Since its inception four years ago, the Sherborne Travel Writing Festival has celebrated travel writers as bridge builders; women and men who reach for the far horizon, who venture out from one little corner of the earth into the wide world, who connect and engage with the moment in an effort to understand different peoples, cultures and times. Empathy lies at the heart of their books, and the fundamental belief that through better understanding others we can counter the division and isolation of the present day. 

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As Europe faces the largest, most brutal war since 1945 and missiles fall on the Middle East, this work has never felt more urgent. As a direct result of the latter conflict, and the possibility of an expanding war, speakers Peter Frankopan and Palestinian author Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson have had to cancel their appearances, the latter as they are unable to get out of Ramallah. In their stead will come Dan Richards, whose remarkable new book Overnight will change forever the way you think about the hours after dark, and festival favourite Horatio Clare who, as I write, is driving a 4x4 from Burnley to Kyiv to deliver it to the Ukrainian Army.

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The Festival’s principles are mirrored in the inaugural Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing. On Sunday 12 April, judges Colin Thubron, Sara Wheeler and Emma Paterson will award the £10,000 prize to a British or European author whose most recent book encourages understanding between peoples and across societies.

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Travel - and hence travel writing - are “fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts,” wrote Mark Twain over a century ago. Today it’s vital that those of us who can keep travelling, questioning, exploring - and writing. Please join 12 remarkable authors, the Sherborne Literary Society team and myself to cross borders, to build bridges and to draw together – on the page at least – our divided worlds. 

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Rory MacLean

Curator

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2026 Speakers

Horatio Clare, Margaret Busby, Sara Wheeler, Lonely Planet’s Tony Wheeler, Adam Weymouth, Jonathan Drori, Mark Ashley-Miller, Jen Stout, Ash Bhardwaj, Sophie Ibbotson, Dan Richards, plus the winner of the first Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing.

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Festival Programme Changes

For anyone hoping to see Peter Frankopan, Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson – who were on the original programme – unfortunately they have had to cancel, replaced by Horatio Clare and Dan Richards, as described above. Original programme event ticket holders should have been contacted - if not, please get in touch with us.... READ MORE