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Stratford Literary Festival | Event Preview
Stratford Literary Festival returns for 2025, running from 8th – 11th May, and it’s a pretty packed schedule.
Featuring children’s authors Dame Jacqueline Wilson and the brilliant Maz Evans — plus a raft of household names including Mishal Husain and Reeta Chakrabarti — there’s a tonne of literary goodness going down in the home of Shakespeare’s birthplace next month.
With this in mind, here are just some of my top picks for the Stratford Literary Festival’s 2025 schedule.
Mishal Husain, Broken Threads
Thursday, 8 May 2025
7:45pm (1 hour)
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Stratford
£14 – £16
Journalist Mishal Husain needs little introduction, having been the face of current affairs both on BBC News and Radio 4 for many years.
Despite Husain’s prominence at the Beeb, I don’t know too much about her. She actually spoke about this recently with British Vogue, discussing broadcasting’s shift towards a more personal, editorialised approach.
Having since left the BBC recently – along with a number of great journalists – I’m really curious to hear what she’ll have to say at Stratford.
Most notably, Husain will be promoting the paperback launch of Broken Threads, a memoir written concerning her grandparents lives during the partition of India in 1947. An instant Sunday Times bestseller, this is definitely one worth checking out.
Kit de Waal, The Best of Everything
Friday, 9 May 2025
6:00pm (1 hour)
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Stratford
£12 – £14
I’ve long been an admirer of Kit de Waal, having first encountered her via the Big Book Weekend, which she co-ran with Molly Flatt during the first COVID lockdown.
It was an awesome way to bring bookish folk together during the pandemic and was actually one of the first events I covered on Tales from Absurdia, having started the blog only a couple of months prior.
The author of hit novel My Name is Leon, Kit de Waal is back with her first novel in 7 years. The Best of Everything is described by Ellen Peirson-Hagger in the Observer as ‘a warm story of second starts’, so this is an event I’ll definitely check out whilst I’m there.
Charlie Higson, On His Majesty’s Secret Service
Friday, 9 May 2025
7:30pm (1 hour)
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Stratford
£13 – £15
Charlie Higson, of Fast Show fame, features in some of my favourite comedy skits of all time. He’s also a really talented author of childrens’ books, including the Young Bond series, which has been received with award-winning acclaim.
Since then, Higson has gone on to write On His Majesty’s Secret Service, a well-received adult Bond novel based on the original Ian Fleming novel. I’m a big fan of Higson’s work, so I’ll certainly be getting along to this one.
Simon Mayo & Jeremy Vine
Saturday, 10 May 2025
2:00pm (1 hour)
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Stratford
£14 – £16
Modern day radio royalty, Simon Mayo and Jeremy Vine, are appearing at Stratford Literary Festival to discuss crime. Well, crime fiction. It’s a genre in vogue right now for the celebrity-come-author, and both BBC hosts have gone on to pen their own crime fiction novels.
Mayo is more established, with Black Tag, his latest novel released in January, whilst Vine released his debut crime fiction novel Murder on Line One, also earlier this year.
I’m more familiar with their work in the media than their literary careers — with Kermode and Mayo’s YouTube channel a regular haunt of mine — so this is definitely one worth checking out.
Dharshini David, Environomics
Saturday, 10 May 2025
6:00pm (1 hour)
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Stratford
£14 – £16
Darshini David, perhaps best known for her work as the BBC’s Chief Economics Correspondent, is the author of Environomics: How the Green Economy is Transforming your World. The book is pitched as an explanation of the impact of the green economy on our lives in a straightforward, easy to digest manner.
As someone who used to work in the renewables sector, and currently working in an economics-adjacent industry, this event really stood out to me. As with the other broadcaster’s on this list, David is a familiar face, and highly knowledgeable, so I think this is one worth checking out if you’re in Stratford on Saturday 10th May.
Florence Knapp and Nussaibah Younis
Sunday, 11 May 2025
17:30 (1 hour)
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Stratford
£6 – £8
Nussaibah Younis is absolute box office entertainment, and whether it’s at Stratford or a literary event closer to home, you should absolutely get along to one of her talks. I saw her in conversation with Jonathan Coe at Oxford Literary Festival, and it was easily one of the highlights.
Fundamentally, Younis’ debut novel, sees ISIS brides meets Fleabag-esque humour (her words, not mine!). And much like Percival Everett’s offbeat humour about racism in America, it just works. Crucially, without trivialising the seriousness of the subject matter.
Florence Knapp has also published her debut novel this year to powerful acclaim, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. The Names is an intergenerational novel on the power of names, and sounds a lot like The Sound Mirror.
Stratford Literary Festival runs from 8th–11th May. Check out the full list of events here.
