Book now or read about it later: Wimbledon’s festival is selling out

Wimbledon BookFest opens next month, 18 of its 92 events have already sold out, and under-30s can still get in for £10.

The festival runs from Thursday 15 to Sunday 25 October, eleven days of authors, comedians, scientists and politicians on stage at Wimbledon High School and Wimbledon Library, a short District line ride from Southfields and East Putney or bus ride from the High Street. It draws more than 20,000 people each October, and the University of Roehampton has been behind it for more than a decade.

In terms of sold out events, Robert Harris, Matt Haig, Marina Hyde, Maggie O’Farrell, Elif Shafak and Caitlin Moran have all gone, and Meera Syal is down to the last few seats. A further 29 events are marked as selling fast. That was the position on the festival’s website as of last night, and more may have gone by the time you read this.

There is still a great deal left of course. Mary Beard’s event with Catharine Edwards is marked selling fast, and Max Hastings, Sebastian Barry, Celia Imrie, Sophie Raworth, Lady Anne Glenconner, Clare Balding and Craig Revel Horwood are all still bookable, and the opening Saturday and Sunday carry twenty events each.

What is on

The opening weekend, 17 and 18 October, is the heaviest. Saturday has Max Hastings on the end of the Second World War, Louise Kennedy and Donal Ryan on Irish fiction, Sebastian Barry, and Celia Imrie on a life spent moving about. Sunday has Xand van Tulleken on the wellness industry, Janina Ramirez on the women behind Europe’s myths, Sophie Raworth, and Alan Davies on comedy, fame and what came after.

The weekdays are lighter, but they hold some of the sharpest events. Anthony Seldon and Marina Wheeler take on Brexit ten years after the vote on Tuesday 20 October. Luke Harding and Tim Marshall are on the new international order on Wednesday 21 October, followed by Bill Browder on Putin’s Russia. Lord Alf Dubs, who arrived in Britain on the Kindertransport, talks about his life on Thursday 22 October. John Lanchester is on the same night.

The closing weekend brings Simon Sebag Montefiore on the Middle East, Jamie Bartlett on how to talk to AI, Zahra Joya on the vanishing girl of Kabul, Kadiatu and Braimah Kanneh-Mason, a Chineke! concert, Clive Anderson, Clare Balding recording her podcast live, Tim Spector on food and mood, Meera Syal on her memoir, and John Sweeney and Peter Chappell on the rise of Reform. Caitlin Moran closes the festival on Sunday 25 October, and she has already sold out.

There are children’s events with Chris Riddell, Rob Biddulph and Ed Vere across the first weekend, and a local one worth a look: Nick Manning on Wimbledon and Putney Commons, at 11.30am on Saturday 17 October, marked last few.

What it costs and how to book

Most library events are £12.50. Events at the school mostly run from £15 to £37.50 depending on the name and the seat, and there is a £3.50 booking fee per order, not per ticket. Everything is booked through the festival’s programme page, where each event shows whether it is still on sale.

Anyone aged 16 to 29 gets a better deal. Sign up free on the festival’s under-30s page with your date of birth, and tickets to any event are £10 while the allocation lasts, with no booking fee. The sign-up has to happen before the booking, not at the checkout.

Once an event sells out, the festival does not normally release more tickets, but you can ask the box office to put you on a waiting list.

Why is there nothing like this where we live?

Sadly there is no literary festival in Putney, Roehampton or Southfields, but we are somewhat spoiled for choice with Wimbledon in Merton, and Barnes in Richmond, whose own weekend festival runs from 25 to 27 September.

The university that helps run the Wimbledon one is on our side of the line. The University of Roehampton is the festival’s Principal Academic Partner, a relationship that goes back to at least 2015, and it also leads the higher-education side of the London Children’s Literature Festival in Barnes, which took its free schools programme to Wandsworth and Battersea this June. The area’s literary credentials are real enough: former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho grew up in Roehampton and holds an honorary doctorate from its university.

Its BookFest Academy, a work-experience scheme for 16 to 19-year-olds, takes pupils from Merton or Wandsworth, and Ashcroft Technology Academy in Putney was among the schools that sent students last year.

This year the university’s role at Wimbledon has grown. The festival has added a run of small-group writing classes taught with Roehampton, two hours or more with a literary agent, a novelist or a former Bloomsbury editor, at £55 to £75 a seat. All four have sold out. Ticket holders get a Roehampton literary pack, and anyone who attends the festival is offered 10 per cent off the university’s own novel-writing course.

The festival started in 2006 when two arts journalists, Tony Kane and Fiona Razvi, decided Wimbledon deserved one. Razvi still runs it. It puts authors in front of more than 11,000 schoolchildren a year through its schools programme, and next year’s will be its 20th anniversary edition. It is a lovely festival to have next door, and our advice would be to book something before it goes.

Book it

Wimbledon BookFest 2026 runs from Thursday 15 to Sunday 25 October at Wimbledon High School, SW19 4AB, and Wimbledon Library, Wimbledon Hill Road, SW19 7NB. Both are a short walk from Wimbledon station.

The full programme and live availability are at wimbledonbookfest.org. Most events last an hour. Latecomers may not be admitted.

Under-30s: sign up free before you book. £10 tickets, no booking fee, standard seats only, proof of age may be asked for.

Sold-out events: email boxoffice@wimbledonbookfest.org to join the waiting list.

Printed programmes are in Merton libraries, Wimbledon Waterstones and Wimbledon Books.