2026 marks 300 years since the publication of Gulliver's Travels, and at this year's festival, we will be celebrating its author Jonathan Swift.

Hester Grant will be joining us to speak about her recently published book, The Twitnam Summer: The Upside-Down World of Three Friends and the Writing of Gulliver's Travels. Her book looks at the summer of 1726 when Swift arrived in London from Dublin to stay with his friends John Gay and Alexander Pope, carrying a completed manuscript of Gulliver's Travels in his bag.

A barrister turned historian, Helen specialises in eighteenth-century history. Her book was recently described in the Spectator as 'compellingly written and packed with intriguing details... an engaging introduction to Pope, Swift and Gay and a reminder that if ever there was a time when we needed writers of such calibre, curiosity and courage it is now.'

Tickets to see Hester and our many other brilliant speakers can be bought via the ticket page on our website.