Cuckfield Bookfest Event Programme
General booking opens Saturday 23rd August, for Friends & Benefactors Saturday 16th August
Virtual Book Club
Thursday 18 September
Joining us for our next virtual book club are esteemed author and historian, Helen Fry and Alan Judd, the multiple award-winning author and biographer of the founder of MI6 to discuss their latest books on the SIS (Secret Intelligence Service). Both veterans of the Cuckfield Bookfest.
Literary Quiz
FRIDAY 26 SEPTEMBER
7.30pm
The ever popular literary quiz will be back this year on Friday 26th September at The Talbot!
Supper at Ockenden
FRIDAY 3 OCTOBER
7pm for 7.30pm
Steve Richards, highly regarded political columnist, journalist, author and presenter, will be joining us for Supper at Ockenden this year, on Friday 3rd October.
When Steve came three years ago he had his audience enthralled with his amusing and pertinent session. Once again, he will be delighting us as he shares political gossip, reveals the plots and intrigues, and throws in in a few choice impressions along the way.
Saturday 4th October
Steve Rawlings
Story-telling with Debutots
For preschoolers
10am Holy Trinity Church
A lively and engaging storytelling and dramatic play experience for preschoolers with Steve Rawlings. Using dramatic play, music, games and wrap-around sensory activities to exercise imaginations and develop confidence, build a foundation for literacy, strengthen awareness of others, problem solve and, above all, do all this while having lots of fun!
IAIN DALE
Margaret Thatcher
10am
Across British politics – from Rachel Reeves to Kemi Badenoch – people are laying claim to Margaret Thatcher’s legacy. But what is that legacy? No Brits under 53 today will have even been old enough to vote while Thatcher was in power. Many of us didn’t live through the Thatcher years, and will have sketchy knowledge of her premiership.
Dr Benji Waterhouse
You Don’t have to be Mad to Work Here
A Psychiatrist’s Life
10am-11am
Benji Waterhouse is a front-line NHS doctor specialising in psychiatry. In this, his first book, he unlocks the doors to the psychiatric ward and provides a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of medicine’s most mysterious and controversial speciality.
Read more
Debutots’ award-winning sessions have been shared with settings for more than 20 years and their programmes are delivered in nursery and primary schools, care homes, at weddings as well as providing custom-built story-themed solutions for birthday boys and girls.
Steve has more than 30 years’ experience in language-related education, working at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. He is a keen and active ‘live’ musician and combines his love of performance with his passion for education to ensure that every session he delivers is an experience for children to remember.
Read more
Accomplished broadcaster and author, Iain Dale aims to introduce a new generation to Margaret Thatcher – exploding many myths along the way.
“A compelling account of a compulsory subject, admiring but always fair minded, and a masterpiece of compression and readability“. Daniel Finkelstein
Read more
Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be a psychiatrist? Are the solutions to people’s messy lives really within medical school textbooks? And how can vulnerable patients receive the care they need when psychiatry lacks staff, hospital beds and any actual cures?
Benji is also an award-winning stand-up comedian who performs sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Festival. He has written for the Guardian and Independent.
Henry Marsh called the book ‘very funny and deeply sympathetic’.
The Challenges of Publishing
with Gavin Jamieson
10.30am – 11am
The Hayloft at The Talbot
Three local authors will discuss the challenges, the opportunities and the preparation of writing, publishing and promoting their books. Aspiring authors will be offered advice on the writing process and a route to publication that is best for them. There will be plenty of opportunities for questions.
Marina Linton is a professor of history and a prize-winning novelist. Her Young Adult fantasy book The Binding Spell was published in 2025. Iain Maclean is the author of TJ’s War, a historical novel inspired by his father’s life as an MI6 agent during the Second World War. Jane Dalton is an award-winning journalist, and her first novel With Love from the Afterlife is a contemporary suspense story.
Gavin Jamieson, publisher and board member of Cuckfield Book Festival will lead the discussion. Water’s Gleaming Gold, his non-fiction memoir of the Olympian, Hugh Edwards, was published in 2023.
Gabriel Gatehouse
with Alan Judd
The Coming Storm
11.30am – 12.30pm
The Coming Storm is Gabriel Gatehouse’s exploration of how conspiracy theories became weaponised and used as wrecking balls to the liberal world order. As Donald Trump lays siege to the institutions of the American state, Gatehouse traces the roots of a radical new political movement.
From the early years of the Clinton administration to the 6 January storming of the US Capitol and beyond, The Coming Storm reveals a loose alliance of tech bros, internet trolls and white supremacists preparing the ground for a period of epochal change. Democracy is becoming a thing of the past.
Gabriel Gatehouse is a journalist and broadcaster and the former international editor of Newsnight.
He will be in conversation with Alan Judd, well known to Cuckfield Book Festival audiences and a writer of spy thrillers – his most recent is No. 2 Whitehall Court.
Jessica Bull
A Fortune Most Fatal
Ciar Byrne
A Lethal Cocktail
with Melanie Whitehouse
11.30am – 12.30pm
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every good mystery is in need of a brilliant sleuth .
In the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, Jessica Bull has written a delightful series featuring Jane as an amateur literary sleuth..
She is preparing to spend the summer with her estranged brother Neddy. She soon realises that he is in need of her help but her investigation takes a dark and dangerous turn. Can Jane solve the mystery and save her brother and herself?
Ciar Byrne’s second book in her Woolf and Bell Mystery series is centred on Tudor Close Hotel, Rottingdean where the sisters are drawn into a new case.
Ciar Byrne is a freelance gardening writer who lives in Lewes.
Both authors will be talking to Melanie Whitehouse about what drew them to writing about literary sleuths. Melanie set up the Book Lovers’ Supper Club in Sussex in 2012.
Social Media Workshop
Claire Clark
12pm – 1.30 pm
The Hayloft at The Talbot
£20.00 per person
If you’re an author or a small business owner, you’ve got something to share—but knowing what to post on social media can feel overwhelming.
In this friendly, practical workshop, you’ll learn how to better connect with your audience, grow your following, and gently drive sales—without feeling pushy. There are only eight places so lots of individual attention
Whether you’re selling books, products, or services, this session will help you show up online with confidence and ease. You’ll walk away with real examples, a 2-week content plan, and fresh ideas you can start using straight away. Perfect for creatives who want to build a loyal community around what they do.
Claire is a professional Social Media Manager and runs Juniper Bloom Social Media.
Steven Lenton
How to Grow
11.30am-12.30pm
Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield
4+ years
Tickets £8 each regardless of age
Join the multi award-winning illustrator Steven Lenton for a magical time with the How To Grow series of picture books! Learn how Sarah and Mr Pottifer grow Unicorns, Dragons in the latest book Mermaids! There will be lots of fun, storytelling, a draw-along and you will help Steven to create a UNIQUE magical creature!
Drawing materials will be provided
Children must be accompanied by an adult
Andrew Ziminski
with David Thunder
Church Going
A Stonemason’s Guide to the Churches of the British Isles
1pm – 2pm
Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield
Church Going is Andrew Ziminski’s handbook to the medieval churches of the British Isles, in which he reveals their fascinating histories, features and furnishings, from flying buttresses to rood screens, lichgates to chancels. It is a celebration of the architectural history of the British Isles.
‘A beautiful book – in which curiosity, hand-skill and creativity combine in a hymn to craftsmanship, and vernacular and sacred architecture. Ziminski is a rare and wonderful voice’ – Rory Stewart
Andrew is in conversation with David Thunder who has been a committed member of the BookFest team from its inception.
Steve Richards
Tony Blair
1pm – 2pm
In 1997, the Labour party came to power after a landslide victory. Its leader was Tony Blair and during the years that followed the Blair government secured peace in Northern Ireland, introduced a minimum wage, improved the NHS, began the long task of abolishing child poverty, established civil partnerships and imposed a smoking ban. The list could go on.
But how enduring was that legacy? How long was the shadow cast by the Iraq war? And who is the real Tony Blair ? In this provocative, short biography, Steve Richards casts new light on the man and his legacy.
Steve Richards presents the podcast Rock N Roll Politics and regularly presents The Week in Westminster on BBC Radio 4 and is often part of the team on Sky News. He writes for several national newspapers including the Guardian, Independent and Financial Times.
Getting Started
A Creative Writing Workshop with Mick Jackson
2pm – 4pm
The Hayloft at The Talbot pub in Cuckfield
£25.00 per person
In this two-hour workshop you’ll be introduced to the basic elements of prose fiction (character, narrative, point of view, etc) but also ways of identifying which ideas have potential and how to go about developing them. The workshop will consist of exercises and discussion of extracts from published texts in a supportive environment. A confidence-booster for the rookie writer. Numbers will be limited.
Mick Jackson is a Booker-nominated author, with four novels and two collections of short stories all published by Faber. He also writes for children .He teaches Creative Writing at Faber Academy and is a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths University and West Dean College.
Jonathan Sumption
with Gerry Foley
The Challenges of Democracy
And the Rule of Law
2.30pm 3.30pm
Across the globe, democracy is in crisis – in the UK alone, it has been rocked by Brexit, the pandemic and successive attempts by governments to bypass legal norms. But how did this happen, and where might we go from here?
Jonathan Sumption cuts through the political noise with acute analysis of the state of democracy today and the complexities of human rights legislation to the defence of freedom of speech.
The Challenges of Democracy applies the brilliance of ‘the cleverest man in Britain’ to the most urgent and far-reaching political issue of our day.
The Times said ‘… a timely red alert that democratic values cannot be taken for granted’.
Lord Jonathan Sumption is a British judge and historian. He will be in conversation with Gerry Foley, a regular chair at literary festivals
Helen Taylor
with Kate Harris
Childless by Choice
2.30pm – 3.30pm
Drawing on a lifetime of experience as a feminist academic who chose not to have children, Helen Taylor examines the joys and complexities of her path less travelled. She traces how attitudes toward childlessness have evolved – and sometimes haven’t. With unflinching honesty, she confronts the challenges of aging without children while celebrating the freedom and opportunities her choice has provided.
Through interviews with other women, analysis of cultural attitudes and examination of literature and media, Taylor builds a rich tapestry of what it means to live outside traditional family structures. She explores thorny questions about legacy, purpose and belonging in a world that often defines women through motherhood.
Helen Taylor and Kate Harris will be discussing this territory that has too long been over shadowed by judgement and misconception.
Vernon Bogdanor
Making the Weather
Six Politicians who changed Modern Britain
4pm-5pm
This is the story of six post-war politicians, all of whom exerted an outsized influence on the political life of the UK: an influence greater than that of most prime ministers. Vernon Bogdanor’s cast includes three from the political Left – Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, Roy Jenkins, and Tony Benn – and three from the Right – Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, and Nigel Farage. Each study is a fascinating analysis that examines how these men achieved such prominence and influence and how, though very different figures in many ways, they came to dominate the political landscape, often for a period of years.
From immigration to Europe, from the NHS to devolution, the issues and causes that brought these men to prominence are still of considerable contemporary relevance.
Vernon Bogdanor is professor of government at the Institute of Contemporary History, King’s College, London and was for many years professor of government at Oxford University. He is a frequent contributor to tv, radio and the press.
Baroness Lola Young
With Steven Gale
Eight Weeks
4pm – 5pm
Lola Young has been an actress, an academic, an activist and campaigner for social justice, and a crossbench peer. But from the age of eight weeks to eighteen years, she was moved between foster care placements and children’s homes in North London.
In Eight Weeks, Lola assembles the pieces of her past into a portrait of a childhood in a system that often made her feel invisible and unwanted. It tells the story of her determination to defy the odds and is a spirited, eye-opening and beautifully written account of being a child in care and a Black child in a white family. It is a vital part of contemporary Black British history.
Dame Lola Young will be talking about her life with Steven Gale who works at literary festivals all over the world.
Isabel Losada
The Joyful Environmentalist
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Finally! A book about saving our planet that is fast, funny, and inspiring too.
With humour, heart, and heaps of practicality, Isabel delves into every corner of modern life – how we live and work, travel, shop, eat, drink, dress, vote, volunteer, bank – everything.
From digital decluttering to how we can use the law to protect our local environment, Isabel takes the reader on a journey of environmental action. She even goes to Knepp to question rewilding. By the end, both narrator and reader are armed with the tools to become part of the solution.
Isabel has worked as an actress, researcher, TV producer, broadcaster, public speaker and comedian. She remains firmly committed to narrative non-fiction and swimming against the tide.
The Guardian says:’ Isabel Losada is a climate hero’.
Simon Mason
with Lucy Atkins
The Woman Who Laughed
5.30pm – 6.30pm
UPSTAIRS AT BOOKFEST
The Woman Who Laughed explores a city where the past and present merge, where cameras close-in on the people and streets, and where the lost and the found can coexist.
Early in 2020, there was a spate of murders in northern cities. Five years later, another sex worker is murdered in the same district.
South Yorkshire police call in the Finder: a specialist brought in by police services but free of police department politics. So begins a search that takes the Finder back to the strange days of the pandemic.
Simon Mason says: ‘Missing persons have long fascinated me. …We want to know why such people disappeared. .. what are the emotional ramifications of a disappearance.’
Lucy Atkins, herself a writer whose most recent book Windmill Hill is set in Sussex, will be discussing his detective fiction with Simon Mason.
Helen Lederer
with Steven Gale
Not That I‘m Bitter
7pm – 8pm
Not That I’m Bitter tells the story of Helen’s journey from being what her mother called a “show-off” to becoming a trailblazer in the male-dominated world of Alternative Comedy. Her memoir is a mix of joy, sadness, hilarity and startling self-revelation – woven together with a witty narrative that delivers real punch.
The child of a Czech wartime refugee, Helen was never part of the mainstream. Her memoir is bursting with big laughs and poignant moments.
‘This wildly entertaining ride through Helen’s fabulous life is funny, adorable, and thought-provoking in equal measure, rather like the dazzling author herself.’ Joanna Lumley
Helen will be in conversation with Steven Gale who will encourage her to reveal stories of comedy in the eighties.
Sunday 5th October
Andrew Lownie
Entitled
The Rise and Fall of the House of York
10am – 11am
Packed full of extraordinary revelations, Entitled is the first joint biography of the Duke and Duchess of York, revealing how their lives are still deeply entwined. Andrew Lownie traces the lives of the late Queen’s second son and his ex-wife through their childhoods, courtship, marriage, divorce, careers and royal and charitable activities.
The picture that emerges is of a spoilt prince unable to connect and a duchess pushed by her insecurities into a desperate need to maintain the attention her ‘royal’ status brought.
Andrew Lownie is President of the Biographers’ Club and is a Trustee of the Campaign for Freedom of Information and since 1988 has run his own literary agency. His recent books The Mountbattens and Traitor King were Sunday Times bestsellers.
Phil Craig
with Gavin Mortimer
1945: The Reckoning
Written to mark the 80th anniversary of the ending of the Second World War, 1945: The Reckoning is the final volume of Phil Craig’s bestselling Finest Hour trilogy. It focuses on the fate of India and the imperial possessions of Britain, France and Holland in the Far East.
Phil has unearthed some surprising and confronting stories of what he calls ‘imperial muscle memory’: moments when the public war aims of the British state – liberation and self determination for all peoples – were set aside in favour of colonial power games.
Many uncomfortable truths emerge but so too does a humane and balanced exploration of what victory meant. James Holland said of the book: ‘Ambitious, deeply, thought-provoking … and compellingly told’.
Phil Craig will be sharing important stories with Gavin Mortimer, author of Stirling’s Men The Inside Story of the SAS in World War ll.
Lucy Mangan
with Ana McLaughlin
Bookish
How Reading Shapes Our Lives
11.30am – 12.30pm
Bookish is a coming-of-age in books. It’s an ode to our favourite bookish spaces – from the smallest second-hand bookstalls to libraries, glorious big bookshops and our very own book rooms – and a love story to how books not only shelter our souls through hard times and help us find ourselves when we feel lost, but also help us connect with the people we love through shared stories.
Lucy Mangan is the TV critic for The Guardian, and a columnist, features writer and reviewer. She will be in conversation with Ana McLaughlin who has worked in publishing for many years.
Roger Morgan Grenfell
with Ruth Pavey
The Restless Coast
A Journey Around the Edge of Britain
11.30pm – 12.30pm
The island of Britain has over 10,000 miles of coastline, steeped in history and constantly shifting, changing, adapting and providing. The Restless Coast is a moving account of a journey around this coastline during which the author travels its length.
At once delightful travelogue and passionate defence, it is informative, angry and funny and a very personal love letter to our island edge.
Roger Morgan-Grenville was a soldier from 1978-86. In 2007, he helped to set up the charity Help for Heroes, and in 2020 he was a founding member of the conservation charity, Curlew Action. He lives in West Sussex.
Roger will be in conversation with Ruth Pavey a writer and journalist.
Michael Taylor
with Hermione Cockburn
Impossible Monsters
How the Discovery of Dinosaurs Changed the World
1pm – 2pm
2025 marks the 200th anniversary of the confirmation of Gideon Mantell’s discovery of the fossils of the Iguanodon dinosaurs in Cuckfield.
Impossible Monsters takes us into the lives and minds of the extraordinary men and women whose discovery of the dinosaurs revolutionised our understanding of the world, as well as those who resisted them.. It is the riveting story of a group of people who dared to think impossible things and then showed them to be true.
Sathnam Sanghera said of Impossible Monsters ‘ … it dazzles in its originality … a triumph’.
Michael lectures in Modern British History at Balliol College, Oxford. He will be in discussion with Dr Hermione Cockburn who was brought up in Cuckfield and is now Scientific Director of Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.
Dr Jenni Macciochi
with Jo Durrant
Immune to Age
The game-changing science of immune health
1pm – 2pm
UPSTAIRS AT CUCKFEST
Immunologist Dr Jenna Macciochi explores the crucial role our immune system plays in longevity and reveals why understanding its impact on our health and how we age is the key to living longer, better.
Immune to Age is the ultimate preventative care framework that equips readers with the knowledge and tools to reclaim control over their health and ensure every year is a good one.
An immunologist specializing in nutrition , movement and lifestyle, Dr Macciochi is a senior lecturer in the University of Sussex. She will be in conversation with Jo Durrant who often appears as an event chair at literary and science festivals.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
The Scapegoat
The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
2.30pm – 3.30pm
As King James I’s favourite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham was the King’s gatekeeper, right-hand man and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and first minister. Buckingham rapidly transformed the influence his beauty gave him into immense wealth and power.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett transports us into a courtly world of masques and dancing, the art of Rubens and Van Dyck, gender-fluidity, same-sex desire, and appallingly rudimentary medicine. Witch hunts coexisted with Francis Bacon’s empiricism and public opinion was becoming a political force.
Buckingham came to represent everything that was wrong with the country. The Scapegoat navigates love, war-fever and pacifism in a society on the brink of cataclysmic change. In this richly compelling account, Hughes-Hallett summons an era that still resonates today.
Lucy Strange
Lockett & Wilde’s Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries: The Ghosts of London
2.30pm-3.30pm
Upstairs at Bookfest
8-11 years
Tickets £8 each regardless of age
Join Waterstones Prize-shortlisted author Lucy Strange as she welcomes you into her spookiest stories! In this interactive author event we’ll follow Lucy’s writing journey and get a sneaky peek into her creative process – including the inspiration behind her ghostly new series Lockett & Wilde’s Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries.
There’ll be plenty of storytelling secrets along the way, so bring your imaginations as you’ll be coming up with ideas for your very own GHOST STORY! Lucy has also kindly agreed to present the prizes to the winners of the Creative Writing Competition.
Children must be accompanied by an adult
Poetry and Tea at
Ockenden Manor
with Annette Badland
4pm – 5.30pm
£20.00 person
Sunday afternoon at Cuckfield Book Festival wouldn’t be the same without Annette Badland introducing us to some poetry readings. This year, she has selected the American poet, Mary Oliver who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1984. She found inspiration for her work in nature and had a lifelong habit of solitary walks in the wild. Her poetry is characterised by wonderment at the natural environment, vivid imagery, and unadorned language.
As usual, Annette will be happy to talk about her work too – this year has been busy with a new series of Ted Lasso coming up and more Midsomer Murders.
Tea and delicious cake will be served in the elegance of Ockenden Manor. Numbers are limited.
Anne Sebba
with Julian Worricker
The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz
4.00pm – 5.OOpm
In 1943, German SS officers in charge of Auschwitz-Birkenau ordered that an orchestra should be formed among the female prisoners. What role could music play in a death camp? And how did it feel to be forced to provide solace to the perpetrators of a genocide that claimed the lives of their family and friends? In The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Anne Sebba traces these questions of moral complexity with sensitivity and care.
Drawing on meticulous archival research and first-hand accounts, Anne Sebba tells the full story of the orchestra, its members and the response of other prisoners for the first time.
Julian Worricker is back at Cuckfield talking to Anne as he did at the very first book festival in 2017 when they discussed Les Parisiennes.
Tiffany Murray
with Peter Guttridge
My Family and Other Rock Stars
4.00pm – 5.00pm
£14.00 per person
It’s the late 1970s and Tiff lives with her mum, Joan, at Rockfield, the iconic recording studios. This place of legend, where some of the most famous rock albums of all time were recorded, is the background to a freewheeling whirlwind of a childhood.
My Family and Other Rock Stars is Tiff’s remarkable story of growing up in a rural idyll, where the chances of bumping into Freddie Mercury playing piano, or even the hope of David Bowie appearing, were as normal as hopscotch and homework.
The Independent called it: ’Enchanting …one of the Top Twenty Books of the Year.’
Tiffany has been a Hay Festival Fiction Fellow, a Fulbright scholar and she currently lives in a forest.
Peter Guttridge, frequent visitor to Cuckfield, will be talking to Tiffany about those far-off days.
Tim Wigmore
with Peter Guttridge
Test Cricket: A History
5.30pm – 6.30 pm
Test cricket is on the cusp of its 150th anniversary. Test Cricket: A History tells the story of the players and stories that have shaped the game’s evolution since 1877.
Tim Wigmore brings to life both Test cricket on the pitch and the game’s social significance around the world. This tour is illuminated by dozens of exclusive interviews with the game’s greatest players.
From Bodyline to Bazball, the golden age to the rise of West Indies, and Shane Warne to Ian Botham, this is the perfect single volume history for any cricket fan.
Tim Wigmore is the award-winning Daily Telegraph cricket correspondent.
Peter Guttridge himself a long time cricket fan, will be talking to Tim.
Rory Cellan-Jones
with Julian Worricker
Sophie From Romania
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Upstairs at Bookfest
Adopting a pet can be challenging. Rory Cellan-Jones received the trembling Sophie in a van from Central Europe and thus began the process of growing together through love, kindness and a great deal of patience. Sophie from Romania follows the journey of her adoption– as Rory and his wife work with a dog trainer to win her trust, and navigate Rory’s Parkinson’s diagnosis.
Rory Cellan-Jones was the BBC’s principal technology correspondent until 2021. He now writes an influential Substack column on medical innovation, tech and Sophie. Together with Jeremy Paxman and several others he has begun a new podcast on Parkinson’s called Movers and Shakers.
Julian Worricker, frequent visitor to Cuckfield Bookfest, will be talking to Rory.
THE BIG BOOK GROUP
Emma Healey
with Jo Durrant
Sweat
7pm – 8pm
All Liam ever wanted was to help Cassie reach her full potential; to push her body to new extremes. But one day he pushes Cassie too far and she walks out of their toxic relationship for good.
Two years on and Cassie is stronger; fitter; healthier than ever before. And then she sees Liam. But she holds the power now. It’s Liam’s turn to sweat.
Emma Healey explores obsession, revenge and control in this blend of wellness culture and a slow-burn feminist thriller.
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma won the Costa First Novel award in 2014.
Emma will be talking to Jo Durrant who worked for BBC Radio before becoming freelance. She now appears at many literary festivals as an event chair.
