Speakers confirmed for Cliveden Literary Festival 2026
This year, the Cliveden Literary Festival takes place from the 10th to the 11th of October. For 2026, the festival will welcome the leading writers of today across culture, politics and history. There are some fantastic speakers included in the line-up, such as Jay McInerney, Julian Barnes, Candace Bushnell, Michael Connelly, Patrick Radden Keefe, Patrick Marber, David Nicholls and many more.
Highlights in the schedule of events include:
- Kemi Badenoch will talk to Simon Sebag Montefiore about her reinvention of the Conservative Party and the tumultuous state of British politics
- Robert Harris will discuss Agrippa, his new novel exploring loyalty and ruthlessness at the birth of the Roman Empire, with Tom Holland
- Novelist Alice Winn will dissect the magic of historical fiction
- Patrick Radden Keefe, in conversation with Misha Glenny, will discuss his bestselling investigation into London’s underworld
This festival will debate the most pressing questions of the moment, from the making of the modern Middle East to the state of America in its 250th year. Discussions will explore the art of narrative; the world of Renoir; Nazi Germany and the rise and fall of Napoleon’s empire, with discussions ranging from why we are having fewer children, and fewer relationships, to our enduring love of gardens – the last of these in the most fitting of settings, the house and gardens of Cliveden itself.
Across the weekend, the Festival will host a stellar cast of writers, philosophers, polemicists and politicians, including Katie Kitamura, Deborah Lipstadt, Emily Maitlis, Michael Moritz, Mishal Husain, Jonathan Bate, Eugene Rogan, David McCloskey, John McWhorter, Michael Gove, Ed Chisholm, Lauren Collins, James Cahill, Camilla Cavendish, John Burn-Murdoch, Victor Sebestyen, Imogen Edwards-Jones, Louis Sarkozy, Hermione Eyre, Alexandra Suich Bass, Alice Lassman, Albert Read, Georgia Beaufort, James McAuley, Yana Peel, Tom Stuart-Smith and Sue Stuart-Smith; and our founders, Natalie Livingstone, Catherine Ostler, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Andrew Roberts.
www.clivedenliteraryfestival.org
