Dear Festival Friends

After spending much of this year reading and planning and discussing and organising, we can hardly believe that Stroud Book Festival 2026 gets underway in less than six weeks’ time.

It’s so exciting to see tickets already selling well for our 2026 programme, and as ever we’re hugely grateful to our loyal festival goers who respond so positively to what we do every year. We couldn’t do it without you!

Hopefully you’ve now had a chance to pick up a copy of our printed brochure to help you browse all our events. If you haven’t yet decided what to book, may we suggest:

This Is Also A Love Story, with Sally Hayden

With so much dark news coming from so many places in the world, it’s always salutary to remind ourselves of the altruistic but often unreported acts that occur around the globe every single day.

Orwell Prize-winning journalist and author Sally Hayden has reported from dozens of the world’s most turbulent places. Many of her most recent dispatches have come from Lebanon where she has spent many months living on the frontline of the wars in the Middle East. Yet her most recent book “This is Also A Love Story” was born out of her desire to remind herself that “the world is not just a cruel and horrible place; that it also has beauty and kindness and goodness in it”.

And so, among those we meet in “This is Also a Love Story” are Ukrainian couples, devoted to each other despite the ongoing war that constantly separates them; survivors of the Rwandan genocide, supported by ‘artificial families’ who took the place of their own lost loved ones; and a Nigerian mother who went to extreme lengths to protect her daughter from abduction by Boko Haram.

In her Prologue, Hayden states that while witnessing human beings in crisis, she began to wonder whether “the world might be a different place if we more regularly told news stories through the prism of love”.

If you’d like to read more about the book, you can read SBF Programme Director Caroline Sanderson’s recent interview with Sally Hayden here.

Tickets here.

Patchwork Stories, with Sita Brahmachari

We love the ways in which books can provide a spur not just for creative writing but for creativity of all kinds, and our workshop “Patchwork Stories” provides a wonderful example of this.

Blending interactive storytelling, creative writing and art, we’re delighted to present a workshop for children aged 6+ with Sita Brahmachari, the author of “The Tale That Time Sews”. Inspired by her work at the Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants, this beautiful book – illustrated by Jane Ray – is a lyrical, intergenerational story designed to inspire readers to trace golden threads of family, friendship and love through time.

The workshop gives children the chance to explore the Sita and Jane’s book, and then, inspired by their own family stories, to make a patchwork piece of art or threaded poem to hang on a golden thread.

Tickets here.

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.

• 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.

With love from

The Stroud Book Festival team x