Lineup confirmed for Charleston Festival’s 35th anniversary edition

Charleston has today announced the line-up for this year’s Charleston Festival. One of the UK’s longest-running literature festivals, it returns for its 35th year between 16 and 27 May 2024 in the grounds of the house and gardens at Charleston in Firle. For this anniversary edition, the festival presents one of its most ambitious lineups yet, bringing together today's leading voices in visual arts, literature, politics, music and more.

Highlights include a special event in which Judi Dench will look back on an extraordinary career with her close friend, collaborator and fellow actor, Bill Nighy. In an original performance, the astute, fierce and funny letters exchanged between the writer Virginia Woolf and her brother-in-law, the art critic Clive Bell, will be brought to life by acclaimed British actor Toby Jones. BAFTA winning actor Helena Bonham Carter will read extracts from historian David Kynaston’s forthcoming book A Northern Wind: 1962-1965, including from the diaries of her grandmother, the writer, politician and close confidant of Winston Churchill, Violet Bonham Carter. To close the festival, Peep Show and Succession creator Jesse Armstrong will be in conversation with co-writer Lucy Prebble considering how satire can help keep us sane in a post-truth world.

Melissa Perkins, Head of Programme and Events at Charleston, said: “We’re excited to present a festival for 2024 that is truly multi-genre, and which features some of the most exceptional writers, artists and thinkers of our time. At Charleston Festival we don’t just stage talks. We curate original event concepts with unmissable performance elements, bring together minds from across disciplines for surprising conversations, and commission exclusive new content. Our programme this year is brimming with trailblazing talent and must-see moments that make this anniversary edition unmissable.”