CLIFTON LitFest has unveiled its biggest programme yet for its 2026 event.
The festival has expanded to three full days for the first time to accommodate more than than 70 writers, thinkers, journalists, artists and cultural figures,
Among them are Mary Portas, Baroness Hale, Michael Gove and Jonathon Porritt.
Events are taking place from November 13-15 in venues including Clifton Library, Christ Church, Clifton High School, the Clifton Club and Pavey House .
Paula O’Rourke, chair of Clifton LitFest, said: “When we began putting this year’s programme together, we kept returning to the idea of positivity and happiness. There is no shortage of difficult news in the world, and we wanted LitFest to offer something different: a weekend that doesn’t shy away from the big questions, but also gives people space for curiosity, pleasure, discovery and hope.
“I think this is our most ambitious programme yet. We have extraordinary national speakers alongside brilliant Bristol writers and thinkers.”
For the first time, the festival begins with a full Friday programme, with the Clifton Club hosting a day celebrating writers and stories with strong connections to Bristol and the surrounding area.
Friday evening brings a big debate, as former Education Secretary Michael Gove and economist and author Professor Guy Standing discuss How Can Education Fix Society? Against a backdrop of AI, automation and rapid technological change, the pair will consider what education should be for – and what the next generation will need from it.
On the Saturday, former Supreme Court President Baroness Brenda Hale will draw on cases from her career to explore how the law shapes ordinary lives.
Mary Portas joins BBC journalist Harriet Robinson to discuss I Shop, Therefore I Am, looking back at the 1990s transformation of Harvey Nichols and her belief in business as a creative act.
Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon presents new research for his biography Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, while Michael Lewis, curator of the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, joins historian and History Extra editor David Musgrove to investigate the stories and mysteries contained within it.
Other speakers include environmental campaigners Guy Shrubsole and Jonathon Porritt.
Saturday closes at Christ Church with a celebration of West Country writer Laurie Lee.
Sunday explores some things that can make life richer, from art, food and nature to purpose, philosophy and happiness.
Philosopher Julian Baggini teams up with Bristol’s Clifton Coffee to explore coffee, philosophy and the good life, while Bristol-based MasterChef winner Brin Pirathapan shares the story and flavours behind his new book Elevate.
Cheesemonger Ned Palmer offers a journey through 6,000 years of British cheesemaking while University of Bristol psychologist Bruce Hood examines the science behind what really makes us happy.
There are more challenging conversations too. Political journalist Michael Crick and Bristol’s Baroness Thangam Debbonaire examine Nigel Farage’s impact on British politics, while Afghan journalist Zahra Joya shares her story of disguising herself as a boy to attend school under the first Taliban regime, becoming a journalist and ultimately being forced to flee Kabul in 2021.
Journalist John Kampfner brings the weekend back to its hopeful theme with Braver New World: What’s Going Right in a World Going Wrong.
Clifton LitFest is organised by volunteers from the Friends of Clifton Centre and Library (FoCCaL), which has become a registered charity. Profits from the festival are reinvested in projects supporting reading and the local community. More than 70 volunteers will help deliver this year’s festival.
Tickets are on sale online and from Clifton Library. Fifty Golden Tickets have been hidden inside copies of the festival programme at the library; each entitles its finder to a pair of tickets to a Clifton LitFest event of their choice, subject to availability. For the full programme and ticket information head to https://foccal.com/litfest.