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The Festival: 6 - 14 November 2026 | Tickets: 01308 424901|bridport.tic@bridport-tc.gov.uk
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Bridport Arts Centre

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    Event 4 | Sarah Clegg | Perilous Enchantment

    £14.00

    Sarah Clegg - Perilous Enchantment - The True History of Faeries

    We often picture fairies as harmless, pastel-clad creatures, but the true history of the fae is far darker and more complex. In Perilous Enchantment, historian Sarah Clegg strips away the Victorian glitter to uncover the capricious nature of these otherworldly beings. Following the runaway success of her Sunday Times bestseller The Dead of Winter, Clegg traces how local nature spirits evolved into tricksters, demonic accomplices in witch trials and modern “romantasy” figures. Travelling from ancient Greek nymph caves to Icelandic elf fires, Clegg reveals how shifting fairy myths mirror humanity’s deepest wishes and anxieties. Chaired by historian Eleanor Barraclough. Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Saturday 7th November 2026 @ 12 noon
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 5 | Natasha Walter | Feminism for a World on Fire

    £14.00

    Natasha Walter - Feminism for a World on Fire

    Join us for an inspiring conversation with acclaimed author and campaigner Natasha Walter about building a more connected and hopeful future. Introducing her powerful new book Feminism for a World on Fire, she talks to Samantha Knights KC about how the challenges facing women today – from inequality and online misogyny to climate change – are interconnected and why our responses should be, too. She offers a vision of feminism rooted in community, imagining how women’s liberation can sit alongside movements for equality, justice and environmental protection. Natasha Walter’s books include The New Feminism and Living Dolls. She is the founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women. Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Saturday 7th November 2026 @ 1.30 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 7 | Hannah Bourne-Taylor | Nature Needs You

    £14.00

    Hannah Bourne-Taylor - Nature Needs You

    Join author and environmental campaigner Hannah Bourne-Taylor for a candid conversation about finding your voice and fighting for the natural world, the subject of her book Nature Needs You. Alongside discussing her grassroots crusade to save the UK’s plummeting swift population – from high-profile campaigning to demanding mandatory swift bricks in new builds – she will dive into her life as an activist and her experiences behind the scenes on Clarkson’s Farm. A frank discussion about rural life, battling bureaucracy and why protecting our wildlife requires radical resistance. She talks to writer and conservationist Keggie Carew. Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Saturday 7th November 2026 @ 4.30 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    Sponsor: Rob & Alex Appleby
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 9 | Katja Hoyer | Weimar

    £14.00

    Katja Hoyer - Weimar - Life on the Edge of Catastrophe

    Between the collapse of the German Empire and the rise of the Third Reich, the Weimar Republic endured 14 years of artistic brilliance, political violence and hyperinflation. Historian Katja Hoyer – author of the bestseller Beyond the Wall – talks to the novelist Boris Starling about how democracy unravelled into tyranny. Central to her narrative are personal accounts from the time, including the diary of a local stationer, Carl Weirich. The result is a remarkably vivid portrait of ordinary citizens trying to navigate a chaotic and frightening world. A gripping new insight into one of the most fascinating periods in German history.

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Saturday 7th November 2026 @ 6 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    Sponsored by: Sarah Gordon Wild
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 13 | Robert Barrington | Corrupted Kingdom

    £14.00

    Robert Barrington - Corrupted Kingdom - Britain’s Disappearing Integrity – And How We Can Get It Back

    Britain has long prided itself on fairness, but is that reputation still deserved? Robert Barrington believes not: the UK is losing the battle against grift. In Corrupted Kingdom, the world-leading corruption expert makes the case that complacency has undermined our national institutions, from parliament and the NHS to the monarchy and the police. Barrington traces this decline back to the end of empire and identifies steps we might take to restore trust. We need to act now, he argues, to stop the rot. Professor Barrington is joined by the broadcaster Gavin Esler, author of Britain Is Better Than This. Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Sunday 8th November 2026 @ 1.00 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    Sponsored by: Ann Thimont
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 18 | Bank of Dreams and Nightmares | Resonate

    £8.00

    Bank of Dreams and Nightmares - Resonate

    Resonate is a free creative writing and spoken word project for young people aged 15–19 whose voices might not normally be heard. Over two workshop weekends this autumn, participants work with poet Cecilia Knapp to explore identity and what it means to be them, finding language for stories they’ve rarely had the chance to tell. Cecilia also hosts this culminating event, where the group reads and performs the work they’ve created together. As one past participant put it, describing the moment she first read her work aloud: “I felt real pride and unfiltered joy for the first time in about 3 years.ˮ The Bank of Dreams and Nightmares is a Bridport-based charity that supports creative writing for young people 7–18.

    FREE for under 19s Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Sunday 8th November 2026 @ 7 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 20 | Beth Gardiner | Plastic Inc

    £14.00

    Beth Gardiner - Plastic Inc - Big Oil, Big Money and the Plan to Trash Our Future

    In her new book journalist Beth Gardiner looks at our love-hate relationship with one of the world’s most ubiquitous materials. Praised by the New York Times as “a compelling true-crime story”, Gardiner’s deep dive exposes how petrochemical giants have turned to plastic as a financial lifeline, plotting to double production even as individuals are encouraged to use less. Gardiner reveals how corporate litter campaigns cleverly shifted guilt onto consumers, and why the “myth” of recycling plastic effectively has been promoted despite industry knowledge that it can’t work at scale. Author and green campaigner Julia Hailes chairs a revelatory discussion.

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Monday 9th November 2026 @ 12 noon
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    Sponsored by: Julia Hailes
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 40 | Judith Mackrell | Artists, Siblings, Visionaries

    £14.00

    Judith Mackrell - Artists, Siblings, Visionaries - The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John

    Acclaimed biographer and former Guardian critic Judith Mackrell examines the entwined lives of two artistic giants. While Augustus achieved early fame as a bohemian prodigy, his reclusive sister Gwen combined a devotion to her subtle portraits with a series of obsessive romantic affairs in Paris. Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Mackrell’s exceptional dual biography explores their fierce sibling rivalry, shared obsession with absolute creative freedom and complex private lives. She reveals how two strikingly different personalities, reshaped British art. Chaired by Gill Pyrah.

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Wednesday 11th November 2026 @ 3.00 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    Sponsored by: Bettina & Michael Pescod
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 45 | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | High Fibre Heroes

    £14.00

    Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - High Fibre Heroes

    Join the broadcaster, writer and food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for a feast of an event. Best known for his River Cottage TV series, bestselling books and his passion for food focused on local, seasonal and ethically produced ingredients, Hugh has reshaped the conversation around how we eat. Now he’s determined to help us all eat more fibre, conjuring 100 recipes from 12 of the most versatile and readily available vegetables. He’ll be chewing things over with the journalist Teddy Jamieson. “Only Hugh could take on a subject like fibre and transform it into something interesting, desirable and delicious,” Meera Sodha.

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Thursday 12th November 2026 @ 11.30 am
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    Sponsored by: Pippa & Hugo James
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 49 | Sara Wheeler | Jan Morris

    £14.00

    Sara Wheeler - Jan Morris - A Life

    Jan Morris led a life as vast as her literary output. A pioneering journalist who scooped the 1953 Everest ascent, covered the Eichmann trial and authored acclaimed works on Venice and the British Empire, Morris was equally famed for her 1970s gender transition, a groundbreaking journey documented in her classic memoir, Conundrum. Award-winning biographer Sara Wheeler discusses her authorised life of the literary icon. Granted unrestricted access to Morris’s personal diaries and archives, Wheeler moves beyond the public persona to explore a brilliant, contradictory figure: a Welsh nationalist who wasn’t Welsh, an intrepid traveller who sought the meaning of home, and an unyielding romantic.

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Thursday 12th November 2026 @ 5.30 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    Sponsored by: Felicity Fairbairn
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 63 | Zakia Sewell | Finding Albion

    £12.00

    Zakia Sewell - Finding Albion - Myth, Folklore and the Quest for a Hidden Britain

    Zakia Sewell is on a quest for another Britain. Criss-crossing our island, the acclaimed broadcaster is seeking out a story that transcends divisive national myths and symbols. It’s to be found in otherworldly folk songs, ancient legends, Celtic rites and the stone circles punctuating our landscape. Her journey begins at the spring equinox in Glastonbury, where she meets neopagans reclaiming pre-Christian traditions. At Notting Hill Carnival, she hears cultural echoes passed along the slave routes from the Caribbean, and in a Cornish winter she asks if today’s new folk revival could unite a divided country. How might a mythical past inspire a brighter national future? Women’s Prize longlisted.

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Saturday 14th November 2026 @ 1.30 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 64 | Paul Mason | Reds

    £14.00

    Paul Mason - Reds - A Global History of Communism

    The former Channel 4 News reporter talks to journalist Paul Lashmar about the global history of communism. Reds traces the history of communist ideas through the ancient world, and chronicles the rise of 19th-century anti-capitalist movements. Crucially, it asks how the idealism of millions led to mass murder and repression. Using testimonies from perpetrators and victims, Mason offers a terrifying account of how a 20th-century political experiment became a totalitarian nightmare. He also has a warning for the present. Western democracies lack self-belief: millions in the global south see China’s authoritarian development model as a viable alternative. Is history destined to repeat itself?

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Saturday 14th November 2026 @ 3.00 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details

  • Event 69 | Alice Oswald | Rhapsody

    £14.00

    Alice Oswald - Rhapsody - A Manifesto

    Join the brilliant Alice Oswald as she goes in search of poetry in its original, wildest form, before it was written down and belonged to any single voice. Rhapsody: A Manifesto begins as an attempt to “interview” Homer and becomes a thrilling exploration of an anonymous tradition that brings together singers, storytellers, mourners, nightingales and rivers. Oswald invites us to listen to the voices that shape us, and to recognise poetry as a communal and essential human inheritance. The result is a resounding manifesto for the oral tradition. Alice Oswald has been awarded the TS Eliot Prize, Forward Poetry Prize, Griffin Poetry Prize and Costa Poetry Award. She was Oxford Professor of Poetry 2019-2024.

    Priority booking opens Friday 28 August, while general booking opens on Friday 11 September. Become a Friend today and enjoy two weeks of priority booking, giving you first access to the programme. Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901.
    When: Thursday 3rd December @ 7.30 pm
    Where: Bridport Arts Centre
    PRIORITY BOOKING Details
The Bridport Literary Festival © Copyright 2004 - 2026
Charity No: 1147075 | All Rights Reserved | Designed by BRACED
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