The Aldeburgh Literary Festival

What? The Ninth Aldeburgh Literary Festival. The event is run by The Aldeburgh Bookshop which has been in business for nearly 60 years.  The owners, John and Mary James, took on the shop in 2000.  In April 2005 they won a 'Nibby' (the Oscar of the booktrade) for The Independent Bookshop of the Year Award at The British Book Awards.  Impressive.

Who? 2010 TBA

When? 2010 TBA

Where? Aldeburgh, Suffolk AA Route Planner | multimap

How much?

Festival Website: The Aldeburgh Literary Festival

Enquiries on 01728 452587

Previous festivals: 2009 Michael Holroyd, Alexander McCall Smith, Margaret Drabble, ,Sebastian Faulks, Nigel Lawson, Harry Eyres, Irene Noel Baker, Paul Binski, Frances Spalding, Anthea Bell, Anatole Kaletsky, Ferdinand Mount, Edward Lucas, Mary Dejevsky, Justin Marozzi.

Two Nobel Literary Prize winners, Harold Pinter and Doris Lessing, Michael Frayn, Alan Bennett, A. S. Byatt, Julian Barnes, Will Self, Richard Dawkins and Matt Ridley

Charles Moore described the festival in his Spectator diary as 'quite the nicest literary festival' (click here to see the full entry).  Charles Allen wrote that he and his wife had 'been to many literary festivals but I can honestly say that Aldeburgh's combination of bracing sea air, intimacy and intellectual sharpness puts it at the very top of our list.'