Morpurgo, Armitage and Hussain headline Tring Festival

Authors including Michael Morpurgo, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and Nadiya Hussain are on the bill at Tring Festival this year.

The Hertfordshire hybrid event will take place across 10 days from 5th–14th November in various venues, featuring more than 30 talks, debates, interviews and workshops. 

The festival will open with a free virtual event for schools celebrating Diwali, with Sonali Shah, BBC broadcaster and ambassador for the British Asian Trust. This will be followed by a political panel event the next evening with Gagan Mohindra MP, Jess Phillips MP and Camilla Tominey, associate editor at the Daily Telegraph, hosted by former MP David Gauke. 

Other highlights include the return of Mudlarking (Bloomsbury) author Lara Maiklem, alongside Tom Chivers and C J Schuler in discussion about their books and work unearthing the past. Max Hastings will be talking about his latest book, while writer, broadcaster and entertainer Pam Ayres shares poetry inspired by her love of animals. Footballer John Barnes and Luther Blisset will discuss Barnes' new book, The Uncomfortable Truth about Racism (Headline).

In conjunction with local indie store Our Bookshop, the festival will be streaming a selection of the events to an additional online audience.

Festival organiser Ben Moorhouse said: "We’re really excited to kick off the Tring Book Festival in November. The line-up we have secured is really strong, with a great mix of events. During lockdown, Our Bookshop in Tring thrived by hosting over 150 virtual events and that hard work has provided us with the ideal springboard into our in-person and hybrid festival.”