Bridport Literary Festival | Saturday 07 November
Event Details
The 22nd Bridport Literary Festival 2026 is Saturday 7 – Saturday 14 November and will bring a varied and exciting programme of events to lighten the dark days of Winter. A true celebration for all those who read books and love literature.
Day One: Saturday 07 November
Event 2 | James Braxton | Antiques Ramble
10am outside the Woodman Pub, 61 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NZ
Tickets: £14.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online via our Ticket Page
Join TV antiques expert and author James Braxton for a walking tour around Bridport’s celebrated vintage market and antiques shops.
Best known for BBC flagship shows like Bargain Hunt and Antiques Road Trip, Braxton is a seasoned auctioneer and author of antiquarian mystery fiction, including Barty: A Tale of a Stolen Bronze.
With over forty years of experience in the antiques trade, Braxton brings a practised eye for provenance, history, and craftsmanship to all he finds. Will he spot a genuine bargain along the way, or merely uncover the fascinating histories hidden behind everyday objects?
Event 3 | Oliver Bullough | Everybody Loves Our Dollars
10.30am at The Electric Palace, 35 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NY
Tickets: £16.50 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Electric Palace
Why is the world flooded with illicit cash and how did Britain become ground zero for laundering it? In Everybody Loves Our Dollars, acclaimed investigative reporter Oliver Bullough reveals why multibillion-dollar efforts to prevent financial crime have failed.
In conversation with festival chair Stuart Rock, Bullough demonstrates how organised crime groups and kleptocrats routinely exploit legal loopholes and regulatory blindspots.
Following his bestselling exposés Moneyland and Butler to the World, Bullough delivers an eye-opening exploration of the shady areas of global finance, showing why, for the worst bad actors, cash remains king.
Event 4 | Sarah Clegg | Perilous Enchantment
12 noon at Bridport Arts Centre, 9 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NR
Tickets: £14.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Bridport Arts Centre
Faeries
We often picture fairies as harmless, pastel-clad creatures, but the true history of the fae is far darker and more complex. In Perilous Enchantment, historian
Sarah Clegg strips away the Victorian glitter to uncover the capricious nature of these otherworldly beings.
Following the runaway success of her Sunday Times bestseller The Dead of Winter, Clegg traces how local nature spirits evolved into tricksters, demonic accomplices in witch trials and modern “romantasyˮ figures. Travelling from ancient Greek nymph caves to Icelandic elf fires, Clegg reveals how shifting fairy myths mirror humanity’s deepest wishes and anxieties. Chaired by historian Eleanor Barraclough.
Event 5 | Natasha Walter | Feminism for a World on Fire
1.30pm at Bridport Arts Centre, 9 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NR
Tickets: £14.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Bridport Arts Centre
Join us for an inspiring conversation with acclaimed author and campaigner Natasha Walter about building a more connected and hopeful future. Introducing her powerful new book Feminism for a World on Fire, she talks to Samantha Knights KC about how the challenges facing women today – from inequality and online misogyny to climate change – are interconnected and why our responses should be, too.
She offers a vision of feminism rooted in community, imagining how women’s liberation can sit alongside movements for equality, justice and environmental protection.
Natasha Walter’s books include The New Feminism and Living Dolls. She is the founder of the charity Women for Refugee Women
Event 6 | Robin Niblett | After America
3pm at The Electric Palace, 35 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NY
Tickets: £16.50 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Electric Palace
After eighty years of Western dominance, what next? In After America, Sir Robin Niblett, former Director of Chatham House, examines the collapse of American global leadership and the rise of transactional imperial power politics driven by the US, China and Russia.
Rather than assuming the old West can simply regroup, Niblett explores how smaller nations and middle powers can navigate this fractured landscape to build a stable future.
He is joined by former BBC North America editor Gavin Esler to dissect what this dramatic geopolitical shift means global stability and diplomacy.
Event 7 | Hannah Bourne-Taylor | Nature Needs You
4.30pm at Bridport Arts Centre, 9 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NR
Tickets: £14.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Bridport Arts Centre
Join author and environmental campaigner Hannah BourneTaylor for a candid conversation about finding your voice and fighting for the natural world, the subject of her book Nature Needs You.
Alongside discussing her grassroots crusade to save the UK’s plummeting swift population – from high-profile campaigning to demanding mandatory swift bricks in new builds – she will dive into her life as an activist and her experiences behind the scenes on Clarksonʼs Farm.
A frank discussion about rural life, battling bureaucracy and why protecting our wildlife requires radical resistance. She talks to writer and conservationist Keggie Carew.
Event 8 | Iain MacGregor | Battle: The Moments that Transformed Warfare from Ancient Greek to Ukraine
4.30pm at The Bull Hotel, 34 East Street, Bridport DT6 3LF
Tickets: £12.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online via our Ticket Page
How did leaders like Alexander the Great, Robert the Bruce and Horatio Nelson change the course of history? Join bestselling historian Iain MacGregor for a thrilling journey through 3,000 years of conflict.
From the shield walls of ancient Greece to the drone warfare of modern Ukraine, this fascinating talk explores the five forces that have shaped victory and defeat throughout history: Morale, Leadership, Innovation, Subterfuge, Timing & Numbers.
Travel from Marathon to the Spanish Armada, Stalingrad and Kyiv, discovering the dramatic moments when battles changed not just wars, but the course of civilisation itself.
Event 9 | Katja Hoyer | Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe
6pm at Bridport Arts Centre, 9 South Street, Bridport DT6 3NR
Tickets: £14.00 from Bridport Tourist Information Centre 01308 424901 or online Bridport Arts Centre
Between the collapse of the German Empire and the rise of the Third Reich, the Weimar Republic endured 14 years
of artistic brilliance, political violence and hyperinflation. Historian Katja Hoyer – author of the bestseller Beyond the Wall – talks to the novelist Boris Starling about how democracy unravelled into tyranny.
Central to her narrative are personal accounts from the time, including the diary of a local stationer, Carl Weirich. The result is a remarkably vivid portrait of ordinary citizens trying to navigate a chaotic and frightening world. A gripping new insight into one of the most fascinating periods in German history.
More information about the festival can be found at http://www.bridlit.com