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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, now in its fourth year, was the first travel literature festival to be held in the UK for many years and has developed its own unique character.

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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 boat, with wolves, from the Holy Land to Kiev,  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
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2026 Festival Programme

Friday 10th April 

17:00 – 18:00  Adam Weymouth – Lone Wolf

19:00 – 20:00 Tony Wheeler – Lonely Planet

Saturday 11th April

10:30 - 11:30    Mark Ashley-Miller – Harbours and their Masters

12:00 – 13:00  Ash Bhardwaj - Why do we travel?

14:00 – 15:00  Sophy Ibbotson – Oxus 

15:30 - 16:30   Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson – Palestinian Walks

17:00 – 18:00  Margaret Busby – Part of the Story

19:00 – 20:00 Sara Wheeler – Jan Morris: A Life

Sunday 12th April   

10:30 - 12:00  The Winner of the Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing

13:00 - 14:00  Jen Stout – Night Train to Odessa

14:30 - 15:30  Jonathan Drori – Around the World in 80 Trees

16:00 - 17:00  Peter Frankopan – The Earth Transformed

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