Essex Book Festival

18/06/2026

We had a Criminally Good Night in Great Dunmow! So many of you joined us to hear from Nicci French and Harriet Tyce. We even had a surprise Traitors star in the audience... swipe to find out who!

18/06/2026

Please note the change of venue!

Stand Up For Diversity Clacton!

Join us for an evening of three-minute mini-talks and short shout-outs, bringing together those who want to champion diversity in Clacton.

Come along to make new connections, explore the transformative power of creativity, and collectively celebrate diverse voices involved in the arts and in our communities.

This event is part of Essex Book Festival's 'Clacton Rocks', a day of fun activities on Saturday 20th June across Clacton-on-Sea!

Secure your place here 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻
https://su4d-clacton.eventbrite.co.uk/

Featuring Community Voluntary Services Tendring Essex Book Festival Clacton Arts Centre Arts Council England Tiptoe Training Anna Mae Sade Fadipe Ketchup Clothes Ltd + more!

17/06/2026

Only a handful of tickets left for our event at Essex Record Office on 23rd June with Alison Weir, one of the UK's leading historians. We recommend you get in quick to hear more about one of Essex's leading families in Tudor England!!

BBC Essex
Chelmsford Library
Chelmsford City Council
Museum of Chelmsford
Arts Council England

Sunday Times best-selling historical novelist Alison Weir gives a talk about her spellbinding new novel, The Boleyn Secret. At twelve years old, Kate Carey attends her aunt, Queen Anne Boleyn, to the scaffold. Weir explores in fiction the lasting impact of this event as well as the likelihood that K...

16/06/2026

Our Harlow Weekend is coming up! On Saturday 27 June, we'll have a whole day of events at Harlow Museum for all the family. Take a look 👀

16/06/2026

What an amazing day at University of Essex. Huge thanks to everyone who was involved in the day. Especially the Lakeside Theatre

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for The Writers' Room, a brilliant day of talks, workshops, performances and creative conversations hosted by Essex Book Festival and the University of Essex at Lakeside Theatre.

The event brought together aspiring and established writers, with powerful contributions from Essex academics, including Holly Pester and James Canton, as well as a range of authors whose sessions inspired audiences to think differently about storytelling, creativity and freedom.

16/06/2026

Well, that was fun!

BBC BOOKFEST WRITE-UP
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2pgzx4lreo

Town is transformed into collection of book shops

Author John Tarrow had the idea when he realised his town was missing a book shop.
An author helped to transform his town into a large bookshop for the day, after realising no such store existed there.

Essex Book Festival

16/06/2026

https://www.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/anywhere-but-here/

Join us on Saturday 20th June for our event with award-winning investigative journalist and writer Nicola Kelly at Chelmsford Cathedral. Nicola will be talking about her new book 'Anywhere But Here'. A powerful exposé of Britain’s broken asylum system and how it fails us all.

Coinciding with World Refugee Day, which falls each year on 20 June and is dedicated to refugees around the globe. It was held globally for the first time on 20 June 2001 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

Arts Council England
Chelmsford Library
Chelmsford City Council
Ignite Chelmsford
Ideas Hub Chelmsford
BBC Essex
Chelmsford Cathedral

From an award-winning journalist comes the hugely timely story of Britain’s broken asylum system and the search for belonging in Britain today. With unique and unparalleled access, award-winning journalist and former Home Office insider Nicola Kelly takes us behind the scenes what happens when you...

16/06/2026

Some seriously fun activities for families in Clacton this Saturday as part of Clacton Rocks! Starting at Clacton Pier with the wonderful Libby from Seaside Explorers who will be running a Know Your Beach Workshop between 10am and 12pm. Do not miss out on this one...

More information here: https://www.essexbookfestival.org.uk/event/know-your-beach-workshop-bsl-signed/

Arts Council England
Clacton Arts Centre
Tendring District Council
Essex Cultural Diversity Project
Essex Library Service
BBC Essex
The Human Library: Clacton Rocks
Clacton Library

16/06/2026

Another excellent event at Essex Writers House!

Essex Writers House: Walk and Explore Prittlewell Greenway with Lora Aziz

🗓 20 June, 11am – 2.30pm
📍 Metal, Chalkwell Hall → Belfairs Nature Reserve
🎟 Free

Join artist Lora Aziz to explore the Prittlewell Greenway through landscape, observation, and language. How can we pull inspiration from the backstreet places and welcome in wonders we might pass every day? Walk a familiar pathway and discover new perspectives through storytelling, local histories, layers of intuitive plant knowledge, and creative encounters with place.

Lora Aziz is an interdisciplinary artist, storyteller, land-based cultural producer, and creative strategist based inland near the river Stour, UK. Her work weaves together ecology, memory, and storytelling through workshops, residencies, foraging walks, and community rituals.

Book your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/walk-and-explore-prittlewell-greenway-with-lora-aziz-tickets-1991707495735

ID: A close-up photo of a pine tree. The event title is in blue and white at the top of the image, with details (as in the caption) in the middle, and the Metal, Essex Writers House and Essex Book Festival logos at the bottom. A photo of Lora Aziz overlays the image, inset in a green circle.

Essex Book Festival