Joanne Harris, Irvine Welsh, Lisa Jewell, Rupert Everett, Amanda Knox and Jung Chang lead most ambitious programme yet
13-23 November 2025 | Folkestone, Kent
Folkestone Book Festival returns this November with its most ambitious and wide-ranging programme to date – an 11-day celebration of books, ideas, creativity and community that transforms this vibrant seaside town into one of Britain’s most exciting literary destinations.
From headline icons to emerging voices, big ideas to bold conversations, creative workshops to local pride, the 2025 edition offers more than 50 events across 11 days in autumn, welcoming over 70 authors, thinkers, artists and activists to the Kent coast.
Unmissable headliners include:
- Joanne Harris (Chocolat) – opening the festival on Thursday 13 November
- Lisa Jewell – queen of psychological thrillers
- Rupert Everett – Hollywood actor, director and memoirist
- Amanda Knox – discussing prison, freedom and media spectacle
- Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting) – closing the festival on Sunday 23 November
With further appearances from:
- Jung Chang – internationally bestselling memoirist
- Caroline Lucas – former Green Party leader and environmental campaigner
- Jonathan Freedland – award-winning journalist and historian
- Kate Mosse – bestselling novelist and founder of the Women’s Prize
- Will Young – Pop Idol winner, singer, writer and mental health advocate
- Mark Haddon – author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
- Dean Atta – award-winning poet and YA novelist
- Rose Ayling-Ellis winner of Strictly, on communication and disability
A festival of ideas for urgent times
Curated for a second year by journalist, author and curator Sophie Haydock (whose second novel, Madame Matisse, was published by Penguin earlier this year), Folkestone Book Festival 2025 offers a timely programme – establishing itself as one of the UK’s most distinctive literary festivals: intimate, ambitious, and fiercely community-driven.
The 2024 edition featured authors including Tracy Chevalier, David Nicholls, Steven Moffat, Ali Smith, Alan Hollinghurst, Robin Ince, Roberto Sendoya Escobar and more – a line-up that helped cement Folkestone’s growing reputation as a destination for major literary talent.
Further acts in November 2025 include:
- Sabrina Ghayour (Persiana Easy) – on food, family, heritage and belonging
- Monisha Rajesh (Moonlight Express) – on rail journeys, resilience and slow travel
- Sam Parker (Good Anger) – on rage, masculinity and the power of anger
- Sunny Singh (Refuge: Stories of Love & War) – on displacement and writing trauma
- Joe Tidy (BBC Cyber Correspondent) – on teenage hackers, cybercrime and rebellion
- Paul MM Cooper (Fall of Civilisations) – on the consequences of collapsed empires
- Antony Penrose (The Lives of Lee Miller) – the son of the war photographer Lee Miller, on art, war and preserving personal histories
- Leslie Primo (The Foreign Invention of British Art) – on race, migration and the hidden influences behind British art
- Daisy Buchanan (Read Yourself Happy) – on reading as joy, comfort and rebellion
- Emma Jane Unsworth (Slags) – on girlhood, obsession and rewriting shame
“There’s something magnetic about Folkestone that draws people in – artists, thinkers, audiences – and sparks the most surprising conversations,” says curator Sophie Haydock. “The festival feels deeply rooted here, but the ideas it hosts ripple far beyond. It’s a place for stories that challenge us, inspire us, and bring us together.”
A festival powered by community
Folkestone Book Festival isn’t just about headline names – it’s powered by participation, rooted in place, and committed to nurturing future generations. This year’s expanded Primary Schools Series launches the festival with four days of free author-led events for local pupils. The much-loved Local Authors Showcase returns, celebrating homegrown writers. And a vibrant strand of creative writing workshops – featuring a Booker Prize winner, leading literary agent, best-selling memoirist and more – to support writers.
Reimagining culture in a changing town
At a time when public libraries across the UK face closure, the festival plays a vital role in keeping reading, learning and access to stories alive. Through the pioneering Folkestone is a Library project, Creative Folkestone – the arts charity behind the festival – is developing new spaces for storytelling and cultural life, sustaining the town’s creative energy and civic pride.
This year, Creative Folkestone also presents the Folkestone Triennial (19 July-19 October) – bringing major international artists to the town once again. With both the Triennial and Book Festival taking centre stage, 2025 marks a landmark year in Folkestone’s dynamic and ever-evolving cultural story.
Since relaunching under Haydock’s curatorship in 2024, Folkestone Book Festival has seen an increase in ticket sales, growing national media attention and increasing engagement from the publishing world – establishing itself as one of the UK’s most distinctive literary festivals: intimate, ambitious, and fiercely community-driven.
The full programme will be officially unveiled at a Launch Party on 2 July at the Quarterhouse, with tickets going on sale immediately after.
Notes to Editors
- Folkestone Book Festival was first established in 1981, making it one of the UK’s longest-running literary festivals.
- Since 2009 it has been curated and delivered by Creative Folkestone, the town’s leading arts charity, which also produces the internationally acclaimed Folkestone Triennial and oversees the UK’s largest urban contemporary art collection.
- In 2024, author Sophie Haydock was appointed as Curator of Books, Ideas and Community, bringing a bold new vision for the festival, combining headline authors with urgent conversations, community participation and a strong local identity.
- The festival programme includes headline events, political and cultural debates, creative writing workshops, schools outreach and local author showcases.
- The 2025 edition takes place during a Folkestone Triennial year, with the town hosting major international artists, installations and creative programming.
About Creative Folkestone
Creative Folkestone is a bold and ambitious arts charity leading long-term cultural transformation across Folkestone and East Kent.
Since 2002, we have enabled some of the UK’s most inspiring creative activity, making Folkestone a better place to live, work, play and visit. We believe that everyone is creative, and that creativity can change places and lives for the better. We work collaboratively to unlock potential and bring people together through culture.
Creative Folkestone supports and delivers six core projects: Folkestone Artworks, Folkestone Book Festival, Folkestone Triennial, Creative Quarter, Quarterhouse and Prospect Cottage. These projects offer space for new ideas, world-class talent, and community-led experiences to thrive. At the heart of it all is our commitment to excellence, leadership and imagination.
Formerly known as the Creative Foundation, and supported by our founding funder The Roger De Haan Charitable Trust, we continue to lead with purpose and impact.
Folkestone Book Festival 2025: 13-23 November. Be part of the story.
Creative Folkestone Book Festival is made possible thanks to the generous support of our funders and partners. This year’s festival is supported by Saga, Eurotunnel, Holiday Extras and the Friends of the Folkestone Book Festival as well as Canterbury Christ Church University, our education partner. Creative Folkestone is also supported by Arts Council England, Folkestone and Hythe District Council and The Roger De Haan Charitable Trust.
More information:
For press enquiries, interviews or images, please contact:
CaitBoyt@creativefolkestone.org.uk
Behind the scenes curating Folkestone Book Festival 2025
https://www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/news/behind-the-scenes-curating-folkestone-book-festival-2025/
Ticket will be available from 3 July, 2025
https://www.creativefolkestone.org.uk/folkestone-book-festival
