A selection of bookshop readings, performances, literary lunches, salons, festivals and other writerly goings-on are listed here and regularly updated.
For your wider literary and cultural fix, check out the in-person and virtual event listings at the British Library, the London Review Bookshop, Waterstones, English PEN, the Southbank Centre, publisher and author websites and social media streams, as well as those of your local organisations and venues.
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Wednesday 18 to Friday 20 March
Fatima Bhutto: The Hour of the Wolf
A searing, intimate memoir, The Hour of the Wolf is the story of how Fatima Bhutto freed herself from the tight, dangerous coils of a man’s manipulative charm. It’s a tale that crosses continents, travels into myth, literature, astronomy and art, and explores Fatima’s own yearning for motherhood. By her side for the entire journey is Coco: a small, ferociously loyal Jack Russell terrier. Heartbreaking yet hopeful, this kaleidoscopic memoir is a testament to resilience, self-acceptance, the restorative power of friendship, and humanity’s connection to nature.
Wednesday 18 March
Waterstones, 150-152 King’s Road, London SW3 3NR
7 to 8:30 pm
General admission £10; Ticket and book £15
More info and book
Thursday 19 March
Pages of Hackney at Round Chapel Old School Rooms, 2 Powerscroft Rd, London E5 0PU
in conversation with Sonia Faleiro
7 to 8:30 pm
£6
More info and book
Friday 20 March
Daunt Books Festival
Daunt Books, 83-84 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4QW
in conversation with Georgina Godwin
12 to 1 pm
£8
More info and book
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Friday 20 March to Thursday 2 April
John Lanchester: Look What You Made Me Do
A compelling black comedy of resentment and entitlement from the master of the state-of-the-nation novel, Look What You Made Me Do follows the story of two very different women: Kate, thirty years into her seemingly idyllic marriage with an enviable North London life and Phoebe, a young screenwriter, who has created the year’s hit TV show, Cheating. When Kate’s world takes a darker turn, she thinks she sees details in the hit show that only she and her husband Jack could possibly have known. But who has betrayed who? Who gets to tell whose story?
Friday 20 March
Daunt Books Festival
in conversation with Alex Preston
Daunt Books, 83-84 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4QW
6:30 to 7:30 pm
£12
More info and book
Tuesday 31 March
An Evening with John Lanchester
Booka, 26-28 Church Street, Oswestry SY11 2SP
6:30 to 9 pm
Ticket only £10/Ticket & book £20
More info and book
Thursday 2 April
Topping & Company, York Street, Bath BA1 1NG
6:30 for 7 pm
Ticket & book £20/Early bird £12/Scholar £5
More info and book
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Tuesday 24 March to Tuesday 2 June
The Conversation 2026 Spring Season: Beyond Algorithms. Beyond Orthodoxy. Real Insight for a Just World
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ
7 pm to 8:30 pm
£10 in-person or live stream + £3.95 booking fee
Buy all conversations for just £45
The Conversation 2026 Spring Season, held in the atmospheric Crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields, explores social justice and how we imagine the world with curiosity, knowledge and wisdom – a humane intelligence that values insight and understanding over news and information. The interviews take place live and online, chaired by series director Peter Florence, Caitlin McNamara and Sam Wells. They last an hour followed by a 30-minute public Q&A, then a book-signing and informal conversation.
Tuesday 24 March
Hallie Rubenhold: The Women
Tuesday 7 April
Daniel M. Davis: World Health Day
Tuesday 21 April
Mya-Rose Craig: Birdgirl
Tuesday 28 April
Kate Bowler: Joyful Anyway
Tuesday 26 May
Armistead Maupin: 50 Years on Barbary Lane
Tuesday 2 June
Sarah Churchwell: The American Dream at 250
More info and book
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Friday 17 to Sunday 19 April
The 2026 Barnsbury Book Festival
Various times and venues
Events individually priced
Barnsbury’s first-ever book festival brings three days of talks, performances and events across the Islington neighbourhood. The line-up includes Grayson Perry, Marina Warner, Dan Cruickshank, Frances Wilson, Rob Delaney, Bee Rowlatt, Clare Wills and pianist and author Stephen Hough. A specially commissioned literary walking tour will explore the area’s rich links to writers from Dickens to contemporary novelists. Venues will range from St Andrew’s Church, Thornhill Square to the boxing club and gaming pub. All profits are for the repair of St Andrew’s Church spire.
More info and book
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Wednesday 22 to Sunday 26 April
Cambridge Literary Festival Spring Festival
Various times and venues
Events individually priced or free
The CLF Spring Festival returns with a line-up including Harry Baker, Margaret Busby, Mary Berry, Jung Chang, Ed Davey, Greg Doran, Alan Hollinghurst, Yasmin Khan, John Lanchester, Wayne McGregor, Andrew Miller, Sarah Perry, Harriet Tyce and Zadie Smith. Other highlights include the return of the CLF lecture series with Caroline Lucas on the global climate crisis, Deborah Levy delivering the Room of One’s Own lecture and Rachel Clarke delivering the State of the Nation lecture. The free children’s programme returns with a new dedicated Children’s Zone where there will be storytelling, crafts and activities throughout the weekend.
More info and book
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Ongoing
Arvon courses and retreats
Online or in-person, from one hour at home to five weeks at historic writers’ houses in Devon, Shropshire and Yorkshire, you can find inspiration, support and transform your writing with Arvon. Discover a range of creative writing courses and events for writers of any genre and any level of experience.
Residential courses for Spring 2026 include Advanced Fiction: Writing Voice and Character with Lisa Harding, Paul McVeigh and Shani Akilah (The Hurst, 13 to 18 April); Fiction: A Sense of Place with Katherine Clements and Liz Flanagan, (Lumb Bank, 20 to 23 April); Non-Fiction: Blurring the Boundaries with Adam Weymouth, Sophy Roberts and Joanna Pocock (The Hurst, 2 to 9 May); Finding Your Way in Fiction with Andrew Miller, Jane Feaver and Samantha Harvey (Totleigh Barton, 4 to 9 May); Writing a Novel: The Oxygen of Fresh Ideas with Kim Sherwood, Adam Fould and Gurnaik Johal (Lumb Bank, 11 to 16 May); Poetry: Summoning Our Ancestors with Clare Pollard, Richard Scott and Troy Cabida (The Hurst, 11 to 16 May); and Audio Drama with Helen Cross, Jessica Dromgoole and Ben Lewis (The Hurst, 18 to 23 May).
More info and book
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