24 – 27 September 2026
A book festival in beautiful Wiltshire with events for all.
Our 17th festival will bring four days of inspiring conversations, ideas, storytelling, bestselling authors and family-friendly events to one of Wiltshire’s most picturesque market towns.
Marlborough LitFest began in 2010 and showcases fiction and non-fiction, including events for children, writing workshops, poetry readings and more.
As a charity we provide free events for young children, local schools and adults every year. This year we reached 1200 primary and secondary school children in Marlborough, Pewsey, Devizes and Calne.
Support the charity and gain access to priority booking and other benefits by becoming a Friend of Marlborough LitFest
Join in Marlborough’s biggest book club and read Kit de Waal’s ‘The Best of Everything’ before meeting the author at this year’s Big Town Read event on Sunday 27 September. To help fuel discussion, we have some reading group questions available for you but no peeking until you’ve finished the book!
We have been made aware of a fraudulent email account, marlboroughliteraryfestival@gmail.com, impersonating Marlborough LitFest’s email account (@marlboroughlitfest.org) asking participants to take part in this year’s festival and asking for money.
This is a scam. All official communications from LitFest only come from our official festival domain: @marlboroughlitfest.org and we do not request unexpected fees from authors or publishers. If you receive a suspicious email, do not engage with it but please forward it to general@marlboroughlitfest.org for verification.
Our Festival Patron is acclaimed stage and theatre actor, Sir Simon Russell Beale.
Stay up to date – sign up for our monthly email newsletter to find out about LitFest events.
The generous support of our sponsors brings wonderful cultural events to Marlborough and allows us to run our free events for schools and others
