We're very pleased we can begin announcing our speakers for our 2026 Festival. Our theme this year is Boundaries - making, crossing and sometimes breaking them - so having Lewis Baston speak about his book Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders seems particularly apt. His first chapter focuses on the Irish border but he then moves east, covering Europe's past and present borders across the continent to Ukraine.

Lewis has written on British politics and the electoral landscape for more than thirty years, from polling analysis for the Financial Times to election results analysis for the Guardian. From 2003 to 2010 he was Research Director for the Electoral Reform Society, and from 2011 to 2015 he was Research Fellow at Democratic Audit before becoming a full-time writer. He has appeared in many print and broadcast media in the UK, including as the border expert on Tim Marshall’s series about borderlands for The Compass. This critically-acclaimed book was published by Hodder Press in 2024, and went on to be a The Rest is History Book of the Month, and a Waterstones Book of the Year.

We look forward to seeing Lewis in West Cork in August (7-9 to be precise) and check back on our website - or follow us on X, Facebook or Instagram - to find out more as we reveal further speakers.