That’s a wrap on our 10th festival!

Ten years on, Cuckfield Bookfest celebrated in style. Over one sun-drenched October weekend, packed venues across the village welcomed bestselling novelists, historians, scientists, poets and children’s authors – alongside some much-loved Cuckfield favourites returning to the festival. Here’s a look back at the highlights, day by day.

The Opening

As usual, the festival began with our literary quiz – and to mark the 10th anniversary, TEN featured strongly in the questions, whether hidden in a book title or remembering authors from previous festivals. Congratulations to this year’s winners, Nymans Book Nook!

On Friday 2nd October, Jeremy Hunt was the excellent speaker at our celebratory supper at Ockenden Manor. Amusing, wise, light-hearted and optimistic, he gave his views on how Britain can be rich again.

Saturday’s authors included

• Juliet Nicolson
• Peter Fiennes
• Oliver Bullough
• Damian Barr
• Tim Spector
• Kate Mosse
• Gavin Jamieson & local authors
• Prue Leith

Eager for more, festival-goers returned to the Queen’s Hall early for Steve Brusatte’s fascinating talk on birds and how they began life as dinosaurs. Three women authors followed: the audience was engrossed in Claire Fuller’s account of the writing process, Louisa Treger and Lottie Moggach discussed two murders involving women, and David Bowie devotees revelled in Alexander Larman’s talk about the legendary singer.
Afternoon

We heard about medieval medicine, royal women and their battles, an iconic Paris hotel with an extraordinary wartime history, and the Battle of Trafalgar. Stephen McGinty held his audience horrified and moved with his book on the shootings at Dunblane. On a lighter note, we heard the inside story of Britain’s best-loved bear and the uneasy relationship between the writer and illustrator of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories, while two crime writers exchanged stories of how they work.

Poetry and tea made for a delightful session at Ockenden Manor, where Annette Badland and Hugh Ross read poems from Allie Esiri’s tenth-anniversary anthology to an attentive audience.

There was also time for a creative writing workshop, and the day ended with an absorbed audience listening to Patrick Gale talk about his book Love Lane.