Award-winning engineer and broadcaster Roma Agrawal brings her fascinating new book, Nuts & Bolts, to ChipLitFest - she deconstructs our most complex feats of engineering into seven fundamental inventions: the nail, spring, wheel, lens, magnet, string and pump.

Author and presenter David Baddiel brings The God Desire to the festival. A personal exploration of atheism, this is David's much-anticipated follow-up to Jews Don't Count.

Mark is a Festival founder patron and well-established Festival favourite as the ChipLit Quiz master. He also happens to be one of the country's most entertaining and popular crime writers with a brand new detective series on its way in May 2023. And we're thrilled to be bringing The Last Dance to a very special festival event on 26 May.

Writer and teacher Sharon Blackie brings her compelling book, Hagitude, to ChipLitFest, it's a radical rewriting of the future for all women approaching their mid and elder years.

Professor of Psychology and Director of the Sleep Laboratory at Swansea University, Mark Blagrove, brings his fascinating studies about sleep, memory and dreaming to our our Sleep Well! event.

Leading marine archaeologist, Mensun Bound, tells the incredible story of how Ernest Shackleton's ship , the Endurance, was found in the 'most hostile sea on Earth'.

Katherine Bradley has had a long career in managing homeless services and now works in education alongside her writing work. She has published two suspense thrillers, as Kate Bradley, and joins ChipLitFest to discuss The Sisterhood, a feminist retelling of George Orwell's 1984.

Stephen Bullivant is Professor of Theology and the Sociology of Religion, he will be presenting a 30-minute lecture about the Vatican as part of the ever-popular Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions

Rupert Callender was moved to become an undertaker through his experience of bereavement and its aftermath. His extraordinary book, What Remains?, is a revelation that will transform our understanding of death and how we celebrate our loved ones.

In 2012, Jo Cheetham attended her first ever protest and it changed her life forever when she joined the No More Page 3 campaign. Jo's book, Killjoy, lifts the lid on this incredible David and Goliath-style triumph over a media empire.

Nicola Chester is a writer, school librarian and tenant on a farm estate in the North Wessex Downs. We are thrilled she is joining us twice, once as Ru Callender's interviewer and then as a writing tutor for her Wild Writing workshop.

The Chipping Norton Stanza Group is run by Poetry Society members, they meet monthly to help one another develop their poetry.

Literary agent from Eve White Literary Agent, Ludo Cincelli comes to the festival for the first time as part of the Publishing Masterclass event.

Geoff Cottrell is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and visiting scientist at the Oxford University Astrophysics Department and at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, he will be presenting a 30-minute lecture about Observational Astronomy as part of the ever-popular Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions

Author, academic and running enthusiast Vybarr Cregan-Reid returns to ChipLitFest as an interviewer. He'll be talking about getting a good night's sleep at our Sleep Well! event and to Dr Jules Montague about The Imaginary Patient.

Heather is a psychotherapist and sleep specialist. She is joining our Sleep Well panel to bring fascinating and much-needed advice to all those longing for a good night's sleep.

Critic and journalist Sarah Ditum joins ChipLitFest as an interviewer. She'll be talking about middle aged women in Hags; pioneering surgeons in Life in Her Hands; and feminist activism in Killjoy.

Jo Durrant joins us at the festival for the first time as an interviewer. Jo is the award-winning presenter of Jo Durrant’s Beautiful Universe podcast.

Catherine is the ChipLitFest trustee who organises the annual short story competition and the publisher behind our collection of previous short story winners, The One About The Sheep. As always, she will host the award ceremony during the festival weekend.

Literary journalist, reviewer and broadcaster, Suzi Feay joins us again as a festival interviewer. She will be talking to Marina Hyde and Sebastian Payne about life on Westminster's front line and hosting our evening with David Baddiel.

Novelist and true-crime aficionado Emma Flint joins the festival for the first time with her agent, Jo Unwin, to help shine a light on the publishing process.

Chris Floyd’s photographs have appeared in magazines and newspapers including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and The New York Times Magazine and have won him numerous distinctions over his three-decade long career.

Interviewer Gerry Foley returns to ChipLitFest. He'll be talking to Ed Stourton about his candid and gripping memoir, Confessions, and to Simon Sebag Montefiore about his spell-binding story of humankind, The World: A Family History.

Novelist and journalist Nell Frizzell is joining ChipLitFest for the first time. She will be interviewing Clare Mackintosh and the king and queen of feel good fiction, Mike Gayle and Milly Johnson. She's also celebrating her latest book from the frontline of motherhood, Holding the Baby.

Costa Award-winning novelist Claire Fuller returns to ChipLitFest, this time with The Memory of Animals, a gripping, haunting story that imagines a future where survival is always in doubt.

Mike Gayle has been a full-time novelist since 1997 following the publication of his Sunday Times top ten best-seller My Legendary Girlfriend. He first came to ChipLitFest in 2017 and we're delighted to welcome him back to claim his crown as king of feel good fiction.

Editor and regular ChipLitFest interviewer as well as longtime committee member, Alison's interests range from literature to journalism to the classics.

Will Gompertz has been writing about and championing the arts at the Tate, the BBC and now the Barbican. He returns to ChipLitFest with his latest book, See What You're Missing: 31 Ways Artists Notice the World - and How You Can Too.

Jane Graham Maw is a literary agent whose clients include previous and current ChipLitFest authors such as Raynor Winn and Vybarr Cregan-Reid. Jane returns to the festival to run a day of Pitch the Agent sessions, giving advice to writers about getting agents to notice their manuscripts.

Joe is one of our regular ChipLitFest interviewers. And, as always, he will be talking to our debut novelists in the New Voices event.

Monica Heisey is a screen writer from Toronto whose credits include Schitt's Creek and who will join our New Voices 2023 panel with her debut novel, really good, actually, a wildly funny story about the uncertainties of modern love, friendship and happiness.

We are delighted that local farmer and television presenter Adam Henson is stepping across the border into Oxfordshire to take us on a journey through the seasons to show us what we can find, spot, observe and do in the countryside.

Mick is the Gold Dagger-winning author of the Slough House series. Often described as John le Carré's successor, Mick will be in conversation with Mark Billingham at our The Last Dance event, celebrating the arrival of Mark's new detective Declan Miller.

Guardian columnist Marina Hyde is regularly agreed to be the funniest journalist out there, no other writer is more suited to chronicling the absurd times in which we live. She and Sebastian Payne will be unpicking life on the political frontline in our Wild Westminster event.

Elvin James Mensah joins our New Voices 2023 panel with his debut novel, Small Joys, a tender story of love, friendship and finding happiness in the most unexpected places.

We're so excited to welcome Milly Johnson - the undisputed queen of feel-good fiction - to Chipping Norton. She is one of the UK's Top 10 Female Fiction authors having sold millions of copies of her books worldwide.

Having been the ChipLitFest short story judge last year, literary agent Yasmin Kane returns to the festival to run a day of Pitch the Agent sessions, giving advice to writers about getting agents to notice their manuscripts.

Susan Llewelyn is Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford University and Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, she will be presenting a 30-minute lecture about Clinical Psychology as part of the ever-popular Oxford University Press Very Short Introductions

Clare is the best-selling, multi award-winning author of some of the past decade's most popular thrillers. She is also the founder of ChipLitFest and we're delighted to host an event celebrating her latest book, The Last Party, and ten years of the festival.

Novelist Ayisha Malik has been to ChipLitFest twice before once as a debut writer and then as a writers' workshop tutor. We're delighted that she's back now as an interviewer to discuss dystopian literature.

Averil Mansfield established herself as a pioneer in every sense of the word when she qualified as a surgeon in the early 1970s. Life in Her Hands is the remarkable story of a truly trailblazing woman. Don't miss this chance to hear Averil's extraordinary account of her extraordinary life.

Novelist Charlotte Mendelson joins us to celebrate the paperback release of The Exhibitionist, named The Times' Novel of 2022. It's a dazzling, very funny read that takes the dysfunctional fictional family to the next level.

Consultant neurologist Dr Jules Montague shines a light on medical diagnosis in her fascinating book, The Imaginary Patient, and examines the idea that a diagnosis might not give us the certainty we crave but, in fact, reveal the medical establishment's bias. Jules will also be interviewing Joe Tracini about his book, Ten Things I Hate About Me.

Deputy MD of PR Agency Midas, Georgina Moore is an award-winning book publicist who has worked in the publishing industry for 20 years, several of her authors have featured at past festivals. She is also a debut novelist and will join the New Voices panel with The Garnett Girls.

Writer and documentary maker Polly Morland brings her extraordinary reportage on the life of a country doctor, A Fortunate Woman, to ChipLitFest. Combining biography, nature writing and a plea on behalf of general practice, this wonderful account is a remarkable response to John Berger's A Fortunate Man.

Mary-Ann is again joining ChipLitFest as an interviewer. She's an anthropologist, archaeologist and adventurer.

Nature writer, conductor, inventor of both the Twitter Birdsong Project and the World Cup of Random English Words , Lev Parikian turns his attention to flight, the evolutionary story of life on the wing, in his latest book, Taking Flight.

Writer and photographer Laura Pashby's book, Little Stories of Your Life, will inform her writers' workshop about finding your own voice. Laura uses words and photographs to capture precious small moments and how those moments can enhance your creativity.

Author and think tank director, Sebastian Payne, tells of the miscalculations and mistakes that led to Boris Johnson’s downfall, only two years after he first entered No.10 Downing Street. This is a gripping and timely look at how power is gained, wielded and lost in Britain today.

Lizzie Pickering brings her personal and professional experience of navigating grief to her important new book, When Grief Equals Love. Lizzie is a former ChipLitFest trustee and we are now thrilled to welcome her as an author.

Best-selling, award-winning author Meg Rosoff brings her brilliant, classic story, The Great Godden, to our event about families in fiction. This is the story of one family, one dreamy summer - the summer when everything changes.

Harriet Rycroft is a local plantswoman with an expertise and passion for container gardening following her years as Whichford Pottery's head gardener. "Harriet is the queen of ornamental container gardening!" –– Sarah Venn, founder of Edible Bristol

Dr Helen Salisbury is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Oxford and joins us to interview Polly Morlund about her book A Fortunate Woman.

Internationally best-selling and prize-winning historian Simon Sebag Montefiore brings The World to Chipping Norton. Named as The Times History Book of 2022, it's a groundbreaking history of the world told through its most influential families.

Back, by popular demand! Cotswold chef and food writer, Kathy Slack, has discussed food blogging and run a brunch event at previous ChipLitFests. She returns again with a delicious spring time lunch from her best-selling cookbook, From the Veg Patch.

In her new book, Hags, journalist Victoria Smith sets out to find the answer to one of today's burning questions - what is about women in their forties and beyond that seems to enrage almost everyone?

Nature writer and novelist, Richard Smyth, returns to ChipLitFest (last here in 2015) with The Jay, The Beech and the Limpetshell where he weaves together history, memoir, and environmentalism to form a new kind of nature writing: one that asks both what we have lost, and what we have yet to find.

Edward Stourton is one of the best-known names in British broadcasting. We're delighted that he is bringing his memoir, Confessions, to Chipping Norton. It's a fascinating reflection on his life the the events that have shaped him.

Actor, author, magician and leotard-wearer Joe Tracini lives with a complex mental illness. He wrote his book, Ten Things I Hate About Me, to save his life and hopes it will save others. It’s frank, sad and surprisingly hilarious. Don't miss it!

Jo is a literary agent with a background in acting and scriptwriting. As well as representing several ChipLitFest 2023 authors, Jo will be giving insider tips on the publishing process alongside one of her authors, Emma Flint.

Pen Vogler is a food historian and a publicist at Penguin Press. She first came to ChipLitFest in 2018 to discuss the food featured in Dickens' novels. This time Pen will be talking about food and class.

Literary agent, Caroline Wood was a film producer before joining the Felicity Bryan Agency. This is her second visit to ChipLitFest, this time she will be running an invaluable workshop about finding and working with a literary agent.

Following our return to live literary events in April 2022, we hosted three extraordinary evenings in October. Thanks so much to our audience and authors for getting involved: Dame Prue Leith, Brian Bilston, Manni and Reuben Coe and interviewer Saba Salman. Also thanks to Chipping Norton Theatre for hosting the events and to Jaffé & Neale for organising the book sales.

What a night we had with Prue Leith on 5 October 2022. Adventures in improvised soup; salad served with a bathplug; keeping the Hollies' hash, and killing dead lobsters for Princess Margaret. The inimitable Prue Leith was in sparkling form. The tales just kept on coming and Dame Prue's home crowd was most royally entertained.

On 11 October 2022 a completely packed house listened to the inimitable poetry of Brian Bilston, best-selling poet and novelist and Twitter's unofficial poet laureate. His latest collection, Days Like These: An Alternative Guide to the Year in 366 Poems, is a year’s worth of poetic treats and you’ll never look at the Hungry Caterpillar in the same way again.

On 20 October 2022, brothers Manni and Reuben Coe celebrated their wonderful memoir, brother do you love me. Reuben’s wish for their extraordinary book is that it will fulfil his "world mission to make everyone emotional." It certainly had that effect in Chippy! Our audience loved meeting the Coe brothers in gentle, moving and honest conversation with Saba Salman from Sibs, the charity for brothers and sisters of disabled children and adults.

Author and editor of Made Possible (an anthology of essays by people with learning disabilities), Saba joined us at ChipLitFest for the first time to interview Manni and Reuben Coe about their book, brother.do.you.love.me.