45 events over 12 days, running from the 29th October until the 9th November 2025
2024 Booker Prize winner Samantha Harvey and astronaut Tim Peake headline the Petworth Literary Festival with a mouth-watering discussion around her Sunday Times best-selling novel Orbital. Who better than real-life International Space Station astronaut and local resident Tim Peake, to interrogate Samantha’s imaginative picture of life in orbit around the earth? Blast-off at 7.30pm at Midhurst Rother College on Monday 3 November.
Something for everyone
Other big hitters joining the Petworth audience include acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks; Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey; BBC Chief international Correspondent Lyse Doucet; broadcaster, humourist and former MP Gyles Brandreth; international star of stage and screen Dame Harriet Walter; and top international sportsmen Martin O’Neill and Graham Gooch.
In a broad programme offering something for everyone, the festival welcomes survival specialist Ray Mears, radio personality, pop star and retired Church of England vicar, the Revd. Richard Coles, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, and Dame Prue Leith.
Arguably Britain’s most respected historian, Antony Beevor leads a stellar list of authors marking the 80th anniversary of the ending of World War II with his magisterial The Second World War. Max Hastings brings his study of the D-Day landings Sword to the festival and Iain MacGregor’s acclaimed deconstruction of the quest to build the atomic bomb The Hiroshima Men will be discussed on Remembrance Sunday.
Other books featured include Andrew Lownie’s much publicised biography of the Duke and Duchess of York, Entitled, and local author Lucy Foley’s The Midnight Feast, one of the major popular hits of the summer.
Petworth Festival’s Artistic Director Stewart Collins said: “An hour with every single one of our authors is never going to be wasted but quite often it will prove unforgettable. We just can’t wait to get going!”
An enviable mix of outstanding authors has graced the Petworth Festival over its 15-year history. Covering a huge range of topics – from politics, to lifestyle, to history, sport, wellbeing, children’s stories and fiction – the 2025 programme is no different.
Tickets
Tickets are on sale now, buy online at www.petworthfestival.org.uk
