The final edition of the Queen’s Park Book Festival takes place on 5 and 6 September 2026, with tickets from £9 and a free community tent running all weekend.
Some things end well and some things just end. Queen’s Park Book Festival is going out the right way. After nine years of building one of the most genuinely community-rooted literary festivals in London, the team has decided to call time on a high, and the lineup for the final edition is the strongest they’ve ever put together.
Philip Pullman headlines, discussing The Rose Field, the long-awaited conclusion to the Book of Dust trilogy and the culmination of the His Dark Materials universe. He’s in conversation with Claire Armitstead, and if you’ve been following Lyra Silvertongue’s story across six books and three decades, this is not one to miss.
Sebastian Barry, one of the finest novelists writing in English, appears to discuss The Newer World, his visceral new novel set in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Jacqueline Wilson brings her new book Esme Pepper to the children’s programme. And in what might be the most quietly extraordinary event of the whole weekend, British Museum chief curator Michael Lewis discusses the Bayeux Tapestry ahead of its first return to the UK in 1,000 years, in conversation with historian Marc Morris. The tapestry’s forthcoming British Museum exhibition is already one of the most anticipated cultural events of 2027. This is your early access.
Sathnam Sanghera is on the bill with his new book on George Michael. Iain Dale is there with his autobiography. Simon Garfield, Natasha Walter, the Honey & Co founders, Theo Randall. The programme is genuinely broad and thoughtful in a way that distinguishes it from the major metropolitan literary festivals that tend to book the same twenty writers every year.
The Community Tent, free to all and requiring no ticket, runs all weekend with events including Dean Atta in conversation about masculinity, belonging and queer identity, travel writer Monisha Rajesh, and explorer Charlie Walker discussing journeys to the world’s extremes. Saturday closes with a comedy night featuring Dominic Holland, Rob Deering and Samantha Day, hosted by Rich Wilson.
Queen’s Park Books hosts a pop-up bookshop with author signings throughout the weekend.
The London x London Take: Nine years in Queen’s Park, free community programming, tickets from £9, and a final year lineup that most London festivals three times its size would be proud of. Go. You’ll wish you’d been going for longer.
Need to Know
- Where: Queen’s Park, Kingswood Avenue, London NW6 6SG
- When: Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2026
- Price: From £9 (adult events), from £6 (children’s events), free community tent
- Book: queensparkbookfestival.co.uk
