Memorable Chapter 13 For Isle Of Wight Literary Festival

The stars certainly brought out the bookworms for this year’s Isle of Wight Literary Festival.

The event returned its best attendance since Covid as literature fans turned out in their thousands to hear from authors such as Gyles Brandreth, Clare Balding, Susie Dent, Celia Imrie and Louise Minchin.

Big-name interviewers included Alan Titchmarsh, Anneka Rice and Sophie Raworth.

As well as the celebrity headliners, a wide range of writers, from historian Tracy Borman to politician Norman Fowler, wine guru Helen McGinn and rock music expert David Hepworth, kept the crowds enthralled over the four days of the festival (October 3-6) based at Northwood House in Cowes.

New segment Write on Wight, for the Island's author community, attracted 39 published authors to participate in three events.

Now in its second year, the LitFeast cooking demonstrations, a jazz event and the Fizz Quiz drew big numbers to add to the triumph of the 13th festival.

The enhanced schools programme was also a huge success with 5,000 children from 27 Isle of Wight schools enjoying 78 author sessions.

Maggie Ankers, festival chairman, said:

“The amazing hard work of the trustees team that organises the festival, especially our programme director, Julia Dams, who no doubt has already starting plotting next year's programme, paid off.

“We had so many positive comments from authors and festivalgoers.

“Many writers asked to come back again next year.”

Maggie said that numbers were up on previous years for many of the sessions with Gyles Brandreth the top attraction, selling 500-plus tickets for his event at Cowes Enterprise College.

She thanked all involved in the charity event, which was awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service last year in the King's Birthday Honours List.

Maggie said:

“We could not make this happen without the thousands of hours put in by our incredible volunteers over the year.

“We would also like to thank our sponsors, including Red Funnel, and donors for their invaluable support.”