Our best festival yet!
A record-breaking year: 20,000 people, 200 speakers and 100 events over 10 days.
Save the Date: 15-25 October 2026
Read more about our fantastic 2025 Autumn Festival
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Festival Highlights
Thank-you to everyone who made this festival our best yet.
Take a look back at some of the highlights of Wimbledon BookFest 2025
2025 AUTUMN FESTIVAL GALLERY
Support Us
Join us today to be part of our journey – book festivals need support.
Wimbledon Bookfest is an arts and education charity working at the heart of the community, bringing the very best of global art, education and culture to South London. As one of the leading literary festivals in London, it runs a year-round Schools Programme, ‘Word Up’, bringing literacy events to children across south London – 9 London Boroughs take part.
Please become a Friend, Benefactor, Sponsor, or donate today.
We’d also love to hear from you if you think your business might like to get involved as a partner. Get in touch with [email protected]
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Merton Big Read 2025
Kit de Waal – Without Warning & Only Sometimes
The 2025 Merton Big Read is Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit de Waal.
Without Warning and Only Sometimes is a story of an extraordinary childhood, growing up in Birmingham in the 1960s, and how a girl who grew up in a house where the Bible was the only book on offer went on to discover a love of reading that inspires her to this day.
This initiative is funded by Arts Council England and run in partnership with Merton Libraries.
FIND OUT MORE GET A COPYGlobal Partnerships
CELEBRATING CONNECTIONS THROUGH STORIES
Our international partnership with LAHORE LITERARY FESTIVAL continues to grow with a strand of events celebrating South Asian voices. 2025 speakers include Reeta Chakrabarti, Salima Hashmi, Jassa Ahluwalia, Nussaibah Younis, Aisha Hassan, Keshava Guha & Dur e Aziz Amna, and Wimbledon-based author Fiza Saeed McLynn.
Our celebration of Korean arts and culture expands this year with the UK premiere from SEOUL WOW BOOK FESTIVAL of The Gap of Time – live pansori performance an adaptation of Jeannette Winterson’s response to The Winter’s Tale. Authors include Juhea Kim, Park Seolyeon and Ela Lee, an There’s also an unmissable event with International Booker Prize-shortlisted writer Bora Chung, in partnership with The Southbank Centre.
Find out more below!
LAHORE PARTNERSHIP CELEBRATING KOREAN CULTURE
Gap of Time ( A Winter’s Tale)
UK Premiere of the Jeannette Winterson Adaptation
Straight from the WOW Seoul Book Festival, internationally-celebrated Korean pansori artist Eunhye Jung brings her powerful voice to Wimbledon BookFest — in her only London performance.
2025 Young Writers Competition Anthology!
We are delighted to present the 2025 Young Writers Competition Anthologies, featuring 180 poems and stories based on this year’s theme The Legend and selected from entries by over 70 schools across South London and Surrey. Our overall winner was Ana Gumende for her insightful, original and cleverly written poem, Soldier Proletariat.
Explore the anthologies and see the full list of winners and runners-up by clicking below.
READ THE ANTHOLOGIES
Jacinda Ardern Schools Launch
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Our News
Behind our 2025 Design: In Conversation with Mahin Hussain
You’ve probably seen Mahin Hussain’s Gola Ganda, the bold and vibrant cover art for Wimbledon BookFest this year. It is hard to miss, with its striking colours standing out against Wimbledon’s buildings and train station walls.
Korean Pansori comes to Wimbledon
UK Premiere of Jeanette Winterson’s The Gap of Time (The Winter’s Tale)
For the first time, Korean Pansori: A Winter’s Tale travels from Seoul to London for Wimbledon BookFest 2025.
Young Writers Prize-Giving 2025
Every legend is made through the stories that are told about them, and this year more than 2000 children across 70 schools created their own in Wimbledon BookFest’s Young Writers Competition.
2025 Lead Sponsors
