Durham Book Festival

04/09/2026

Fantasy lovers – have your moment at this year’s Durham Book Festival! North East authors HF Askwith and Hannah Kaner are joining us to talk about their latest novels, Half a Dark Heart and A Snake Among Swans.

Come along to Collected Books on Sunday 11 October for discussion about what makes a great fantasy novel, from seriously bold heroines and magical settings to reimagined myths and stories, and how the genre has grown and produced some of the most popular books of the last decade.

H.F. Askwith is the author of three YA gothic fantasy thrillers – A Dark Inheritance, A Cruel Twist of Fate and Half a Dark Heart. She is a Northern Writers’ Award winner and lives in Newcastle.

Hannah Kaner is the author of Godkiller, Sunbringer and Faithbreaker, all three Sunday Times number one bestsellers. She has been shortlisted for awards including the British Book Awards and British Fantasy Awards. Hannah is from Northumberland and now lives in Edinburgh.

Tickets at https://newwritingnorth.com/event/north-east-fantasy/

02/09/2026

A crisp autumn evening of poetry beckons... Join award-winning poet Hollie McNish at Durham Book Festival for hilarious and heartfelt poetry from her latest collection, Virgin, in which she unpicks the meaning of the word with her trademark feminist wit, fury and compassion.

Hollie is the writer of collections Papers, Cherry Pie, Plum, Slug, and Lobster, as well as a poetic parenting memoir, Nobody Told Me. She will be joined by prize-winning Scottish author and Edinburgh Makar/Poet Laureate Michael Pedersen.

Friday 9 October, 7pm, Gala Durham and livestreamed: https://newwritingnorth.com/event/an-evening-with-hollie-mcnish-and-michael-pedersen/

01/09/2026

The young son of an ex-miner in 90s County Durham. Three brown boys on Manchester's Curry Mile. A Cumbrian teenager rebelling against his fearsome publican father. These are the characters at the centre of three new novels vividly bringing Northern communities to life.

Come to Durham Book Festival on Saturday 10 October to discover your next favourite read as Louise Powell, Sufiyaan Salam and Shaun Wilson share their exciting debuts: Underdogs, Wimmy Road Boyz and Malc's Boy.

Get your tickets: https://newwritingnorth.com/event/new-northern-voices-louise-powell-sufiyaan-salam-and-shaun-wilson/

30/08/2026

At a time when women's rights are being rolled back, Clare McGlynn and Natasha Walter are joining us at Durham Book Festival on Sunday 11 October to discuss how we can turn the tide on the violent sexual content that is reshaping modern society, and build supportive and hopeful communities for women.

Clare McGlynn is a Professor of Law at Durham University and a leading international authority on the regulation of po*******hy, sexual violence and online abuse. Her debut book, Exposed: The Rise of Extreme P**n and How We Fight Back, was published this year.

Natasha Walter is a human rights activist and feminist author of five books including, most recently, Feminism for a World on Fire. She has also written for the Guardian, the Independent and the Observer and contributed to arts and political programmes on TV and radio.

Book tickets: https://newwritingnorth.com/event/clare-mcglynn-and-natasha-walter-in-conversation/

28/08/2026

Before Bridgerton, there was Georgette Heyer, the original Queen of Regency Romance. Now, for the first time since her death in 1974, bestselling author Sophie Irwin writes a continuation of Heyer’s beloved books, fusing her brilliantly witty and modern voice with Heyer’s iconic style.

In Henrietta, Irwin’s heroine has set herself the challenge of becoming the season’s diamond and finally getting her dashing friend Lord Allerton to fall in love with her. After three years away at war and a family estate in chaos, however, can Lord Allerton’s attentions be won, and will she be named this scandalous season’s newest diamond?

Come and indulge in a bit of Regency romance and historical gossip at Durham Book Festival on Sunday 11 October 1pm, when Sophie Irwin will be in conversation with County Durham historian and social media personality Katie Kennedy, AKA The History Gossip: https://newwritingnorth.com/event/regency-romance-with-sophie-irwin-and-the-history-gossip/

26/08/2026

If stories from the ancient world have been your summer obsession, join us in Durham this October to hear more about a famous figure from Greek myth...

From her dramatic escape from her home with Jason on The Argo, to the tragic decision to murder her own sons, the story of Medea is one of the most recognisable from ancient Greek mythology, inspiring plays, operas, paintings and sculptures.

In Medea: A Life, the first biography of the fictional woman behind the myth, acclaimed classicist Edith Hall strives to restore Medea’s humanity using meticulous research to illuminate the true story of the woman: an outsider driven to extremes by betrayal and displacement in the patriarchal ancient Mediterranean world.

Edith Hall, professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University, will be joining us at Gala Durham on Saturday 10 October at 10am, chaired by writer Anna Barker.

Get your tickets: https://newwritingnorth.com/event/edith-hall-medea-a-life/

23/08/2026

As the Toon Army start their Premier League campaign against Liverpool right now, we are excited that Dan Jackson will be coming to the festival to talk about his new book Howay the Lads! ⚽

Howay the Lads! is fascinating history of Newcastle United and a richly detailed celebration of North East England through the eyes of the club’s loyal supporters and players.

Howay the Lads! begins its journey in Victorian Tyneside – where football was embedded into working-class culture amongst mines and shipyards – and continues to modern-day Newcastle and the club’s international fame, following stories of unwavering determination from Newcastle United icons such as legendary goal-scorers Alan Shearer and Jackie Milburn.

Dan Jackson is a North East-based historian and author of The Northumbrians, which was a Sunday Times Book of the Year in 2019. Dan has also appeared in BBC’s Making History and Who Do You Think You Are? He is a founding member of the Northumbria WW1 Commemoration Project, for which he received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Chaired by George Caulkin, The Athletic FC, on Sunday 11 October, 11am at the Durham Gala.

Delve into the fascinating history of Newcastle United with Dan Jackson in Howay the Lads!: a richly detailed celebration of...

21/08/2026

Writer Kit Fan and chef Anna Hedworth will explore how food and the act of cooking forges connections and strengthens the ties of identity, family and heritage at Durham Book Festival on Saturday 10 October, from 12.30-1.30pm.

In Kit Fan’s Goodbye Chinatown, protagonist Amber grapples with notions of home and family as she forges her career as a Michelin-starred chef in London in the early 2000s.

Anna Hedworth’s latest cookbook, Service, takes us through a full day in her restaurant, Cook House, vividly describing the ebb and flow of prep and mealtimes and her love of the North East.

Kit Fan is an award-winning novelist, poet and critic. His third poetry collection, The Ink Cloud Reader, 2023 was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize. He has written for the Guardian, Times Literary Supplement and The Telegraph. He was born and educated in Hong Kong and now lives in the UK.

Anna Hedworth is a Newcastle-based cook, restaurateur and food writer. Cook House has won accolades from Michelin, The Good Food Guide and many more. She also owns Long Friday and new bar, Wren. Anna is the author of Recipes and Stories from Cook House, named a Food Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, Telegraph & The Week, and Service, which recently won the Guild of Food Writers Cookery Book Award.

Book your tickets today https://newwritingnorth.com/event/food-connection-and-identity-with-kit-fan-and-anna-hedworth/

20/08/2026

We are really thrilled to be welcoming internationally bestselling author Susanna Clarke to the festival this year. Her brand-new novella is called The Bishop of Durham Attempts to Surrender the City, so there is no better city in which to discuss this new chapter of the spellbinding world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Set in the year 1110, the novella follows the Bishop of Durham on an epic quest through an other-worldly North East of England to a New Castle on the banks of the River Tyne, in an attempt to surrender to the fairy host besieging his city.

Susanna Clarke’s debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has been published in more than 34 countries and has sold over four million copies worldwide. It was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2004 and won the British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award in 2005. Clarke’s second novel, Piranesi, was an international bestseller and won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021.

Join us to welcome Susanna on Saturday 10 October, 5-6pm, at Durham Gala.

https://newwritingnorth.com/event/susanna-clarke-the-bishop-of-durham-attempts-to-surrender-the-city/

19/08/2026

We have live-stream tickets left for Neil Tennant: Forged in the North, with Fiona Hill.

In-person tickets for the event at the Gala Durham are now sold out but there are £5 live-stream tickets available for this rare chance to hear about how growing up in Newcastle shaped the music of Pet Shop Boys icon, Neil Tennant.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Pet Shop Boys’ debut album, Tennant’s 2018 book, One Hundred Lyrics and a Poem, is being re-released in 2026. The book features the lyrics that have made Tennant such a unique chronicler of modern life, able to chart the politics, aspirations, and changing attitudes of a nation over 40 years. Volume: the Complete Visual Record, celebrating 40 years of the Pet Shop Boys’ entire visual output, was also published in 2026, and is a Sunday Times bestseller.

Tennant will be talking to Fiona Hill, the Chancellor of Durham University and a political advisor specialising in Russian and European affairs. Her memoir, There is Nothing For You Here, charts her journey from daughter of a coalminer in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, to serving under three US presidents as a security advisor.

This event follows on from Fiona Hill’s podcast series Forged in the North which debuted at Durham Book Festival last year, exploring how the North East has shaped the lives of successful people.