Tom Kerridge, Dawn O’Porter, Jon Sopel, Shami Chakrabarti, Levison Wood, Chloe Dalton and Jonnie Peacock are among the authors due to take part in this year’s Guernsey Literary Festival.
The annual celebration of the arts, will feature 52 public events covering entertainment, music, art, food, fiction, poetry, history, politics and sport as well as debates on artificial intelligence and smart phones and a gardeners’ question time.
Also planned for the Festival, which runs from 25 April to 4 May, are 15 Education Programme events and five outreach and community events.
Details of the full programme can be accessed on the Festival website guernseyliteraryfestival.com, where tickets can also be bought from today by members and from Saturday by the general public.
A hard copy programme will be delivered to every household in the island, courtesy of Guernsey Post.
Festival Director Claire Allen is “delighted with the range of speakers and events we have this year”.
“I really think there is something for everybody,” she said.
“As well as our many main speakers, we have a selection of local author events and writing workshops, an international poetry competition, and outreach activities in care homes and the prison. We are excited to offer a variety of family events, a schools programme and a writing competition for local students.”
Festival Honorary Chairman Sir Terry Waite KCMG, CBE, said the Festival is very important to Guernsey, because not only does it make a significant contribution to the cultural life of the island, “but it also aids the economy by bringing many new visitors”.
The Festival will open on Friday 25 April with two big hitters, fashion designer and Great British Sewing Bee TV presenter Patrick Grant, and human rights campaigner Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, both at St James.
Mr Grant’s talk, which is supported by the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce, will focus on his book Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish – How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier while Baroness Chakrabarti’s talk is based on her recent book Human Rights – The Case for the Defence. The talk, supported by the Victor Hugo Centre, will outline the historic national and international struggles for human rights and explains the law and logic underpinning human dignity and universal freedoms.
Local writers featuring in the Festival will include Jenny O’Brien, Theresa Le Flem, Kelvin Whelan, Richard Graham, Gregory Stevens Cox, and Paul Le Messurier.
The full programme for the 2025 Guernsey Literary Festival is available on the festival website guernseyliteraryfestival.com.