Fergal Keane talking to Julian Worricker about ‘War, Fear… and the BBC’ at the 18th Chiswick Book Festival which took place from 9-14 September 2026. Read the report on The Chiswick Calendar. The annual Chiswick Book Festival is a non-profit-making community event, raising money for St Michael and All Angels Church, which hosts the event, and three charities. All photos by Roger Green unless otherwise stated.Beloved best-selling children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson (l) returned to Chiswick to talk to former BBC arts correspondent Rebecca Jones (r) about her latest novel, Esme Pepper. St Michael & All Angels Church was packed with her fans (below, photo by Torin Douglas) and she signed their books for well over an hour! Read the report on The Chiswick Calendar.Participants at the Chiswick Book Festival Local Authors Showcase on 9 September 2026 in the historic George IV pub in Chiswick. During the event, twenty authors had just two minutes to speak about their book, making for a fast-paced, fun and fascinating evening hosted by Capital Xtra presenter Jojo Silva, speaking below. Read the report on The Chiswick Calendar.The queue for Ben Macintyre talking to Charles Cumming at the 18th Chiswick Book Festival, 9-14 September 2026 and, below, speaking in front of the capacity crowd in St Michael & All Angels Church. It formed part of the ‘Double Cross, Double Bill: Spies in Fact & Fiction’ sessions, sponsored by St Benedict’s School..The annual Chiswick Book Festival is a non-profit-making community event, raising money for St Michael and All Angels Church, which hosts the event, and the three reading and arts charities above: Read Easy Ealing, Koestler Arts and Read for Good. In 17 years we have raised over £170,000 for charities. Read more about them here. Photo by Torin Douglas.Miranda Seymour’s book I, Vera: The Many Lives of Vera Gedroits, a Radical Princess, tells the astonishing story of a pioneering woman surgeon in imperial Russia who worked in battlefields and ordered Rasputin out of her operating theatre. In The Return of Russia, historian James Rodgers examines its recent relationship with the West, from the collapse of the Soviet Union to the present day. They talked to Michael Pugh (Riding Through War and Peace), who left his job in Moscow to ride through rural Russia on horseback.Lucy Cufflin and Donna Freed provided the anchovy canapés at the 2026 Chiswick Book Festival, for the talks and tastings, paired with gin (below): Sudi Pigott, author of Consider the Anchovy: a journey in pursuit of the little fish with the big flavour, spoke with historian Anistatia Miller and Sipsmith co-founder Jared Brown (A Most Noble Water) who debunked the myth that William III, Prince of Holland, brought gin to England. Chaired by food author and broadcaster Jo Pratt. The tastings began in the Parish Hall upstairs and continued outdoors. Photos below by Torin Douglas.Continuing the food theme, the next session was also chaired by Jo Pratt. Felicity Cloake’s warm and witty first novel, The Underdog, follows a lawyer who abandons her career to pursue her dream of becoming a chef, while Bee Wilson’s memoir The Heart-Shaped Tin explores how everyday kitchen objects become vessels for memory, grief, love and identity. Together they use the kitchen as a lens through which to examine identity, reinvention and the courage to pursue what you want from life.Thirty years after founding the Orange Prize for Fiction (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction), best-selling novelist Kate Mosse talked to writer and journalist Natasha Poliszczuk about championing women’s creativity, her career as a bestselling author and her forthcoming book Autumn, a ‘love letter to Sussex’ and part of a series with Michael Morpurgo’s Spring, Bernardine Evaristo’s Summer and Val McDermid’s Winter. Read her interview with The Chiswick Calendar.Tony Parsons (Man & Dog: A Love Story) thanking two of the team from Waterstones Chiswick who handled the book sales during the Festival – in St Michael & All Angels Parish Hall (above) and St Michael & All Angels Church (below) with bookshop managers Chloe Jones and Josie Wilkes. Photos by Torin Douglas.Marking the centenary of Queen Elizabeth II, royal biographer Robert Hardman assesses her long and eventful reign in his book Elizabeth II. He was joined by journalist Catherine Mayer, author of Charles, The Heart of a King, whose latest book Divide and Rule: Royal Women and their Battles examines the rivalries and relationships that shaped the monarchy. Chaired by Julian Worricker, of the BBC Radio royal commentary team.Blake Morrison’s On Memoir: An A-Z of Life Writing is a delightful compendium of musings from the master of life writing, ‘the critic every literary editor turns to’ (The Spectator). He was joined by novelist and screen writer Louise Doughty who’s written her first work of memoir, On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love. Chaired by Chiswick Book Festival chair Jacks Thomas.In the 1990s, Mary Portas turned Harvey Nichols into ‘Harvey Nicks’ and changed the way we shop. She shared her experiences on TV as the BBC’s ‘Mary Queen of Shops’ and partnered with Save the Children to reinvent charity shops. Mary joined Helen Brocklebank, CEO of Walpole, which speaks for the UK luxury industry, for a wide-ranging conversation about Portas’ acclaimed memoir-cum-business manual, I Shop: Therefore I Am. She also caught up with fans at the book-signing afterwards!On the tenth anniversary of the Brexit referendum, historian Anthony Seldon assembled writers from all sides of the debate in The Brexit Effect 2016-2026 to assess its impact on British life. In conversation with broadcaster Jo Coburn, he discussed that book and, as the acclaimed biographer of recent Prime Ministers, their own roles in the saga, including his latest subject Rishi Sunak. We couldn’t run the Chiswick Book Festival without our amazing volunteers and that includes the welcome team on our Tickets & Information desk under Box Office Manager Shelley Hasseldine, above, and the bar team led by Neville Forrest below! 60 years after the Beatles were filmed and photographed at Chiswick House, recording their Paperback Writer and Rain videos, three Beatles experts celebrated that iconic moment and reflected on their unique place in rock history. (l-r) Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn (The Beatles: All These Years, Volume 1 – Tune In); Tony Palmer, director of the 17-part TV documentary series All You Need Is Love: The Story of Popular Music; and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, author of the BFI Classics book on A Hard Day’s Night. Afterwards they signed copies of their books (below). 60 years after the Beatles were filmed and photographed at Chiswick House, recording their Paperback Writer and Rain video, Blue Badge guide Guy Fairbank led four Beatles Walks in the grounds of Chiswick House. Here he recreates the pose in the photo with the help of four willing walkers (one in the Ringo pose at the back). Read Guy’s blog on Chiswick’s Rock n Roll history on The Chiswick Calendar. Photo by Torin Douglas.(l-r) Crime novelist and screenwriter Matt Baker (Patience, A Taste for Murder) and former Head of Drama at the BBC, Channel 4 and Company Pictures, John Yorke discuss the importance of great stories on the screen and on the page – and the art of adapting books for TV and film with Radio Times TV Editor and columnist Caroline Frost. The 2026 Chiswick Book Festival’s Young Poets Competition aims to encourage young people to enjoy creating their own poems. We look for original poems on any theme, up to 25 lines long. The winners received their prizes from Christopher Jarvis (left). Read the report at ChiswickW4.com.Charles Cumming (centre) has been hailed as ‘the rightful inheritor of John le Carre’s crown’. Icarus 17 is his latest novel featuring Lachlan Kite. Jane Thynne’s (r) memorable characters include Clara Vine and, in her latest book Appointment in Paris, Harry Fox and Stella Vine. They discussed the appeal of espionage on the page and the screen with another best-selling spy novelist, Alex Gerlis (l). It formed part of the ‘Double Cross, Double Bill: Spies in Fact & Fiction’ sessions, sponsored by St Benedict’s School.Fifty years on from her death, Agatha Christie remains the Queen of Crime. Why do we still adore her? (l-r) Cathy Rentzenbrink (The Agatha Christie Cure: What Reading the Queen of Crime Taught Me About Life) and Sophie Hannah (The Last Death of the Year: A Hercule Poirot Mystery) discuss her never-ending popularity with award-winning crime writer and Christie superfan Vaseem Khan (The Edge of Darkness)Encouraging children to enjoy reading instead of scrolling through their phones is the National Year of Reading’s big challenge. Discussing how to get children reading for pleasure were (l-r) Alison Stewart of the Children’s Media Foundation, The Reading Agency’s Head of Research & Evaluation Dr Carina Spaulding, and authors and producers Laura Henry-Allain and Nigel Twumasi. Dominic Gregory is a volunteer RNLI crew member at Dungeness, one of Europe’s busiest stretches of sea, now at the heart of a political storm. His debut memoir, Lifeboat at the End of the World, has been hailed as ‘unforgettable’ and a ‘hymn to human decency’. The Surge by the Observer’s Jeevan Vasagar tells how floods have changed our relationship with each other, as sea levels rise and storms become more intense. They spoke to environment journalist Lucy Siegel.In How to Save the Internet Nick Clegg, former UK Deputy Prime Minister and latterly one of Meta’s most senior executives, talked to Caroline Frost about his blueprint for reforming Big Tech while preserving the openness of the internet, to make it safer and more effective. See report on The Chiswick Calendar. And ‘Why I nearly decked Nick Clegg at the Chiswick Book Festival’.Tom Hodgkinson, author of the bestselling How to Be Idle and now How To Live Like A Stoic, looks at the greatest Stoics in history – including Seneca, Cicero and St Augustine – to see if they can help us find fulfilment. He talked to Fr Kevin Morris, vicar of St Michael & All Angels. Photo by Jim Cox.Rev Martine Oborne, vicar of St Michael’s Elmwood Road, speaking with illustrations (held up by our production manager Sue Ellis) at the Local Author Showcase on 9 September 2026 in the historic George IV pub in Chiswick. During the event, twenty authors had just two minutes to speak about their book, making for a fast-paced, fun and fascinating evening hosted by Capital Xtra presenter Jojo Silva. Read the report on The Chiswick Calendar.James Reed, CEO of Reed, is a regular commentator on business, politics and the job market. In his book Karma Capitalism: why being a good business is good business, he makes the case for PhilCos – philanthropy companies – where a percentage of shares are owned by a charity or foundation. He discussed how to do business differently with chair Kamal Ahmed, editorial director, Fortune. The session was supported by the University of West London, as were the sessions with Beeban Kidron on AI with Iain Dale and Sarah Vine on politics. See the report on TheHounslow Herald.In the final event of the big weekend, broadcaster and podcaster Iain Dale (Have I Said Too Much? My Life in Politics and the Media) and author and columnist Sarah Vine (How Not to be a Politician’s Wife) and talked frankly about their memoirs, including Sarah’s marriage and divorce from former MP Michael Gove and surviving the Westminster culture. Chaired by broadcaster and columnist Caroline Frost (r). Read the report on The Chiswick Calendar.When Georgina Moore moved to a floating home at Taggs Island 18 years ago she quickly fell in love with life on the river. Her new book, River of Stars, draws on the island’s rich rock ‘n’ roll heritage and that of nearby Eel Pie Island, the legendary venue in the 1960s for acts like the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and many more. She discussed life on the Thames and much else besides with Natasha Poliszczuk. See report on The Chiswick Calendar. Photo by Bridget Osborne.Ahead of the Chiswick Book Festival and our Beatles event at Chiswick House, we screened the first Beatles film A Hard Day’s Night in partnership with the ActOne community cinema in Acton (later visited by Prince William to celebrate grassroots cinema and ActOne’s fifth birthday). We held a book signing with Samira Ahmed, author of the BFI Classics book about the film, who sold 27 books and also did a Q&A chaired by Festival director Torin Douglas .
We look forward to seeing you next year. Save the dates: September 8th to 13th 2027.
