Star-Studded Line-Up for This Year's Chiswick Book Festival
Headline authors include Nick Clegg, Anthony Seldon and Mary Portas
From top left clockwise: Mary Portas, Nick Clegg, Anthony Seldon, Tony Parsons, Adele Parks, Ben McIntyre
July 7, 2026
Tickets have gone on sale for the 18th Chiswick Book Festival, which returns from 9–14 September with one of its strongest programmes to date and a refreshed approach behind the scenes.
This year’s headline authors include Chiswick-resident Nick Clegg, Robert Hardman, Ben Macintyre, Kate Mosse, Mary Portas, Jacqueline Wilson, and many more, alongside broadcasters, historians, novelists and public figures such as Samira Ahmed, Charles Cumming, Alf Dubs, Fergal Keane, Blake Morrison, Adele Parks, Tony Palmer, Tony Parsons and Anthony Seldon. The full programme is available online and in the Festival brochure.
The 2026 line-up marks the first year shaped by a newly formed programme group, created after the departure of former programme director Jo James last autumn. Festival director Torin Douglas has worked with a team of experienced publishing and media professionals — all with strong local ties — to curate the programme and refresh the Festival’s operations.
Jacks Thomas, who co-founded the Festival in 2009, returns as chair. She brings extensive industry experience from roles including Guest Director of BolognaBookPlus, Director of The London Book Fair and CEO of Midas PR. Jacks continues to chair Singing Grass Communications and is a Visiting Professor of Practice at UCL.
The new programming group includes Patsy Irwin, long-time publicity director at Transworld, who retired last year after 35 years with the publisher, Lisa O’Kelly-Reed, former associate books editor at The Observer, now a contributor to The Nerve and a volunteer with literary charities and Orna O’Brien, who has worked closely with Thomas for many years and now serves as the Festival’s author programme co-ordinator.
Torin said the Festival’s evolution reflects both its growth and its commitment to maintaining a strong community identity. “We’ve taken the opportunity to refresh the way it’s run, while keeping popular elements such as our Local Authors Showcase and the events at Chiswick House and Hogarth’s House. We moved most of our children’s events to a special Children’s Books Day in March, and for the main Festival in September we have reduced the number of weekend sessions, to tighten up the programme and help it flow more smoothly.”
Jacks added: “When Torin, Malcolm Edwards and I programmed the first Chiswick Book Festival 18 years ago we knew that Chiswick was a hub for literary lovers, but the success of the festival has surpassed even what we thought possible. My huge congratulations to the new programming team this year — Orna, Patsy and Lisa have done a wonderful job alongside Torin and the wider Festival committee. Long live the book festival — this one and all of them!”
The Festival has also announced a new partnership with BookBrunch, the digital hub for publishing news, interviews and industry insight. BookBrunch will sponsor the Festival’s green room at St Michael & All Angels, the historic Victorian church that hosts many of the Festival’s events. Editor-in-chief Natasha Poliszuk will conduct interviews during the Festival, including Friday’s event with Kate Mosse, and collaborate with the programme team to enhance the September programme.
Run by St Michael & All Angels Church, Bedford Park, the Chiswick Book Festival is a cornerstone of the area’s arts and community outreach. Since 2009 it has raised more than £170,000 for reading and community charities, including Read for Good, Read Easy Ealing and Koestler Arts, as well as supporting the church itself.
Programme updates and mailing-list sign-ups are available at www.chiswickbookfestival.net.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |