Books / Clifton LitFest
Martin Parr and Caroline Lucas head up a packed Clifton LitFest programme
Organised annually by Friends of Clifton Centre and Library (FoCCaL), Clifton LitFest takes place across the middle weekend in November, with all proceeds being funnelled towards library groups throughout the year.
The event is entirely curated and run by volunteers – from the nine-strong committee, chaired for 2025 by Paula O’Rourke, to the literary enthusiasts lending their time to the smooth running of more than 50 programmed events on November 14-16.
Alongside Clifton Library itself, there are multiple events taking place at several key local venues that have made their premises available for the weekend: Christ Church, Clifton High School and the Clifton Club.
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Shahed Ezaydi
A brand-new venture for 2025, the Young Adult Fringe festival will take place at Clifton High School on Friday, with various workshops dotted around the main weekend programme as well – including a session led by magazine journalist and author, Shahed Ezaydi.
Aimed at older children with a penchant for writing and storytelling, the day will feature guidance from industry professionals on how to make that all-important leap into fiction writing and/or journalism.
As to the weekend diary of events at Clifton LitFest, there is huge variety on offer. Bristol24/7 takes a look at some of the highlights.
Martin Parr, photographed in studio on Falmouth University Campus, March 2019 – photo: Elliot Caunce Photography
Friday
Celebrated documentary photographer Martin Parr has been granted the honour of being this year’s opening speaker. Having published more than 130 photobooks over a nearly 50-year career, Parr joins Professor Shawn Sobers to discuss his remarkable memoir Utterly Lazy and Inattentive – a book in which he finally turns his attention to himself.
He is followed by keynote speaker, former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, who will be sharing insights from her latest book Another England: Politics and Protest with Michael Malay.
Caroline Lucas
Saturday
Opening a programme of nearly 30 separate events on a marathon Saturday will be popular TV presenter and author Kate Humble (Springwatch; Lambing Live; Britain’s Best Coastal Walks), who has written a series of bestselling books in recent years that examine “the ways in which people connect to place, seasons and landscape”.
In a free event at Christ Church crypt, multi-award-winning children’s author Jasbinder Bilan will be diving into the magical world of storytelling and world-building for readers of middle grade fiction (aged between 8-12). Participants will have the opportunity to try creating their own imaginative story, as a group.
Kate Humble
Jasbinder Bilan
Feminist academic Helen Taylor will be in conversation with Sarah Dunant about her experiences as someone who chose not to have children, and what she calls “the joys and complexities” of a “path less travelled”.
And with a focus on finding a renewed connection to our environment, Dominic Hinde shares his quest to find hope “in unexpected places”, while Wainwright Prize-nominated writer and journalist Charlie Corbett explains how birds helped him through an emotionally turbulent time.
Helen Taylor
Dominic Hinde
Moving into Saturday evening, Ru Callender talks about his experiences of being what he terms a “radical undertaker”, presenting an alternative means of framing grief, funerals and the rituals of life and death.
Rounding off the day, Christ Church will host a moving oral history play, The Names, The Names, with stories of Bristol dock workers gathered by Amy King, and performed by John Telfer, Kate McNab and Ross Harvey.
It will be followed by David Parker’s premiere of a Bristol: 100 Years in 100 Minutes – a film of a concert from December 2024, performed at Bristol Beacon by the Bristol Youth Orchestra.
Rupert Callender
Still from Bristol: 100 years in 100 minutes – photo: David Parker
Sunday
Echoing elements of Callender’s talk, the final day of the festival opens with writer and filmmaker Kevin Toolis, who shares wisdom from ancient Irish rituals around death and grief in My Father’s Wake: How the Irish Teach us to Live, Love and Die.
2024’s Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, Bristol author Harriet Baker will be joined by acclaimed poet, playwright and lecturer Edson Burton in Celebrating Bristol’s Distinguished Writers, a conversation in which they promise to delve into “writing, place, and how to capture lives on the page”
Kevin Toolis on Dookinella Beach and Minaun Cliffs,Keel, Co. Mayo – photo: Tom Honan
Edson Burton
Returning to Clifton LitFest, veteran political broadcaster and historian Jonathan Dimbleby will be talking about the newly published and updated edition of his 1979 book The Palestinians – against the context of the deepening horror and devastation in Gaza.
And fellow Bristol writer Franny Moyle, a seasoned arts biographer, will be introducing readers to her new book charting the stories of 18th century female painters Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Angelica Kauffman.
Jonathan Dimbleby
Franny Moyle
Highlights of the final night of the festival include a behind-the-scenes look at Bristol’s TV and film industry, and Desert Island Books, which sees three figures from Bristol’s flourishing indie bookshop scene discussing their literary recommendations.
And veteran local band Los Yanquis, who formed back in the late 1970s, will be bringing Clifton LitFest to a close with a promised blend of “Country, Blues and Tex-Mex into irresistible, up-tempo rock’n’roll”.
Photo: The Small City Bookshop
Los Yanquis
Clifton LitFest 2025 is on November 14-16 at multiple venues across Clifton. For the full programme and tickets to individual events, visit www.foccal.com/litfest.
All photos (unless stated): Friends of Clifton Centre and Library (FoCCaL)
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