Festival History

by Angela Conyers

The Folkestone Book Festival has its origins in the Kent Literature Festival which started in 1980 in the Metropole Arts Centre in Folkestone. This attracted many illustrious names including Margaret Drabble and Beryl Bainbridge, Ian McEwan and Ted Hughes, and also featured a number of authors such as Benjamin Zephaniah who were less well known at the time.

This tradition of bringing talented authors to Folkestone was taken up in 2002 by the Folkestone Literary Festival with Saga as its main sponsor and directed firstly by Saga Magazine’s Editor, Emma Soames, and then by Saga’s contributing editor, Camilla Swift. The Festival began to attract larger audiences using the Saga Pavilion and the Grand as its main venues. A £20,000 Saga Prize for Wit and Humour to a writer over 50 was introduced.

In 2005 the involvement of the local community was encouraged by the setting up of the Friends of the Festival. Founded by Nick Spurrier, the Friends offered concessions on Festival tickets, ran book reading groups, produced a regular newsletter and organised other activities. All money raised was used to support the Festival and sponsor particular events. In addition, the Friends provided stewards during the Festival, as well as assisting with hosting and introducing authors.

On the sale of Saga in 2006, its sponsorship of the Festival ended. With Peter Florence, founder and director of the Hay Festival, as Festival Godfather and Ellie Beedham as Festival Director, it continued to attract interesting speakers and introduced features such as the History Weekend and more events for children and families.

Now under the auspices of Creative Folkestone, the Festival continued to use a variety of venues in Folkestone, including the Grand, the Lanterns and the Leas Club. In 2009 the Festival, with Roberta Spicer as Festivals and Programming Manager, was able to move into a permanent home in the newly built Quarterhouse in Tontine Street.  At this time, its name was changed from Folkestone Literary Festival to Folkestone Book Festival. The Festival, once held in September, had now moved to November and has continued to be held at that time ever since. 

In 2012, Geraldine D’Amico was appointed as the Festival Curator. She continued in this role for seven years, increasing audiences each year with an imaginative and varied programme of events, including international days, a children’s programme and a whole cast of authors on an eclectic range of subjects, many attracting capacity audiences. Not only were the audiences enthusiastic about the Festival, the invited authors too spoke warmly of the welcome they received in Folkestone. In a world where book festivals had proliferated since its early days, the Folkestone Book Festival had definitely established a first-class reputation among both audiences and authors. The 2018 Festival was the seventh and last to be curated by Geraldine D’Amico and with 50 events was her biggest festival and attracted the largest audiences.

From 2019-2022, the Festival was curated by Liam Browne and Seán Doran, whose DoranBrowne partnership ran the Arts Over Borders programme in Ireland. Titled The Shape of Things to Come, the 2019 programme was inspired by HG Wells' The Time Machine to travel back in time to explore words and music from different times and places, with a memorable reading from Wide Sargasso Sea by Imogen Stubbs and Alex Jennings.

In 2020 came the pandemic, but the Festival continued in November with a 4-day free programme called ‘Autumn Reads’ streamed on Zoom. The centrepiece was Ben Whishaw reading from Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature journals inside Prospect Cottage at Dungeness.

The Shape of Things to Come returned in real life in June 2021 and continued to be inspired by the ideas and thoughts of H G Wells. Among an impressive array of writers, a particular highlight was a series of multimedia events commemorating the marriage of Samuel Beckett in Folkestone in 1961. In their final Book Festival in November 2022, Liam Browne and Seán Doran explored threats to writers and their work, and also featured new work produced by Deborah Levy and Juno Dawson during their residencies in Prospect Cottage.

The 2023 Book Festival was curated by Jen Thatcher and James Harkin and offered a further selection of writers on topics from seaside towns to propaganda, gardening to AI. The tradition of running workshops and events for children continued.

Sophie Haydock joined Creative Folkestone in 2024 as Curator: Books, Ideas and Community. Folkestone resident, she is herself the author of two novels (The Flames and Madame Matisse). For the 2024 Book Festival, Sophie brought together over 60 authors for a highly successful programme on a wide range of topics from football and food to comedy and class, with authors such as Tracy Chevalier, David Nicholls and Ali Smith. Sophie continued as Curator with another exciting programme in 2025, with Joanne Harris, Kathy Lette, Jonathan Freedland, Robin Ince among an inspiring group of authors talking on a range of different themes. In 2026, in Sophie’s third year as Curator, the Book Festival goes from strength to strength.

The Festival continues to attract established and emerging writers just as it did when it started in 1980, but at the same time, it celebrates all the changes that have happened in Folkestone over these years.

Folkestone Book Festival 2026 takes place from Thursday 12 - Sunday 22 November.

→ Explore the programme now