Plan Your Friday, Saturday and Sunday
BIBLIT 2026 PROGRAMME
PLUM SYKES
3pm Friday 24th April 2024 in St Mary's Church
Often associated with the fashion and social scenes of New York and London, Plum Sykes gained international fame with her debut novel, the New York Times bestseller Bergdorf Blondes, a satirical look at New York socialites. She now lives in the English countryside and continues to write about style, culture and society. Her most recent novel Wives Like Us is inspired by life in the Cotswolds, leading many critics to hail her as the new Jilly Cooper.
CIAR BYRNE
4pm Friday 24th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Journalist and author Ciar Byrne describes how the gardens at Charleston and Monk’s House in Sussex inspired her to feature Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell as unlikely amateur sleuths in her detective novels, A Deadly Discovery and A Lethal Cocktail. Ciar is a hands-on, dirt-under-the-fingernails gardener who writes a weekly column for the Daily Mail and the Gardener's Diary for The Lady magazine.
RICK STROUD
5pm Friday 24th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Historian Rick Stroud’s book I Am Not Afraid Of Looking Into The Rifles tells the stories of eight exceptionally brave women and how they affected the course of the First World War. The title quotes Gabrielle Petit, who worked for the British Secret Service in German-occupied Belgium. She refused a blindfold when she was executed by the Germans in 1916 at the age of 23.
DRINKS RECEPTION WITH GUEST OF HONOUR PAM AYRES
6:30pm Friday 24th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
One of Britain’s best-loved poets, Pam Ayres will help us celebrate the start of BibLit 2026.
ADAM HART
10:15am to 11:15am Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Operation Pimento, by Adam Hart, tells the story of his great grandfather Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths, who escaped from occupied Europe in 1943 after his Halifax bomber was shot down while dropping supplies to the French Resistance. Adam also relates how he retraced his great grandfather’s footsteps 80 years later, meeting descendants of the heroic French civilians who saved Frank Griffiths. A riveting tale of bravery, sacrifice and determination.
ALEXANDER BALLINGER
11:25am to 12:25pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Aided by a generous selection of images from Phyllis Dalton's extraordinary archive, Alexander Ballinger tells the story of Phyllis Dalton MBE, one of the most celebrated film costume designers of the 20th Century. Expect to be entertained by recollections, insights and revelations from epic films like Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Oliver! to Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, Much Ado about Nothing and Alan Bennett's A Private Function.
HELEN MOLESWORTH
12:40pm to 1:40pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Precious is a history of the world refracted through some of the most famous and most precious gems on the planet, by the V&A’s senior jewellery curator, Helen Molesworth. She explores their history, their geology and their owners, from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth Taylor, and from Marie Antoinette to Marilyn Monroe.
SIMON HART
2pm to 3pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Theo Clarke introduces Simon Hart, who as a Conservative MP and Chief Whip had a ringside seat during one of the most turbulent periods in recent British Parliamentary history. His book Ungovernable charts the final five years of the Conservative government, from Boris Johnson’s defining role in Brexit, through Liz Truss’s extraordinary 49-day premiership, to Rishi Sunak’s defeat in the 2024 General Election.
NIGEL BIGGAR
3:15pm to 4:15pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Was the British Empire driven primarily by greed and the lust to dominate? Should we speak of “colonialism and slavery” in the same breath, as if they were identical? Without the British Empire, would we have been able to defeat the Nazi and Japanese empires in the Second World War? The author of Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning talks to Johnny Armitage about his assessment of Britain’s colonial record.
LOYD GROSSMAN
4:30pm to 5:30pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Loyd will be discussing his book An Elephant in Rome in which art, ambition and power collide in the seventeenth century to create one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Best known as a broadcaster and entrepreneur, Loyd will be drawing on his lifelong passion for art and his celebrated career in cultural institutions - currently Chair of the Royal Society of Arts - to provide an original and entertaining insight into the uses and abuses of cultural weight. He may also discuss his career as a failed rock guitarist!
HEIRS AND GRACES PANEL
5:45pm to 7:30pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Drinks reception, followed by discussion (6:30pm to 7:30om) chaired by Eleanor Doughty, author of Heirs & Graces, A History of the Modern Aristocracy. She will be talking to Simon Kerry of Bowood House and Alexandra Hayward (nee Sitwell) of Renishaw Hall about what it is like to represent a family name and maintain its heritage.
ASPECTS OF FAITH
11am to 12pm Sunday 26th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Nigel Biggar, Emeritus Regius Professor of Theology; Danny Kruger, former Conservative now Reform MP; Sarah Sands, editor and author of The Interior Silence, 10 Lessons From Monastic Life; and Quentin Letts, author of Nunc! discuss some of the most pressing moral issues of our time.
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
12pm to 1pm Sunday 26th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Celia Brayfield, author of Writing Black Beauty, a biography of Anna Sewell, joins forces with Sam Leith, author of The Haunted Wood, to discuss the children’s books that have made an impact on generation after generation.
THE SECRET GARDINERS
1.45 to 2.45pm Sunday 26th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
Journalist and author Victoria Summerley and photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas on their book, The Secret Gardeners, which examines how Britain’s most famous creative minds approach the making of their gardens.
COLN QUINTET
3pm Sunday 26th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
All welcome to attend.
FREE entry - Donations appreciated!
For BibLit 2026, the Coln Music Group will be performing the Schubert Piano Quintet in A Major, D667, otherwise known as the "Trout Quintet". Schubert wrote this quintet in 1819, when he was 22, but it was not published until 1829, a year after his death. The nickname comes from the fourth movement, which is a series of variations on Schubert's song Die Forelle (The Trout). As the home of England’s oldest trout farm, founded in 1902, Bibury seemed an appropriate venue for a performance of this work. The Coln Quintet members are: Tony Frewer (violin); James Thompson (viola); Linda Thompson (cello); Sue Smart (double bass) and Monica Frewer (piano).​