Appledore Book Festival

Each September, Appledore hosts a prestigious two-week book festival featuring numerous well known authors. Jeremy Vine is a patron of the Festival and usually interviews one or two of the writers. The Festival reaches beyond the world of books, into arts and nature. Martin Unwin’s Walks on the Wild Side are always very popular. You are bound to learn and see something new, as he is hugely knowledgable.

In September 2025 we went to hear Gabriel Gatehouse, interviewed by Jeremy Vine, talk about his book, The Coming Storm – Inside America’s Radical New Politics of Paranoia. If you’ve heard his podcast of the same name on BBC Sounds, you’ll be familiar with his investigations into the rise of QAnon and the far right, which led to the storming of the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021.

I also saw Sunday Times bestseller crime writer, Mark Billingham, talk about his latest Inspector Tom Thorne novel, What the Night Brings. I bought a signed copy and am looking forward to having a read. Incidentally, I was at university with Mark Billingham – he was a couple of years ahead of me.

In 2026 the Appledore Book Festival will be from 18-27 September. More information will be available on this link: https://www.appledorebookfestival.co.uk/ .