The Times & Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival

One of the oldest and best loved literature festivals in the world, lectures, poetry readings, children's events, interviews, storytelling, book groups, writing workshops, education projects, live literature. Over 100,000 tickets sell for the ten day event. As big as it gets.

This autumn the event will welcome over 600 of the world’s greatest writers, poets, politicians, thinkers and stars to Cheltenham for an inspiring mix of debate and discussion.

When? 7-16 October 2016

Where? Cheltenham Town Hall (GL50 1QA) Imperial Square and Montpellier Gardens (GL50 1SD) -

Who? 2016 - see press release below

Booking details? Book online or by phone on 01242 850270

Festival Website: www.cheltenhamfestivals.com

Festival Director? Director of The Times and The Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival, for 2016 is Antonia Byatt,

Twitter? @cheltfestivals

Facebook? Cheltenham Festivals

Visitor Information? For more information about Cheltenham and the surrounding are, including details of local hotels and restaurants, visit www.visitcheltenham.com

Past Festivals?

2015 :

John Banville, Julian Barnes, Anne Enright, and Peter Carey bring the total number of Booker Prize winners speaking at the Festival to an impressive six including Pat Barker and Salman Rushdie.

Peter Carey will be at the Festival to receive The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, which was last year presented to Kazuo Ishiguro in a completely sold out Town Hall event.

Patrick Gale, author of A Perfectly Good Man, will also be appearing, as will The Time Traveller’s Wife author Audrey Niffenegger and Whitbread Prize-winning Jeanette Winterson.

Once again, Cheltenham will also be celebrating debut writers and this year’s Festival will see talks from rising stars including Laura Barnett, Claire Fuller, Julia Rochester Sarah Leipciger, Francesca Haig and Helena Coggan.

Rapper George the Poet has already been announced as a Guest Director and he heads up an incredibly strong poetry strand, which includes talks from Les Murray, Oxford’s new professor of poetry Simon Armitage, Paul Muldoon and Wendy Cope.

Non-fiction names newly announced today include Robert Macfarlane with his recent bestseller Landmarks and Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro talking about 1606; the year of King Lear, Macbeth, and Anthony and Cleopatra. Historians Robert Tombs and Ian Kershaw also join the line-up.

Nigel Lawson will join Gus O’Donnell and Alistair Darling to explain ‘How to Write a Budget’ and James Rubin, former US Assistant Secretary of State will talk about the Cold War.

Celebrated choreographer Matthew Bourne will talk about his incredible life in dance and West End star and online sensation Carrie Hope Fletcher will discuss the perils of celebrity.

Kate Adie (B), Melvyn Bragg , PD James (B), Cherie Blair (B), Michael Morpurgo(B), Libby Purves (B), Alain De Botton (B), Jeremy Paxman (B) Humphrey Hawksley, Jo Brand ( early TV performance below), Ruth Rendell , Sebastian Faulks,Richard Eyre, Martin Bell, Michael Palin, Mitchell & Webb, Robert Vaughn, John Humphreys, Marcus Chown, Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, Jo Shapcott,Diana Quick, Kevin McCloud, Jackie Kay, Kate Mosse, Richard Hammond, William Dalyrymple, Tony Parsons, Sophie Dahl, Stella Rimington, Vince Cable, Tony BennVictoria Glendinning & many many more.