Welcome to Cuckfield Life’s Cuckfield Bookfest event page. Here you will find our most recent information for everything Bookfest.
As a community interest group, Bookfest relies on the generous support from sponsors, benefactors and friends to help them host brilliant writers and new talents every year.
See also, Cuckfield Bookfest
Cuckfield Bookfest 20206 is confirmed for 2nd-4th October.
Bookfest programme launched
The programme for the 2026 Cuckfield Bookfest is now available, full of interesting and stimulating sessions specially selected to make our tenth anniversary memorable. As usual, the literary quiz opens proceedings a week before the festival weekend, in the Hayloft at the Talbot on 25th September. The small, indefatigable team that devises the quiz has been beavering away since January and will be offering a stimulating and challenging set of questions.
Friday Celebration Supper 2nd October
Jeremy Hunt is our guest at the celebration supper at Ockenden Manor on Friday 2nd October. His new book, Can We Be Rich Again, sets out a credible case for optimism in these uncertain times.
Saturday 3rd October
Starting at 10am, there is a flow of lively speakers from different genres. Juliet Nicolson is a welcome return visitor with her book on the secrets women keep, followed by Oliver Bullough on money laundering. Peter Fiennes is in search of French writers, and Kate Mosse returns with an atmospheric portrait of autumn in her beloved Sussex.
Damian Barr is back with his touching book about two Scottish painters, and Tim Spector explains the life-changing power of microbes. Sport is not forgotten, with Jonathan Wilson’s new history of the football World Cup. There’s crime from Andrew Hunter Murray, nature with books about trees and hedges, and Kate Mosse’s husband and son discuss their new books – one featuring cosy crime, the other a fantasy novel. Juliet Nicolson also talks to Alwyn Turner about his book on Britain between the wars.
Saturday evening will be unmissable when Prue Leith talks to Matt Stadlen about the fun to be had when growing old. We are also delighted to welcome Highweald Vineyard which will be serving a glass of its Brut Reserve to every ticket holder.
Sunday 4th October
Sunday begins with Steve Brusatte and his marvellous book about birds and how they are descended from dinosaurs. Steve later shares a session with his wife Anne and her children’s book about dinosaurs, perfect for young dinosaur enthusiasts.
There’s a session on David Bowie and his career revival, Renaissance medicine, and a no-holds-barred account of the Battle of Trafalgar. Two novelists discuss books about female friendship and memory, and two authors inspired by the lives of women accused of murder, including Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in Britain, will discuss the real cases behind their fiction. Books on royalty are always popular, and we are delighted to welcome Catherine Mayer, who uncovers the extraordinary women behind royal myths. Julian Worricker will remember the Dunblane primary school shootings with the author of a new book on that dreadful day. Hotel Exile explores life on the edge of war, and James Campbell will talk about the creators of Winniethe-Pooh.
Crime fiction is always popular, and a Sunday evening event with Abir Mukherjee and Simon Toyne will provide a lively session. As usual, the Big Book Group rounds off the festival, with Patrick Gale discussing Love Lane. If you enjoy the Big Book Group, there’s plenty of time to read it.
Poetry and community
There has been an elegant poetry tea at Ockenden Manor most years, and we’re delighted that Annette Badland is back with Hugh Ross to read poems from Allie Esiri’s delightful new anthology. Interspersed with the adult events are four children’s sessions, together with a session for local authors and a workshop on writing a memoir.
During the ten years of the festival, we have been generously supported by sponsors, friends and benefactors, and we are very grateful. Our thanks also go to the wonderful volunteers who make the festival what it is.
Read the full programme: www.cuckfieldbookfest.co.uk
Tickets go on sale 15th August for priority booking and 22nd August for general sale.
Bookfest returns
This year’s festival is shaping up to be our most varied yet and the first event over the opening weekend is the supper held on Friday 2nd October at Ockenden Manor with Jeremy Hunt MP, whose latest book ‘Can We Be Rich Again?’ will be published in June. The former Chancellor of the Exchequer sets out a credible case for optimism in his book when it comes to the future of Britain’s economy.
Jane Rogoyska, author of Hotel Exile, Paris in the Shadow of War, joins us on Sunday. Her latest book tells the true story of how one Paris hotel came to hold the weight of a century. Hotel Lutetia on Paris’s Left Bank, was a meeting place for Europe’s bohemian artists, a headquarters of the Nazi occupation and a shelter for camp survivors.
We are also running a very special joint literary event alongside Hurst Festival on Wednesday 16th September, where best-selling author Zadie Smith will be at Holy Trinity Church in Hurstpierpoint discussing her historical novel, Fraud. Set against the real-life Victorian scandal of the Tichborne Claimant, the book spans literary London and Jamaica’s sugar-cane plantation. There are several references to local places including a chapter entitled Cuckfield Park, so there’s a very local connection.
Tickets to the event will be available in July on the Hurst Festival website www.hurstfestival.org
Bookfest tickets go on sale in August from: www.cuckfieldbookfest.co.uk
