rave advance reviews. Set in a medieval England that feels lived in rather than merely researched, it’s an ambitious, intricate novel set at the time of the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381.

Interviewed by The Bookseller, its author stated that “One of the things that I find most astonishing about the Peasants’ Revolt is you have these people that we think of as quite backward and non-literate…imagining these really quite radical, unbelievably radical, changes to the world. It’s a novel, more than anything, about how we imagine vastly better worlds than the ones we’re living in and how we do that together.” Tickets available here.

Zombie Worms and Blue Dragons by Ben Garrod

For our youngest Festival goers, may we recommend the biodiverse and brilliant “Zombie Worms and Blue Dragons: Celebrating 100 Iconic Life Forms” on Saturday 7 November, 1.45-2.45pm, at Lansdown Hall. Evolutionary biologist, TV presenter and author Ben Garrod will be sharing fantastic facts about some of the most extraordinary creatures on earth: from brain-controlling fungi to the largest dinosaur ever to have lived. Tickets available here.

Play On Stroud

Finally, a shout out for our newest fellow Stroud festival, Play On Stroud, and an event that is also specially aimed at children and families. On Saturday 10 October, award-winning puppetry company Indefinite Articles – who have worked with the RSC and The Mighty Boosh – are coming to Stroud to present their magical version of well-loved story, “Pinocchio”. Suitable for ages 4+, you can see this fabulous show at Lansdown Hall, with performances at 11am and 1.30pm. More information here.

Whichever events you plan to book, we much look forward to welcoming you to Stroud Book Festival in November.

With love from

The Stroud Book Festival team x