Diverse programme offers three days of talks, interviews and debates

Wimbledon BookFest is holding an inaugural Spring Weekend Festival in March, featuring a diverse programme of talks, interviews and debates with writers, commentators and acclaimed thinkers.

Speakers at the Festival, being staged from 15-17 March in partnership with King’s College School, come from the worlds of politics, global affairs, education, philosophy, history and more.

They include poet Roger McGough, philosopher Julian Baggini, writer and novelist Fatima Bhutto, broadcaster and author Tim Marshall and world renowned historian Peter Frankopan who will be discussing his latest book ‘The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World,’ the companion volume to his international bestseller ‘The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.’

There will also be a debate on the private education system between Andrew Halls, Head Master of King’s College School, and social historians Francis Green and David Kynaston. The full programme will be announced in early January.

Wimbledon BookFest logoThe Spring Weekend Festival will run in addition to Wimbledon BookFest’s annual ten day Autumn event which takes place in a pop festival site on Wimbledon Common. Wimbledon BookFest 2019 will take place from 3-13October .

“Our audiences continue to grow year on year and this shows there is a huge appetite for the live event. This new partnership with King’s College School allows us to develop the festival further and we are incredibly grateful to the school for supporting this new venture,” says Fiona Razvi, Festival Director.

The Spring Weekend Festival will take place in the new Concert Hall at King’s College School and the beautiful historic house, Southside House.

Wimbledon BookFest’s World Book Day activity for schools will include events in New Wimbledon Theatre with Tom Fletcher, Dermot O’Leary and Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

It is expected more than 1,500 children will attend these events where the Festival 2019 Young Writer’s Competition will be launched. This year’s competition, run through schools in partnership with University of Roehampton, is themed ‘The Island.’

Highlights from 2018

The Festival also announced record ticket sales for 2018, with an increase of 30% on the previous years’ figures, with over 18,000 people attending - 13,500 tickets sold for public events and an additional 4,500 students participated in the education programme run with schools throughout South West London.

Festival headliners included Graham Norton, Pat Barker, Sebastian Faulks, Lionel Shriver, Adam Kay, Yotam Ottolenghi, Shane Warne, Billy Bragg, Cathy Newman, Afua Hirsch and Neil McGregor. The children’s programme featured Michael Rosen, Francesca Simon, Jessie Burton and Greg James.

February 8, 2019