Derby Book Festival’s Autumn Edition on sale now 2026

Tickets for Derby Book Festival’s Autumn Edition are on sale from Monday 28 September, bringing the National Year of Reading events to a close.

The Autumn Festival takes place across from Thursday 12 November to Sunday 15 November with 28 events in venues across the city, including QUAD, Derby Theatre, St Peter’s Church, Museum of Making, the Market Hall and local libraries.

Tickets for all events can be booked online at www.derbybookfestival.co.uk/whats-on/events

For people who are unable to attend in person, four events will be recorded and made available after the Festival ends as both individual recordings or as a Digital Pass for £22.

Highlights of this year’s Autumn Edition include:

• Journalist and war correspondent Fergal Keane who will be talking to BBC TV Midlands Correspondent Navtej Johal about his 37 years of reporting for the BBC covering major conflicts across the world
• Investigative journalist and presenter of BBC’s HARDtalk, Stephen Sackur on Hard Truth: Investigations that Shook the World in conversation with Navtej Johal
• Former Conservative Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Jeremy Hunt on Can We Be Rich Again? The Surprising Potential of Britain’s Economy
• Author and journalist Sathnam Sanghera on Tonight the Music Seems so Loud: The Meaning of George Michael
• History buffs can look forward to historians Tessa Dunlop, on the women who served in World War Two, Paul Beaver, on Father of the Spitfire: The Untold Story of R J Mitchell; David Torrance on the centenary of the General Strike, Dr Jess Venner on The Lost Voices of Pompeii and Professor Paul A Elliott on Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Wright and Friends.
• Novelists Louisa Young, who is continuing Elizabeth Jane Howard, her great aunt’s Cazalet Chronicles and Booker longlisted Mary Lawson with her latest, Solace in Winter.

For children and families, we have a wide range of activities on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 November with authors and illustrators leading sessions which combine music, dance and writing to encourage young people’s creativity to come alive.

There will be three more of the popular, free University of Derby CivicLAB events at Derby Theatre’s Community Hub with academics sharing their latest research publications on a range of subjects.

The Festival will also include a Book and Craft Market at Derby Market Hall on Saturday 7 November from 10.30am to 4pm. The market will be showcasing a host of regional makers, illustrators and creatives selling book-related crafts. Alongside independent publishers, the Festival’s Shared Reading team will be in attendance along with the Derby Book Festival book stall with books from past events.

Following the success of previous Book Appeals, the Festival is organising another Children’s Book Appeal to coincide with the Autumn Edition. To date the Book Appeals have collected and distributed over 22,000 books to organisations in Derby, including to many schools. People are invited to donate gently used, pre-loved books suitable for primary school children. Drop off venues include partners Marketing Derby, Derbion, Moorways Sports Centre, Wathalls and QUAD.  Local businesses are also getting involved with collections from staff, including Rolls-Royce. Festival audiences can also bring their books to events where they will be gratefully received.

The festival programme, designed by local digital marketing company, Gravity, is available from QUAD, other arts venues, all libraries and tourist offices.