Right from the moment that we launched this year’s Festival with an evening of storytelling, it promised to be loads of fun – and so it proved.
Thank you to everyone who came along to help make our 2025 Festival a weekend to remember. Once again, there were so many highlights and special moments: readers meeting authors and authors meeting readers; music and art; not one but two Festival bookshops; being inspired by young readers at our first ever Jill Kibble Monty Mini Fest; soaking up the atmosphere around Montgomery – and, of course, eating more cake than was probably good for us.
And so many brilliant sessions to that will live long in the memory:
We explored borders of all kinds with Mike Parker and Sioned Wiliam, and found out why Jon Savage hates The Stranglers.
We talked cosy crime, satire and so much more with Jonathan Coe, and found out how Carys Davies packs such a punch into her short novels
We marvelled at Gwyneth Lewis’ extraordinary memoir and loved hearing Angharad Price talk about her novel, Nelan a Bo
We smashed up toll gates with the Rebecca Rioters; discovered that the Cleopatras (plural) were the true power brokers of the last days of ancient Egypt, and heard all about the ‘intelligencers’ run by Tudor spymaster, Robert Cecil.
We were delighted to partner with Aberystwyth University to deliver workshops for aspiring writers.
We relived Russ Williams’ folklore tour of Wales and went for a walk through the ages with Andrew Green.
We pinned our colours to the mast for one of the four women vying to be the King’s mother with Annie Garthwaite and talked to Caryl Lewis about writing so brilliantly for adults and children in both English and Welsh.
We went birdwatching – complete with our own (toy) peregrine falcon – and debated the glories and challenges of the British and Welsh coast
We’re still regretting all those near-misses in Marcus Berkmann’s latest quiz.
We learnt all about the teacher and mentor who – among other things – made Richard Burton the actor he was, and then wiped away a tear at our first-ever Lit Fest film screening (thanks Montgomery Movie Club), the wonderful Mr Burton.
And then there was the Mini Fest. We’ve always wanted to do more for younger readers and we’re grateful to our partners, Firefly Press, for helping us make that a reality this year. We enjoyed stories, drawing and so much fun with our storytellers, authors and illustrators. It was a fitting tribute to our Montgomery friend and colleague, Jill Kibble.
We can judge the success of the Festival in so many ways, but the most important measure for us is how well we can bring our communities together to enjoy the sheer pleasure of the written word. We salute all the very many people who helped us to achieve that this year.
We’ll be back next year, so save the dates: 12th-14th June 2026.
See you then!