MEET THE BIBLIT 2026 SPEAKERS
Read below to get an insight into the fascinating and inspiring backgrounds of our guest speakers who will be at BibLit 2026
ALEXANDER BALLINGER
Alexander Ballinger has worked in the book trade for over 30 years and is an expert on writing about cinema. From 1995-7 he managed the film book department, at Zwemmer, 80 Charing Cross Road. He was editor of Longman’s Inside Film and On Directors, wrote the acclaimed New Cinematographers based on his interviews with six of the world’s top directors of photography, and co-authored Penguin’s The Rough Guide to Film Noir. Phyllis Dalton A Career in Costume Lawrence of Arabia to The Princess Bride is the result of a decade of exclusive interviews with the Oscar-winning film costume designer, Phyllis Dalton (1925-2025).
ALEXANDER BALLINGER
Journalist and author Ciar Byrne will be talking about 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. She spent three years volunteering in the garden at Charleston and lives in Lewes, where she looks after her own garden and an allotment overlooking the south Downs.
CELIA BRAYFIELD
Writing Black Beauty: Anna Sewell and the Story of Animal Rights is Celia Brayfield's eighth non-fiction book and her second work of literary biography.
A Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, she has also written nine novels, beginning with multi-generational stories with historical settings including St Petersburg in 1917 and Malaysia during World War I.
Her later novels are modern social comedies set in London, and her work includes both international bestsellers and literary novels.
She has spent 13 years in development hell, with film options taken on several of her novels by Tom Cruise and Ian McShane, among others. She also teaches in Britain’s leading creative writing department at Bath Spa University.
Born in London and educated at St Paul’s Girls’ School, she now lives in Dorset.
NIGEL BIGGAR
Lord Biggar of Castle Douglas is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford, and an Honorary Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.
Described (by the New Statesman) as ‘one of the leading living Western ethicists’ Professor Biggar was appointed Commander of the British Empire ‘for services to higher education’ in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours and named one of Prospect magazine’s Top Thinkers of 2024. His most recent books are The New Dark Age: Why Liberals must win the Culture Wars (Polity, 2026), Reparations: Slavery and the Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt (Swift, 2025), and the best-selling Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning (William Collins, 2023). In 1973 he drove a Morris Traveler from Scotland to Afghanistan; and in 2015 and 2017 he trekked across the mountains of central Crete in the footsteps of Patrick Leigh-Fermor and his comrades, when they abducted General Kreipe in April-May 1944 - his hobbies include walking over battlefields.
ELEANOR DOUGHTY
Eleanor Doughty is a writer specialising in old money, country houses and British and Irish landownership, as well as the author of Heirs and Graces: A history of the Modern British Aristocracy, which was published in September 2025 by Hutchinson. She writes the Great Estates series in the Telegraph – a fortnightly profile of a big house and its family – works part-time for Debrett’s Peerage and freelances as a feature writer and interviewer for The Times, Financial Times, Country Life, The Field and many other publications beyond. When she is not writing, she can be found out and about with her cocker spaniel, Meg. She is currently working on her second book.
SIR LOYD GROSSMAN CBE
Loyd Grossman was born in Boston and educated at Boston University, the London School of Economics and Magdalen College Cambridge. An entrepreneur, author and broadcaster, he has been involved in the arts and heritage for many years having been amongst other things a Commissioner of English Heritage, Chairman of National Museums Liverpool, Chair of The Heritage Alliance and Chairman of the Churches Conservation Trust. He is a former Governor of the British School at Rome and the British Institute of Florence. Loyd is currently Chair of The Royal Society of Arts and Chairman of The Royal Parks.
Loyd’s 2015 study of the American artist Benjamin West- Benjamin West and the Struggle to be Modern was a Sunday Times ‘Art Book of the Year.’ His recently published, An Elephant in Rome: Bernini, the Pope and the Making of the Eternal City has been widely praised. Simon Jenkins described it as ‘a brilliant vignette of 17th-century Rome… rolled into an erudite narrative. It brings to life the relationship between a genius and his patron, and with an ease of writing that is rare in art history.’
ADAM HART
Adam Hart is a 25-year-old author and historian from Pembrokeshire. After studying History and Journalism at university, Adam set out to retrace his great grandfather Frank Griffiths' epic escape from occupied Europe after he was shot down dropping supplies to the French Resistance in 1943. On Adam's journey he tracked down and met many descendants of the heroic French civilians who risked their lives to save Frank. It was these emotional encounters that inspired him to write his first book, Operation Pimento, published by Hodder and Stoughton in June 2025. It has been shortlisted for the Hatchard’s First Biography Prize.
SIMON HART
Simon Hart took the seat of Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire from Labour in 2010, making him the first Conservative to represent Carmarthen. As one of the few Cabinet ministers to survive both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, serving in three different Departments. Responsible for many issues rarely seen by the public, he is often described as more of a diplomat than a traditional minister, being required to bring together participants who are often ideologically opposed behind a project or policy. He has appeared on Today, Question Time, Any Questions, Newsnight, and Sky News and numerous other channels.
He has a particular interest in the choice of new candidates and, at a local level, the impact of social media on politics, the intimidation of those in public life and what issues really change voters’ minds. Before entering politics Lord Hart was Chief Executive (and later Chair) of the Countryside Alliance. He has recently published Ungovernable, a Sunday Times bestseller.
SIMON KERRY
Simon, the 11th Earl of Kerry, was born in 1970 and is a business owner and historian. was educated at Eton College and at Cambridge University where he was awarded an MA in Archaeology. He has an MBA from Ashridge Business School, an MSc in Rural Land and Business Management from Reading University and a PhD in History from the University of East Anglia. He wrote Lansdowne: The Last Great Whig (2017), a biography of his great-great-grandfather, the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, and Miss Chase: Santa Barbara's Trailblazer (2023), about his American great grandaunt. He lives at Bowood House in Wiltshire, his family’s ancestral seat, where he manages the estate, which includes the Bowood Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort and the House and Gardens.
SAM LEITH
Sam Leith is Literary Editor of the Spectator and author of The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading, which won the Sunday Times Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2025 and numerous other literary awards. It has been praised as 'plotting a clear course through the thickets' of the myths, the misapprehensions and, more recently, the political-correctness controversies that surround children’s literature. His other books include You Talkin' To Me? Rhetoric for Aristotle to Obama; Write to the Point: How to be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page. Sam was educated at Eton and Magdalen College Oxford and is the son of journalist Penny Junor, the grandson of legendary Sunday Express editor Sir John Junor and the nephew of Dame Prue Leith, who taught him and his cousins how to cook pizza before they went up to university. His journalism has appeared regularly in the Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times, Daily Mail, Prospect, TLS and Literary Review.
QUENTIN LETTS
Quentin Letts is parliamentary sketchwriter for the Daily Mail. He was born in Cirencester, where his family ran Oakley Hall prep school, and he knows the Bibury area well. Schooled at Haileybury and Trinity College, Dublin, he caught the last of the old Fleet Street in the mid 1980s as a junior diarist on the Daily Telegraph. He had stints as a New York correspondent for both the Telegraph and Times and for five years wrote the Telegraph’s ‘Peterborough’ diary column. In 2000 he joined the Mail and has been its sketchwriter ever since apart from a two-year flirtation with the Times. He was a theatre critic for 18 years with both the Mail and the Sunday Times. He and his wife Lois, a Herefordshire church organist, have three adult children. Quentin’s non-fiction titles include 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain, Patronising Bastards and Stop Bloody Bossing Me About. ‘NUNC!’, which is about the prophet Simeon, is his second novel and is dedicated to his late siblings Penny and Alexander. In structure and, to an extent, in tone, the book is a homage to the Don Camillo stories of Giovanni Guareschi. Quentin likes to spend his spare time growing vegetables, cooking, and singing proper hymns.
HELEN MOLESWORTH
Helen is a jewellery historian and gemmologist, whose 25-year career has spanned the global gem and jewellery industry from auction houses to academic posts. Her passion for gems has led her all over the world, including the ruby mines of Burma, the emerald shafts of Colombia, the sapphire beds of Sri Lanka, and salerooms and collections from Hong Kong to New York. For ten years she was a jewellery specialist for Sotheby’s and Christie’s in Geneva and London, where she managed such sales as the private jewellery collection of HRH The Princess Margaret in 2006.
She has since held roles as Professeur d’Histoire du Bijoux at the Geneva University of Art and Design and as Managing Director of a gemmological Academy across Switzerland and Asia.
She is now the Senior Curator of Jewellery at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and was Lead Curator for their blockbuster exhibition, Cartier. Helen has a degree in Classics from Christ Church, Oxford, is a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London. Her most recent publications, Precious, was released in 2024, and Cartier in 2025.
HUGO RITTSON THOMAS
Hugo Rittson-Thomas is a British portrait, nature and interiors photographer. He studied Fine Art at Central St. Martin’s and Goldsmiths, University of London and took part in the landmark exhibition Temple of Diana alongside Tracey Emin at The Blue Gallery in 1999. In 2011, Hugo shot a series entitled Creatives, documenting a number of high-profile individuals. The ongoing project encapsulated London’s creative scene and the people working within it, from Alex James and Hans-Ulrich Obrist to Kylie Minogue and Gilbert and George. He photographed Her Majesty The Queen, The Duke of Cambridge and The Duchess of Cornwall for his book The Queen’s People, published by Assouline in 2016. Other notable portraits include the Dalai Lama, David Cameron, Kylie Minogue and Sting. Hugo’s books include Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds (2013), Great Gardens of London (2015), The Queen’s People (2016), Wildflowers for the Queen (2021), English Country House Style (2021) and Blenheim Palace: 300 Years of Life in a Palace (2024). The revised edition of his book The Secret Gardeners was published in September 2025.
SARAH SANDS
Sarah Sands is a journalist and author. She is a former newspaper editor of the Sunday Telegraph and the Evening Standard and a former editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Her books include Interior Silence, lessons from the monasteries, The Hedgehog Diaries and Constellations and Consolations, available on Audible.
Sarah lives in Norfolk and is a trustee of the British Pilgrimage Trust, Newmarket Racecourse Committee and the John Innes Centre. She is also a non executive director at Channel 4.
ALEXANDRA SITWELL
Alexandra was born in London, where she spent her early years, until 1965, when her father, Sir Reresby Sitwell, inherited Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire. She attended the French Lycée in London before going on to boarding school in Kent. She later lived for a period of time in Paris and went on to study History of Art.
Alexandra worked for many years in London in the art world and, between jobs, she managed to travel extensively. In 1991 she married Rick Hayward and together they have two children, Rosie and Bertie.
Alexandra has always had a deep attachment to her ancestral home and assumed responsibility for Renishaw in 2009 following her father’s death. She plays an active role in the day-to-day management of the estate, overseeing its commercial enterprises and the café in the stable block, as well as the garden and house openings and events. She is deeply committed to the maintenance of the gardens and the ongoing care, management and curation of the house’s collections, including its books, furniture and works of art. Since her stewardship the garden won Christie’s Garden of the Year. She frequently gives talks to local organisations on the house and Sitwell family and was a speaker for one of the Christie’s John Cornforth Memorial Lectures as well as The Chalke Valley History Festival.
Renishaw is still very much a family home and she and Rick along with Rosie and Bertie are never happier than throwing open the doors to welcome guests from near and far.
RICK STROUD
Rick Stroud is a writer, producer and director. His books include: I Am Not Afraid of Looking into the Rifles (2024), Lonely Courage (2017), Kidnap in Crete (2014), The Phantom Army of Alamein (2012) and The Book of the Moon (2009). With Victor Gregg he co-authored Rifleman, A Front Line Life (2011), King’s Cross Kid (2013), Soldier Spy (2015) and Dresden (2019) He is currently working on a biography of Madeleine Riffaud the French resistance fighter and radical journalist.
VICTORIA SUMMERLEY
Victoria Summerley is an award-winning journalist and author, who has written for the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent, among others. She began her career as a trainee journalist with Thomson Regional Newspapers after graduating from Edinburgh University and since held senior editorial positions on the Evening Standard and The Observer.
Victoria has always been a keen gardener, but first wrote about gardening when Sir Max Hastings, then editor of the Evening Standard, wanted someone “garden-literate” to interview Sir Terence Conran about his design for the Standard’s Chelsea Flower Show garden in 1999. From 2000 until 2012, when she moved to the Cotswolds, she was executive editor of The Independent. She wrote numerous articles about gardening and related issues while on The Independent, winning the prestigious Journalist of the Year award from the Garden Media Guild in 2010.She has collaborated with Hugo Rittson-Thomas on three books – Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds (2015); Great Gardens of London (2015) and The Secret Gardeners, all published by Frances Lincoln.
She opens her own garden in Bibury under the National Garden Scheme (also known as the Yellow Book), which raises money for hospices and palliative care.
PLUM SYKES
Plum Sykes is an English fashion journalist and bestselling novelist known for her witty writing about fashion and society as well as her personal style and taste. She studied Modern History at Worcester College, Oxford before beginning her career in fashion writing, first at British Vogue and then as a contributing editor at American Vogue under Anna Wintour. Her work there — writing about fashion, society and celebrity — helped establish her as a prominent voice in style journalism.
Plum Sykes gained international fame with her debut novel, the New York Times bestseller, Bergdorf Blondes (2004), a satirical look at New York socialites. She followed it with The Debutante Divorcée (2006), the mystery series opener Party Girls Die in Pearls (2017), and her more recent novel Wives Like Us (2024). Besides fiction, she has written the Kindle memoir Oxford Girl and contributes to magazines and her Substack newsletter.
Often associated with the fashion and social scenes of New York and London, Plum lives in the English countryside with her family and continues to write about style, culture and society.
COLN MUSIC GROUP
Antony Frewer (violin) James Thompson, (viola), Linda Thompson (cello), Sue Smart (double bass), Monica Frewer (piano)
The Coln Music Group is made up of music teachers from schools in the Coln Valley, and gave its first performance in 1978 in South Cerney. The membership varies from concert to concert to allow us to explore a wide range of the chamber music repertoire. Their performances have ranged from glasshouses in Yorkshire to churches in Gloucestershire. They have never played with financial gain in mind but have supported many organisations and charities by raising funds through donations at their concerts.