The full 2026 programme is out: more than 500 events from 9 to 18 October. Members book from 27 August, general booking opens 3 September. Full line-up.

The full programme for this year’s Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival is out, and the date most people need is Thursday 3 September. That is when general booking opens. Cheltenham Festivals members get in a week earlier, on Thursday 27 August.

The festival itself runs 9 to 18 October 2026, ten days, with more than 500 events. Cheltenham Festivals published the line-up on 12 August.

The dates that matter

  • Thursday 27 August, 10am: booking opens to Cheltenham Festivals members
  • Wednesday 2 September, 10am: booking opens to 18 to 30s members
  • Thursday 3 September, 10am: general booking opens to everyone
  • Friday 4 September: the VOICEBOX line-up for 18 to 30s is announced
  • 9 to 18 October: the festival
Timeline of Cheltenham Literature Festival 2026 key dates: programme announced 12 August, members booking 27 August, 18 to 30s members 2 September, general booking 3 September, VOICEBOX line-up 4 September, festival 9 to 18 October
The booking calendar. Source: Cheltenham Festivals, programme announcement of 12 August 2026 and the Literature Festival page.
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The gap between the members’ date and the public date is the part worth planning around. The biggest names sell out in that week most years, so if there is one event you are set on, 3 September at 10am is not early, it is the last chance.

Who is coming

The headline list runs to roughly 90 names for the main programme. Among them:

  • Fiction: Elif Shafak, Maggie O’Farrell, Sebastian Faulks, Yann Martel, Robert Harris, Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Matt Haig, Helen Fielding, Jeffrey Archer, Richard Osman and 2025 Booker winner David Szalay
  • Politics and current affairs: Ian Hislop, Marina Hyde, Robert Peston, Sajid Javid, William Hague, Margaret Hodge, Frank Gardner, John Kampfner, Justin Webb and Nobel laureate Nadia Murad
  • History and ideas: Mary Beard, David Olusoga, Lucy Worsley, David Kynaston, Tracy Borman, Sarah Churchwell, Simon Armitage and Susie Dent
  • Stage, screen and comedy: Celia Imrie, Juliet Stevenson, Katherine Ryan, Sandi Toksvig, Meera Syal, Alexei Sayle, Reece Shearsmith, Russell T Davies, Craig Revel Horwood, Mel Giedroyc, Sara Pascoe and Katherine Parkinson
  • Sport: AP McCoy, Ian Botham and Joe Marler
  • Food and life: Mary Berry, Prue Leith, Liz Earle and Giles Yeo

Two guest curators are shaping parts of the programme: Candice Carty-Williams and Matt Arlidge. Carty-Williams will also revisit Queenie, the character from her first novel.

A few specific events already stand out. Ian Hislop marks 40 years editing Private Eye, in conversation with Ayesha Hazarika. Barbara Kingsolver receives this year’s Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. Kate Atkinson and Mick Herron appear together. The Times Debate asks whether Brexit was triumph or tragedy. Jeffrey Archer discusses what the festival describes as his final novel.

The family and schools side

The children’s and young adult line-up includes Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen, Liz Pichon, Rob Biddulph, Nadia Shireen, Harriet Muncaster, Andy Day, Russell Kane and MC Grammar.

The family programme runs to more than 70 book shows and workshops, covering animation, engineering, Aardman model making, football and fantasy. Interactive shows include The Magic Faraway Tree and Who’s the Football GOAT?

Separately, the Literature for Schools programme carries more than 50 author talks and careers events, from reception age to sixth form. Cheltenham Festivals says it reaches more than 12,000 school children a year through it, and booking for schools is already open.

More than 30 per cent of it is free

This is the part that gets lost every year. Cheltenham Festivals says more than 30 per cent of the Literature Festival programme is free of charge. That includes:

  • drop-in family events
  • The Snug, The Huddle and the VOICEBOX events on site
  • the Story Shack storytelling sessions, The Den and the Little People, BIG DREAMS trail
  • around-town activities across Cheltenham before the festival starts

There is also a town-wide element this year. Cheltenham Writes Back is a trail turning streets into handwritten letter fragments, described by the festival as an “ode to the town”. Artists from UrbanCanvas are producing the artwork and a local author is writing the letter. Pop-up letter writing stations will appear in venues around town, hosted by Cheltenham BID, and contributions become part of an installation at The Snug.

The Big Read title for 2026 is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, which the festival announced back in June.

Where it happens

The festival is not on one site. Venues listed for the Literature Festival include:

  • The Centaur
  • Everyman Theatre
  • Garden Theatre
  • Pillar Room, Cheltenham Town Hall
  • Parabola Arts Centre, Cheltenham Ladies’ College
  • Queens Hotel, including the Regency Suite and Victoria’s Restaurant
  • Hotel du Vin
  • Dunkertons Tap Room

Some events are online, and some are listed as offsite.

What it means for you

If you are booking:

  • Put 27 August in the diary if you are a member, 3 September if you are not. Both open at 10am.
  • The box office is on (01242) 850270, and Cheltenham Festivals is at 53 to 57 Rodney Road, GL50 1HX. It is a registered charity, number 251765.
  • If money is tight, work the free 30 per cent first. The family drop-ins and the around-town trail cost nothing.
  • The 18 to 30s VOICEBOX programme is free, but its own line-up is not out until 4 September, the day after general booking opens.

If you are living or working in town during the ten days, the festival brings a significant number of visitors into the centre. Our Cheltenham roadworks and travel page tracks closures, and if you are coming in by train, see Cheltenham train times to London. For the rest of the year, our things to do in Cheltenham page covers what is on outside festival season.

Sources