2025 Programme
Each of the six authors on the programme writes from a different perspective about our changing landscape. Together they form a day-long event that will inform, inspire and perhaps encourage you to see the world a little differently.
The Leiston Book Festival taps into the creativity and innovation for which the Suffolk coast is celebrated, bringing together inspiring writers and enthusiastic readers for a day of exploration, debate and discovery.
The 2025 festival line-up includes six authors who in interviews will share what stimulates their work and how they approach a theme both timely and timeless.
Festival Timetable
09:40
Welcome
Introduction
13:00
Lunch
Bookshop
09:45
Patrick Galbraith
Uncommon Ground
14:30
Patrick Barkham
The Swimmer
11:00
Richard Negus
Words from the Hedge
15:45
Tom Heap
Land Smart
12:15
Melissa Harrison
Homecoming
17:00
Ian Collins
Blythe Spirit
Tickets Prices
Tickets are only £30 and include full day access to all of our amazing authors sessions.
Patrick Galbraith
Patrick appeared at the book festival in 2024 discussing his book In Search of One Last Song, about Britain’s disappearing birds and the people trying to save them. It is regarded as one of the most important books on the countryside of recent years. The Sunday Times calls Uncommon Ground ‘a curious-minded and subtle intervention in the politics of the countryside’. Patrick writes for the Observer, the Spectator, The Times and the Daily Telegraph. He is a columnist for Country Life and The Critic and runs the literary magazine Boundless.
Richard Negus
Richard is passionate about the human skill and effort that go into the creation and nurturing of hedgerows, emblems of the British countryside that are often taken for granted. Well-known for his ‘Letter from the Country’ on BBC Radio Suffolk, in this book he brings to life the biodiversity that hedgerows foster and introduces the men and women who deal with the everyday complexities of modern farming, conservation and countryside stewardship.
Melissa Harrison
Melissa’s novel At Hawthorn Time was longlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. All Among the Barley, set in East Anglia in 1933, offers what the Guardian described as ‘an in-the-bone connection with the natural world’. Melissa’s book The Stubborn Light of Things is based on the monthly nature notebook she contributes to The Times. This her latest book has been described as ‘a simple, friendly and – above all – accessible nature journal for anyone who wants to observe more of the world around them.’
Patrick Barkham
Patrick is natural history writer for the Guardian and is one of a generation of authors who have revitalized nature-writing in Britain. His books include The Butterfly Isles, Coastlines and Badgerlands. His work has been short-listed for the Ondaatje Prize and the Wainwright Prize. His new book is a creative biography of the late Roger Deakin, writer, film-maker and environmentalist. The story is told primarily in the words of the subject himself, with support from a chorus of friends, family, colleagues, lovers and neighbours..
Tom Heap
Tom is well-known as a presenter on BBC’s Countryfile, Radio 4’s Rare Earth and The Climate Show on Sky News. In Land Smart he journeys through the British countryside, speaking with farmers, researchers, conservationists and even logistics experts who are developing innovative approaches to land use. Their work offers hope for a future where both people and the planet can flourish.
Ian Collins
Author of Blythe Spirit: The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe, Ian Collins was a close friend of Blythe’s. Drawing on unparalleled access to letters, notebooks, published works, drafts, and conversations from decades of friendship, he tells the full story of Ronald Blythe for the first time. The result is a sensitive, revelatory portrait which celebrates a fascinating, complex man and casts new light on one of our greatest writers.
In 2025 the continuing theme of our changing landscape and environment is surveyed by a group of writers whose books are animated by the natural world.
The Suffolk coast has always nurtured creativity and innovation. The Leiston Book Festival brings together inspiring writers and enthusiastic readers for a day of exploration, debate and discovery.
