Sturminster Newton Literary Festival News- Mid March 2025

Our 2025 Programme is Launched

We’re really excited to share the 2025 Sturminster Newton Literary Festival Programme with you. There’s something for everyone this year, from Elvis to Thomas Hardy. Several internationally acclaimed writers are included in the lineup, and we will be joined by authors from Australia during their book launch week. Can’t wait to look? Dive in here.

Early Bird Tickets

As a subscriber of this newsletter, you can get 10% off early bird tickets until 15 April. Just enter the code EARLYBIRD2510 when you book online. The Friends of Sturlitfest get a 20% discount on tickets, and information about joining is here.

Headline Acts

This year, we’re delighted to welcome back Natasha Solomons, who will be speaking about her new book, which is based on the story of Cleopatra. Tracy Chevalier has authored a new book called The Glassmaker and will be in conversation with Jenny Devitt and local resident Sarah Sexton who will highlight Sturminster Newton’s own stained glass artist, Mary Lowndes. We’ll also be entertained by Damien Lewis talking about SAS Great Escapes following his research with WW2 veterans.

This year we are honoured to be part of a book launch tour by Jonathan and Christine Hainsworth from Australia. They have researched the Shakespeare Ladies Club- a group of women who campaigned to restore all the rude and bawdy parts to Shakespearean plays in the early 1700s. They also campaigned to get a memorial to Shakespeare installed in Westminster Abbey, only to find the credit went to men! So who was the ringleader of the Shakespeare Ladies Club? None other than Susannah Astley Cooper, the 4th Countess of Shaftesbury from Wimborne St Giles in Dorset. Come and hear about this fascinating aspect of history on 10th June.

Writers Pen Farthing and Mark Blackburn will talk about their interesting travel tales which are both quite turbulent. You may remember Pen Farthing during the Fall of Kabul in 2021 when he hit the headlines faced with trying to evacuate staff and animals from his charity in Afghanistan. Mark’s stories are based around airports across the world.

Crime, Flowers, and Adventure

This year, we’re welcoming back Rachel Mclean who sets her crime writing plots in Dorset. We’ll also hear from Tess Burnett about her debut novel, The Hanging of Hettie Gale and how she came to writing in later life. We also have a crime writing day ticket for both events.

Local florist Daisy Delbridge will demonstrate flower arrangements before Sally Page discusses her book The Secrets of Flowers with another florist, Emily Whicher from Martha and the Meadow. With all those summer flowers, the room is going to smell wonderful.

Jessica Hepburn is the only woman to have completed the ‘Sea, Street, Summit’ challenge (swim the English Channel, run the London Marathon, and climb Mount Everest), and she will venture to Sturminster Newton on June 12th.

It wouldn’t be Sturlitfest without a Hardy talk—and this year, we have two. Mike Langridge is back with a crime-themed novel, A Casterbridge Tale, and we’ll be joined by Andrew Norman, who will discuss the death of Emma, Thomas Hardy’s wife.

And there’s so much more, from tracing relatives involved in the French Resistance to science in Dorset. We have two writing workshops, and the walks are back. For the first time, one walk is aimed at children. We also have several day tickets where you can attend all the talks for a discounted price.

Enjoy the programme—it has been really exciting putting it together. While we have worked to get people on the programme, several publishers have also approached us this year, eager for us to showcase their writers. Each year, we get a few surprises on the line-up, and this year, I think we’ve had several fantastic opportunities for the town and our audiences.