Barnes BookFest brings writers of all genres to SW13 in London for a weekend of writers, books and lively debate – from politics, history and new fiction to memoir, music and art. Authors join us to discuss their writing and share insights into their research and specialist subjects.
Past speakers include: best-selling authors William Boyd, Anne Glenconner, Frank Gardner, Anthony Seldon, Ben Macintyre, Robert Harris, Anthony Horowitz, Sebastian Faulks and Bonnie Garmus; award-winning writers Christina Lamb, Hallie Rubenhold, Adam Nicolson, Oliver Soden, Natasha Brown and Yara Rodrigues Fowler; writers on current affairs and political history including Jonathan Sumption, Michael Heseltine, Chris Patten, Vernon Bogdanor, Tomiwa Owolade and Simon Heffer; specialist writers Gordon Corera, Dipo Faloyin, Helen Czerski, Sue Prideaux, Tim Marshall, Alicia Foster, Laura Cumming and Andrew Graham Dixon; plus, biographers and memoirists, from Mishal Husain, Gyles Brandreth, Hadley Freeman, Hayley Mills, Sam Delaney and Leslie Thomas KC to Dame Eileen Atkins, Miriam Margolyes, Theo Fennell and Richard E. Grant.
Barnes BookFest started in 2021, initiated by The Barnes Bookshop, together with Magic Productions and The Friends of St Mary’s Barnes. We were delighted to be joined by Simon Heffer and Patricia Hodge as Patrons in 2022 and 2024 respectively and we were equally delighted when Gyles Brandreth became a Patron in 2025. We have just celebrated our fifth year and the festival weekend continues to bring wonderful authors together with readers to discuss their books, their writing and their ideas.
Each year we use proceeds from the festival to support literacy and community projects. In 2025, inspired by our speaker, debut author Nussaibah Younis, we donated funds to the Women’s Prize Discoveries programme, an initiative to find exciting and original new literary voices. In 2024, following talks by Sir Laurie Bristow and Abi Daré, donations were made to Rukhshana Media and to the Louding Voice Educational and Empowerment Foundation.
We are grateful to work with Laurent Residential, the leading independent property company in Barnes. Laurent Residential is the festival’s founding sponsor and has provided on-going support and sponsorship each year. In 2025, a number of Barnes BookFest events were supported by the British literary magazine Literary Review.
