A former UK politician attended the Wantage Literary Festival in Oxfordshire last week, while talks on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and climate change are planned for its closing stages.
The 2026 festival began on Monday, October 26, with more than 100 attendees taking part in a discussion of Seamus Heaney’s poetry.
Festival director Berne Ferry said the event had continued, 16 years after its launch, to draw distinguished guests and enthusiastic audiences while enriching the town’s cultural life.
Strong attendances and an increasingly varied programme, he added, offered plenty for the next chapter.
The event runs through to Saturday, November 7.
Andrew Lownie, whose bestselling biography Entitled concerns the fall of the House of York, will appear on the final day.
On Wednesday, November 4, a free session will offer guidance on self-publishing.
Children’s novelist Isaac Hamilton-McKenzie is also due to address more than 500 local school pupils that day.
Earlier highlights included football writer Jonathan Wilson examining the history of the World Cup.
Criminologist Professor David Wilson presented a book exploring modern British history through 20 murders.
The announced guest list also comprises novelist Victoria Hislop and broadcaster Stephen Sackur.
Television historian Janina Ramirez is included, along with former Home Secretary Alan Johnson.
Public readings have been supported through the Big Town Read, a community project bringing Wantage residents together around a shared book.
This year’s selection was The Dangerous Stranger by local author Simon Mason.
Watercolour demonstrations and ghost walks around Wantage were among the other activities, together with a performance of piano music by Schubert at the Church of St Peter and St Paul.