
Sherborne Travel Writing Festival
10 - 12 April 2026
While our horizons may have drawn in, travel writers have continued to reach out, rediscovering and reinterpreting the world for a new age. The Sherborne Travel Writing Festival is the first travel literature festival to be held in the UK in recent years.
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At its heart is the idea – and the timely theme – of empathy.
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'Travel writers are bridge builders, venturing out into the world to understand different peoples, cultures and times. Empathy lies at the heart of our work, and the fundamental belief that through better understanding others we can better counter the division and isolation of the present day,'
writes festival founder and curator Rory MacLean.
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Join us in Dorset this coming April to travel on foot, by bicycle, with wolves and astride an elephant in the company of twelve of the UK’s leading travel writers, thinkers, historians and broadcasters.
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with thanks to our main sponsors
2025 Festival Programme
Friday 11th April
17:00 – 18:00 Alan Edwards – I Was There
19:00 – 20:00 Victoria Hislop – The Figurine
Saturday 12th April
10:30 - 11:30 Ann Morgan – Reading The World
12:00 – 13:00 Nandini Das - How to Greet an Elephant
14:00 – 15:00 Barnaby Rogerson – The House Divided
15:30 - 16:30 Kapka Kassabova – Anima: a Wild Pastoral
17:00 – 18:00 Xiaolu Guo – My Battle of Hastings
19:00 – 20:00 Sophy Roberts – A Training School for Elephants
Sunday 13th April
10:30 - 12:00 Jonathan Lorie – A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Travel
13:00 - 14:00 Alexander Christie-Miller – To the City Istanbul
14:30 - 15:30 Mevan Babakar – The Bicycle
16:00 - 17:00 Horatio Clare – Adventures in a Strange Country