Sandgate Literary Festival 2026

Our Patron

Lisa Jewell

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

Thursday 8 October

7:30pm | The Reading Room, Old Fire Station Sandgate | £12

Email: slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Ann Morgan

Ann Morgan ~ Relearning to read; Adventures in Not Knowing

Ann will be talking about her latest non-fiction book, which looks at what guides our responses to literature and explains her own approach to reading. Based on her hit blog ayearofreadingtheworld.com, it highlights how ‘not-knowing’ can deepen our understanding of the world’s complexity and richness.

Friday 9 October

7:30pm | The Masonic Lodge, Sandgate | £15

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Charlie Gallagher

Lisa Cutts

David Whitehouse

Charlie Gallagher, Lisa Cutts & David Whitehouse

Three acclaimed writers with local connections discuss how real-life experiences inspire their fiction and non-fiction writing.

Charlie Gallagher spent 13 years as a police officer before turning to crime writing. His bestselling Maddie Ives and George Elms novels, many set in and around Folkestone, have captivated readers for over a decade.

Lisa Cutts, a former detective constable who investigated murders, draws on her policing experience to write gripping crime fiction. She is the author of the East Room Incident, DC Nina Foster and Little Challham series.

David Whitehouse has written for FX, Channel 4, Sky, CBS and ITV. His award-winning novels include Bed and Mobile Library. His latest book, Saltwater Mansions, explores the real-life disappearance of a Margate woman through a blend of memoir and reportage.

Saturday 10 October

3pm | The Masonic Lodge, Sandgate | £15

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Lisa Jewell

Harriet Tyce

Lisa Jewell in conversation with Hariett Tyce

This event brings together two top authors to discuss their work, creative drive, and the art of keeping readers on edge.

Lisa Jewell’s bestselling thrillers have been translated into over 30 languages and sold millions worldwide, with Marian Keyes calling her a “stone cold genius.”

Harriet Tyce, a former criminal barrister, is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller Blood Orange and the acclaimed Witch Trial. She also appeared as a memorable Faithful on The Traitors (BBC).

Saturday 10 October

7:30pm | The Masonic Lodge, Sandgate | £15

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Malcolm Prince

Malcolm Prince – Paul O’Grady – Not The Same Without You

Radio producer, Malcolm Prince, has worked with Elaine Paige, Graham Norton, Alan Carr and Melanie Sykes. But it is his radio partnership with the late Paul O’Grady for which he is most famous.

Paul O’Grady – Not The Same Without You is a personal and revealing autobiography drawing on the close friendship between the two men as well as hours of private recordings. It tells the story of the man behind the icon, recalling the moments that shaped him and including interviews with those who knew him best.

It reveals a complex, deeply private man, with strong passions, who defied convention and pushed at boundaries to become a national treasure.

Sunday 11 October

10:30am | The Masonic Lodge, Sandgate | £15

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Katherine Carter

Katherine Carter – Churchill’s Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm

Katherine Carter is a curator and historian who has managed the house and collections at Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s country home, for 12 years.

A commentator and adviser on the life and legacy of Sir Winston Churchill, she lectures internationally and appears frequently in print and broadcast media.

She is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, and is a Churchill Fellow of Westminster College, the site of Winston Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in Fulton, Missouri. Her first book, Churchill’s Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm, published by Yale University Press, received rave reviews and critical acclaim. Literary Review magazine called it “a stimulating and enjoyable work that shows us interwar politics from an unfamiliar angle”, while The Critic Magazine remarked that it had been written ‘with such relish that one can smell the cigar smoke exude from every page’.

Sunday 11 October

1:30pm | The Masonic Lodge, Sandgate | £15

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

James Kenworth

Jean Hatton

James Kenworth & Jean Hatton Putting Real Lives On The Page

What liberties can we take when dramatising or writing about real lives—and how much is interpretation?

Playwright James Kenworth and biographer Jean Hatton discuss their approaches to portraying Elizabeth Fry, and where they draw the line between fact and imagination.

James Kenworth creates plays based on real people and events, often staged in meaningful venues, while Jean Hatton’s acclaimed biography Betsy offers a rich portrait of Fry and her times.

Sunday 11 October

4pm | The Masonic Lodge, Sandgate | £15

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Dominic Gregory

Lifeboat at the End of the World: A Volunteer’s Story from an RNLI crewman in Dungeness

Dungeness, overshadowed by its nuclear power station and made famous by Derek Jarman’s flotsam garden, is a place apart. For two hundred years the Dungeness lifeboat has launched in storms and heavy seas to save the lives of those in peril.

Dominic Gregory’s non-fiction book is the first to record the experience of a lifeboat volunteer – the smells of the water, the little knots when an alarm comes, the teamwork and trust of the crew, the ethos of the service, and the

Saturday 17 October

1pm | St Paul’s Church, Sandgate | £5

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Neil Tonge

Neil Tonge
Can You Survive Tudor England? An Activity afternoon guided by The author of ‘Terrible Tudors’

Join Neil Tonge, co-author of ‘Terrible Tudors’ in the Horrible Histories Series for an interactive day for young readers to learn about scary Sandgate and the horrible history of Kent.

Dare you walk the streets of the Tudor town? Take care for death and disease are following you ready to strike.

And don’t put any faith in miraculous cures of nine lice in a pint of ale for an upset tummy.

Watch where you put your feet for there’s pools of slime and something even worse than that. Don’t look up or you might get the contents of a chamber pot on your head. But if that gets too much for you why not go along to a hanging or a boiling alive execution for a bit of relaxation.

Saturday 17 October

7pm | Reading Room, The Old Fire Station, Sandgate | £28

Email slf@sandgatesociety.com to book

Tickets include two course meal, murderous entertainment, comedy and crime.

Murder Mystery Dinner Party

The Seagull Has Landed by Heidi Bailey

Interactive murder-mystery dinner party, THE SEAGULL HAS LANDED, is a whodunnit spy thriller mystery where guests are invited to decipher clues, question suspects and guess the killer of local MP, Michael Crane whose dead body has been found on the beach!

Set in Cold War Britain in the south coast village of Little Nesting, your mission is to find out who, what, where and why. Can you solve the mystery before the police arrive?