From 1-10 May. Over 150 artists authors and performers will entertain you across 56 events at 10 venues across Tunbridge Wells. This year we have over 8,000 seats available, 2,000 of which are pay what you can, as well as free activities and performances to watch and take part in.

Event and workshop tickets across the ten days of literary wonder have been selling fast, so we recommend booking soon to avoid disappointment. To book follow this link BOOK HERE 

The Amelia is delighted to be host for the following events:

Sam Davey – The Chosen Queen – historical fantasy retelling the origins of Camelot
Genre: Fiction
Date: Tuesday 5 May
Time: 14:00
Duration: 60 mins
Price: £10

Join prize-winning novelist and short story writer Sam Davey as she shares why she chose to re-imagine Camelot, bringing its forgotten voices to the forefront.

Most people would say the legends of Camelot begin with the sword in the stone. But Sam Davey sees things differently. For her, the story starts a generation earlier—with Igraine, the mother of King Arthur.

In her retelling, the focus shifts from swords and sorcery to the women, the politics, and the untold perspectives that shaped the myth. Her feminist approach breathes new life into these timeless tales, offering a fresh lens on familiar legends.

"Attending to gaps in the Arthurian legends with care, Sam Davey's captivating fantasy novel The Chosen Queen delves into the dangerous web of politics, religion, and magic that led to the birth of King Arthur....

"Elegant and intricate, the novel fills a recent void for feminist fantasy audiences, fleshing out Igraine beyond her traditional role as a mere vessel for Arthur's birth and refreshing the timeless atmosphere of Tintagel with everyday details....

"The compelling historical fantasy novel The Chosen Queen breathes life into an overlooked figure of Arthurian legend, giving her dimension and personality."
- Foreword Reviews

Richard Tyrrell – The Fox of Kensal Green
Genre: Fiction
Date: Wednesday 6 May
Time: 14:00
Duration: 60 mins
Price: £10

"Couched in gentleness, this is the story of Wilf Kelly as he navigates his small world and dodges the unkind remarks about his supposed strangeness. Supported in his small London community by his friend Felicia, he decides to acquire a fox, tame it and keep it as a pet. But all comfort is destroyed when Will is accused of a violent crime"
— Kerry Fowler, Sainsbury's Magazine.

This critically acclaimed first novel is a story about people coming together and looking out for each other.

Richard Tyrrell is a poet, playwright and novelist. His poems have been published widely in literary magazines, and he was a trustee of the UK Poetry Society, serving as its first Irish Chairman.

"Original and compelling" - Sara Lawrence, Daily Mail.

Policing The Beats – Black Music, Racism and Criminal Justice.
Genre: Non-fiction
Date: Thursday 7 May
Time: 14:00
Duration: 60 mins
Price: £10

Join Dr Lambros Fatsis, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of London, as he discusses his book Policing the Beats – Black music, racism and criminal injustice.

The book has been described as “A bold analysis that exposes the racist policing of Black music”

The emergence of UK drill music made headline news, portraying it as a criminal enterprise instead of recognising it as an art form. This new rap subgenre, however, is neither the first nor the only Black music to be targeted this way.

Policing the Beats rewinds the tape to demonstrate how music has been used as an instrument for policing Black people, from the era of colonial slavery to the present day, revealing the racist legal processes that make crimes out of rhymes.

This original and readable book offers the first in-depth account of the policing of Black music in Britain, highlighting the relationship between politics, culture and criminal (in)justice and inviting music lovers, scholars and activists to tune in.

"Placing sounds, songs and beats in the midst of the structures of empire, Lambros Fatsis reads Black music and music-making as radical resources - modes of learning and knowing that hold in them rhythmic, sonic and rumbling resistance practices. Policing the beats is an essential text for music lovers and music makers" - Katherine McKittrick, author of Dear Science and Other Stories

Manchester Must Dance
Genre: Non-fiction
Date: Friday 8 May
Time: 15:00
Duration: 60 mins
Price: £10

Manchester Must Dance: A Life of Music, Madness and Moving on Up.

A revelatory insider's account that moves from the cramped back streets of 1950s north Manchester on a journey deep into music, the city and the wider world.

Mike Pickering has lived through decades of rapid change in popular music. As an influential DJ he introduced house music into the legendary Haçienda. He signed Happy Mondays and James to Factory Records before working with Kasabian, Gossip and Calvin Harris at Sony.

His Mercury Prize-winning, multi-million-selling group M People transformed the music industry's attitude to dance music. As he tells his remarkable story he introduces an array of friends and collaborators, many of whom would become important – and sometimes notorious – figures in music history.

Tristan Gooley
Genre: Non-fiction
Date: Friday 8 May
Time: 19:30
Price: £15

Join the “Sherlock Holmes of Nature” to find out more about the world around us.

In his new Sunday Times bestselling book The Hidden Seasons, Tristan Gooley shows us how to read the clues that the sun, moon, stars, plants, fungi, animals, water and weather give us - but that we continually miss, because we don't know how and where to look.

“A brilliant guide to the signs and wonders of the natural world... The author's alertness and expertise are impressive, and he makes a beguiling and inspiring guide... wonderful.”
- Daily Mail.

Tristan Gooley is an author and natural navigator. Tristan set up his natural navigation school in 2008 and is the author of award-winning and internationally bestselling books, including The Natural Navigator and The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs