Ilkley Literature Festival opens this Friday 3 October with Nick Clegg and his latest book, How to Save the Internet.
2025 marks 52 years of the north’s longest-running and much-loved literary festival, which features remarkable names including star of TV and film, Hugh Bonneville, literary icon Jung Chang, retail guru Mary Portas, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Trainspotting’s Irvine Welsh, and household names, including Michael Palin, Jay Raynor, and Gyles Brandreth.
Erica Morris, director of Ilkley Literature Festival, said:
“We can’t wait to welcome audiences back for another October of word power, starting this weekend. We’re delighted to already have so many sold out events, including cycling correspondent Ned Boulting, journalist James Bloodworth, and Ilkley’s own Gareth Heaton.
“This weekend promises an excellent start to the festival, with Nick Clegg discussing one of the most pressing topics of our digital age, festival favourite Gyles Brandreth returning to delight us all and a huge range of events to inform and entertain, with subjects ranging from forgotten figures and adventures with penguins to the secrets of geology and bringing stories of injustice to light.”
Nick Clegg, former President, Global Affairs, at Meta, Deputy Prime Minister of the UK and Liberal Democrat leader, kicks off this year’s festival at 7pm on Friday 3 October with an essential conversation on how the internet is being dismantled and whether we can save it.
On Saturday, Gyles Brandreth [picture above] talks about his anticipated new book, Somewhere, A Boy and A Bear, which marks the upcoming centenary of the publication of the bestselling, beloved children’s classic, Winnie the-Pooh
Broadcaster and consummate northerner Stuart Maconie returns to Ilkley to share the inside story of The Beatles and how they got by with more than just a little help from their friends.
Art historian James Fox discusses his book, Britain’s Lost Arts and Vanishing Trades, chronicling the vanishing skills and traditions of master craftspeople in Britain and explaining how, in our increasingly digital age, crafts and the wisdom of craftspeople is more valuable than ever.
Award-winning travel writer Jamie Lafferty will recount his voyages to some of the world’s most inaccessible landscapes to see all 18 species of penguin, detailed in his book, An Inconvenience of Penguins.
Lee Lawrence was just eleven with his mother, Cherry Groce, was shot by police during a raid on the family’s south London home. He would go on to fight for justice and for the police to admit their wrongdoing for the next 30 years. Lawrence, now a Costa Prize-winning author and speaker who helps marginalised people find their voice, manage conflict and achieve justice, brings his new book The Colour of Injustice to Ilkley, opening up a vital conversation on racial prejudice and bias in the UK.
Ester Freud [Photo: Jillian Edelstein]
Renowned authors Rachel Joyce and Esther Freud discuss the nuances of family relationships – their tensions, what breaks them and what it takes to mend them – in their new novels, The Homemade God and My Sister and Other Lovers.
Award-winning earth scientist and TV presenter Anjana Khatwa introduces her book The Whispers of Rock, explaining the profound influence rocks have had on human life, from the sacred stones of Stonehenge and the rose red city of Petra, and exploring how connecting with the earth can guide us through the toughest times.
Historian Gareth Russell discusses his book Queen James and shares the dramatic life and loves of King James I, bringing the power struggles and backbiting of the Jacobean court to life.
Also, Simon Hall, Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds, tells the stories of the three communist revolutions in Russia, China and Cuba that changed world history forever, with his book, Three Revolutions, re-telling the epic journeys at the heart of each revolution and the electric testimony of journalists from their frontlines.
The festival runs until Sunday 17 October. To book www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk Box Office: 01943 816714.
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