Derby Book Festival Autumn Edition 13 – 16 November 2025

Tickets for Derby Book Festival’s Autumn Edition are on sale from today, Monday 29 September, continuing the 10th anniversary celebrations. The Autumn Festival takes place from Thursday 13 November to Sunday 16 November with 25 events in venues across the city, including QUAD, Derby Theatre, Derby Museum, Artcore, the Market Hall and local libraries.

Tickets for all events can be booked online at www.derbybookfestival.co.uk. There is also a Festival Pass enabling you to attend 12 of the events hosted by QUAD, which costs £60. For people who are unable to attend in person, 14 events will be recorded and made available after the Festival ends as both individual recordings or as a Digital Pass for £40.

Highlights of this year’s Autumn Edition include:

• Sir Tony Robinson, actor, presenter, historical expert and star of Blackadder and Time Team – and Patron of RSPCA Derby – who makes his adult fiction debut with The House of Wolf
• Jane Austen fans can look forward to Paula Byrne, whose latest novel, Six Weeks by the Sea, recounts the fascinating story of how Jane Austen fell in love for the first time
• For politics lovers: LBC presenter Iain Dale will be discussing his short biography of Margaret Thatcher
• Richard Vinen will discuss Churchill and De Gaulle
• David Bowie fans will be delighted can hear renowned music journalist Paul Morley discuss Far Above the World, in which he celebrates Bowie’s enduring influence
• History lovers can enjoy Jonathan Healey talking about The Blood in Winter, in which he explains the background to the outbreak of the Civil War
• Historian Tessa Dunlop has travelled the length of breadth of the UK to write Lest We Forget: War and Peace in 100 British Monuments
• Nick Higham brings us a fascinating story from the First World War with Mavericks
• Women’s history is celebrated by Victoria Bateman in her book Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power
• Sarah Dunant joins us for a Cream Tea event when she will share her latest book bringing Renaissance history to life with The Marchesa, the first female art collector and patron of her time
• Renowned crime and thriller writer Denise Mina will be joining us with her latest: The Good Liar
• For those who love alternative lifestyles, Jo Bell, former UK Canal Laureate, will share her memoir Boater: A Life on England’s Waterways

For children and families, we have a wide range of creative activities to attend including:

• Best-selling children’s author and illustrator Rob Biddulph, best known for his viral and phenomenal #DrawWithRob videos, will be holding a fun packed drawing event at Derby Theatre on Saturday 8 November
• Lanisha Butterfield, who recently won ‘The Wainwright Children’s Nature Book of the Year’ prize for Flower Block, illustrated by Hoang Giang.  Flower Block was also voted winner of our Derby Children’s Picture Book Award in April. Lanisha will hold two events at the Joseph Wright Centre at Derby College: a meet the author event and a fairytale writing workshop and will also hold events for schools during her visit.
• Imagine going to the cinema and becoming part of a pop-up orchestra who create every single sound FX and the musical score?  You can do this at two events with The Enchanted Cinema at Derby Theatre on 16 November.

Children can also join us for story times with Claire Powell, interactive habitat poetry with Katherine Wheatley and our Snack and Scribble Dracula event led by illustrator Mr The Beef.

There will be two more of the popular, free University of Derby CivicLAB events at the Artcore Gallery with academics sharing their latest research publications on a range of subjects, including Professor Paul Elliott sharing more of his research into Joseph Wright, Erasmus Darwin and the Enlightenment and Dr Ruth Larsen discussing her book, Mistresses, about women’s roles in country houses from the 17th to 19th centuries.

The Festival will also include a Book and Craft Market at the newly reopened Market Hall in Saturday 8 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 8000 books to schools and organisations in Derby. 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.