The 2026 Chiswick Book Festival will mark 60 years since The Beatles’ ‘Paperback Writer’ in Chiswick. The centenary of Elizabeth II will be discussed by biographer Robert Hardman & Catherine Meyer. Other speakers at the 9-14 September event speakers will include Nick Clegg, Jacqueline Wilson, Jane Thynne, and Ben Macintyre.
Following the success of its Children’s Books Day last month, Chiswick Book Festival has released first programme details of its 18th Festival, which will run from 9-14 September. Tickets will go on sale at the end of June: festival-goers are encouraged to save the dates.
Highlights will include a celebration of The Beatles, 60 years after the ‘fab four’ famously filmed two of the first pop videos, Paperback Writer and Rain, in the gardens of Chiswick House.
On Thursday 10 September , BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed (Front Row, NewsWatch) will chair a distinguished panel on The Beatles: Film, Fame and Social Change. Samira’s book about the film A Hard Day’s Night was launched last week (8 April) at BFI South Bank.
The 2026 Chiswick Book Festival will mark another anniversary: the centenary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II. This will be marked in a session with royal biographer Robert Hardman, who spoke about King Charles III in Chiswick two years ago and whose new book Elizabeth II has just been published.
Robert will be speaking with author Catherine Meyer, whose book Divide and Rule: Royal Women and their Battles will be out in the summer.
Former deputy prime minister and Meta vice-president Nick Clegg, who recently moved into Chiswick, will speak on Friday 11 September about his book How to Save the Internet, which comes out in an updated paperback edition in May. Another view on politics and the media will be given by journalist Sarah Vine, who will talk about her Sunday Times bestseller How Not to Be a Political Wife which comes out in paperback in the summer.
Three Festival favourites return to Chiswick on Saturday 12 September in a double bill: Spies in Fact and Fiction. Ben Macintyre will talk about his next book Redwood: The Untold Story of the Cold War’s Most Extraordinary Spy, in conversation with Charles Cumming, who will also discuss his forthcoming spy novel Icarus 17 with friend and fellow spy writer Jane Thynne. Jane’s acclaimed novel Appointment in Paris is now out in paperback: she has also been watching the filming of the new Berlin Noir series starring Colin Firth, based on the Bernie Gunther novels of her late husband Philip Kerr.
Dame Jacqueline Wilson, who spoke at the first Chiswick Book Festival in 2009 and again in 2023, will discuss her latest novel for adults, Picture Imperfect, a sequel to the 1999 classic The Illustrated Mum. It catches up with Dolphin at age 33 as she works in a tattoo parlour and navigates life with her mother, Marigold, and sister, Star.
And Professor James Rodgers, author The Return of Russia: From Yeltsin to Putin will provide a wider perspective on Russian history in conversation with novelist, biographer and critic Miranda Seymour. Her new book is about a radical Russian princess and doctor who once frogmarched Rasputin out of a ward for wounded officers, I, Vera: The Many Lives of Vera Gedroits, will be published next month.
Each September, the Chiswick Book Festival brings together top authors and their readers for a week of talks on a range of fiction and non-fiction works. It is a non-profit-making community event, raising money for three reading charities and St Michael & All Angels Church, which organises the festival with support from local businesses, media and many volunteers.
Torin Douglas, director of the Chiswick Book Festival, said: “We’re delighted to give a taster of the outstanding lineup for September and we’ll be announcing more names and details in the coming months. We hope people will save the dates ahead of tickets going on sale at the end of June. The Festival will also include a screening of one of the films in the new Simon Gray season at Chiswick Cinema – Quartermaine’s Terms, featuring John Gielgud, Edward Fox and Eleanor Bron.”
Every year since 2009, the Chiswick Book Festival brings together top authors and their readers for a week of talks on a range of fiction and non-fiction works. It is a non-profit-making community event, raising money for three reading charities and St Michael & All Angels Church, which organises the Festival with support from local businesses, media and many volunteers.
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