Among the star names announced for this year’s Isle of Wight Literary Festival, there are some hidden gems who are really worth hearing.
The Secret Seven (although they are all well known in their own right) cover subjects from crime to royalty and sailing to Father Ted!
While Gyles Brandreth, Prue Leith, Helen Lederer, Sue Barker and Cath Kidston have been grabbing the headlines, these authors are not to be missed at the 14th festival, which takes place at Northwood House in Cowes from October 9 to 12.
1 Loretta Rothschild – Loretta’s debut novel Finding Grace is a gripping and emotional love story exploring grief, motherhood and an explosive secret, and has been selected as one of Goodreads’ hottest debut of 2025. Subject to an intense bidding war amongst publishers in the US, it has been praised as “tender and heartbreaking” by Jodi Picoult.
2 Grant Harrold – Grant’s book The Royal Butler is perhaps the most revealing royal autobiography of the year, with stories featuring Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III and many more. It tells the story of a working-class Scottish boy who worked his way up through the royal household to become butler to the King and Queen.
3 Lissa Evans – Picnic On Craggy Island is a memoir from the talented TV comedy producer who worked on Father Ted, who has gone on to become a successful author. Lissa’s talk is titlad From Craggy Island to Dimperley, as it charts that transition, which has seen her long-listed for The Orange Prize and had a book turned into a film starring Bill Nighy.
4 Martin Edwards – This multi-award-winning novelist and editor’s latest book, Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife, is a Christmas puzzle mystery novel with a difference. Martin is a leading expert on Christmas mystery stories, having edited five bestselling collections of them for the British Library, including Crimson Snow and Silent Nights. He has been awarded three Daggers by the Crime Writers’ Association, two Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America, and has received four lifetime achievement awards.
5 Karen Phillipps – In her book Get Carman, Karen shares the extraordinary story of George Carman QC, Britain’s most famous lawyer within living memory. Coming to prominence with his superb defence of disgraced former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe on a charge of conspiracy to murder, Carman subsequently defended many well-known faces the worlds of entertainment, sport, politics, and business, including Ken Dodd, Richard Branson and Elton John. Karen will be interviewed by Lord Grade of Yarmouth, a friend of George Carman.
6 Magnus Wheatley –There Is No Second by the former Financial Times yachting correspondent and expert on the America’s Cup, tells the definitive account of the first race around the Isle of Wight in 1851 for the ‘RYS £100 Cup’ that became ‘America’s Cup’ after the yacht America beat the best of the British fleet and took it back to New York.
7 Harriet Cullen – In Lady Pamela Berry – Passion, Politics and Power, Harriet Cullen opens a window into the remarkable story of her mother’s life, using a rich cache of family diaries and letters, and interweaving them with many other unpublished sources. In her prime, Lady Pamela used her position as a newspaper proprietor’s wife to become the most famous political and press hostess of her generation, harnessing her beauty and wit to influence successive governments.
Tickets for all festival events are now on sale HERE
