Plan Your Weekend
BIBLIT PROGRAMME 2026
ADAM HART
3pm Friday 24th April 2024 in St Mary's Church
Adam’s talk recounts his great grandfather Squadron Leader Frank Griffiths' epic escape from occupied Europe in 1943 after his Halifax bomber was shot down dropping supplies to the French Resistance. It also tells Adam’s journey retracing his great grandfather’s footsteps 80 years later, tracking down and meeting descendants of the heroic French civilians who saved him. A riveting tale of bravery, sacrifice and determination.
PLUM SYKES
4pm Friday 24th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXSally Page's debut novel, The Keeper of Stories, was a Sunday Times bestseller. She talks about her most recent novel, The Book of Beginnings; how flowers helped her become a writer and why she is fascinated by fountain pens.
CLOVER STROUD
5pm Friday 24th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXXFrom the glossy posses of Conde Nast to the playing fields of Eton, Sir Nicholas Coleridge talks about his career, which has spanned publishing, heritage and museums and - from September 2024 - the leadership of one of Britain's most famous public schools.
SAM LEITH AND CELIA BRAYFIELD
10:15am to 11:15am Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXXAuthor and journalist Ysenda Maxtone Grahame is the granddaughter of Jan Struther (Joyce Anstruther), who wrote Mrs Miniver. Her book Jobs For The Girls is a history of British women through the workplace, from twinsets and pearls to the ping of the first email.
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
XXXXXWhat sort of a person is Boris Johnson and how did he go from being the darling of British politics to the disreputable figure at the centre of Partygate? In The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson, Andrew Gimson has got closer than anyone to finding out the answers.
SIMON HART
2pm to 3pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXXNicholas Shakespeare's biography of Ian Fleming; Ian Fleming The Complete Man, is a new portrait of the man behind James Bond by an award-winning writer with unprecedented access to the Fleming family papers. He is in conversation with writer James Fleming, Ian Fleming's nephew.
NIGEL BIGGAR - INTERVIEWED BY JOHNNY ARMITAGE
3:15pm to 4:15pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXXHave you ever been inspired to write about one of your forebears? Do you think your family history deserves a wider audience? Historian Jane Ridley is the great-granddaughter and biographer of Edwin Lutyens and knows from personal experience what it is like to trawl through personal letters and archives. Her fellow panellists will be biographers Anne de Courcy (Snowdon; Diana Mosley; Coco Chanel, Nancy Lancaster) and Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill, whose new book about her family home, Blenheim Palace comes out this autumn.
LOYD GROSSMAN
4:30pm to 5:30pm Saturday 25th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXXXRobert Hardman's book Charles III is a brilliant account of a tumultuous period in British history, full of insider detail and the real stories behind the sadness and the dazzling pomp.
EVENING DRINKS & EVENING PANEL DISCUSSION
5:45pm to 6:30pm Saturday 25th April 2026 Drinks & Canapes
followed from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Panel Discussion in St Mary's Church
XXXXXXThere’s nothing more fascinating than a glimpse of a private world and garden writers Abigail Willis and Victoria Summerley will be talking about their experiences while writing Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds and Secret Gardens of Somerset.
Abigail’s Somerset book features a range of gardens from a working flower farm to private retreats while Victoria’s Cotswolds book celebrates a rich tradition of garden-making in this beautiful area.
NIGEL BIGGAR, SARAH SANDS AND QUENTIN LETTS
11am to 12pm Sunday 26th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXXAll welcome to attend.
Free entry - Donations appreciated!
The Arlington Wind Quintet celebrates the special relationship between the “two Arlingtons,” – Arlington, Virginia, and the place after which it was named, Bibury/Arlington, Gloucestershire. The Arlington Wind Quintet’s members come from across the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area, including Northern Virginia, Suburban Maryland, and, of course, Arlington, Virginia. The players are: Rick Smith, clarinet; Andrea Schewe, oboe; Deborah Thomson, flute; Kathleen Emery, bassoon; and Mark Stanga, horn (Mark and his wife Jane own The Steps Cottage in Bibury). The ensemble members all belong to the DC Chamber Musicians and perform regularly at chamber music concerts around Washington.
VICTORIA SUMMERLEY, HUGO RITTSON-THOMAS AND CATHERINE FITZGERALD
12pm to 1pm Sunday 26th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
XXXXXProvidence catapulted King Edward and the composer Edward Elgar onto the world stage at roughly the same moment, offering each the opportunity to reinvent himself. For the profligate prince, reinvention made possible monarchical greatness; for the provincial musician, reinvention brought international acclaim as the greatest British composer since Purcell. Both brought to their new standing painful memories of perceived youthful injustice, but neither would have contradicted Churchill’s observation that “kites fly highest against the wind, not with it”.
COLN QUINTET PLAYING SCHUBERT
1:15pm to 1:45 pm Sunday 26th April 2026 in St Mary's Church
All welcome to attend.
Free entry - Donations appreciated!
XXXXXX Caroline Montague's latest novel, The Pieces of Us, is set in the Potteries. She talks to Theodora Clarke, MP for Stafford, and her daughter-in-law, about the inspiration behind the story.