‘London’s Leading Literary Festival’ continues to champion talent across the literary world and welcome curious minds.
Words by Katy Deboo; Video by Jessica Addo
Wimbledon BookFest has returned for another ten days this October in Wimbledon, London, showcasing a diverse range of art and literature.
Anchored in the local community, BookFest is hosted at Wimbledon High School and Merton Libraries, one of the festival’s partners. Wimbledon Library hosted a range of children’s events, including a draw along with author Rob Biddulph.
Classrooms have been transformed into a Waterstones bookshop, with additional rooms dedicated to book signings with panelists. Other spaces at the festival featured sponsors of BookFest, including Spiracle and Woodland Trust.
Since its debut two decades ago, the festival has hosted a range of authors across various literary genres. 2024 was BookFest’s biggest year, with 15,000 people in attendance; book sales for Waterstones grew by an impressive 92%, reflecting the boom in reading that is ongoing today.
When speaking about the most exciting aspect of the festival, Alessandro Lera D’Achille, bookseller at Waterstones says that “my favourite thing is the proximity to which you’re with an equal peer… someone who gets the same things as you, maybe enjoys the same kind of literature as you; it’s a really good chance to network in a way that maybe you wouldn’t do elsewhere that easily.”
“I feel like being here in this environment is a really good chance to understand the messages and the things these authors are trying to discuss,” Alessandro adds.
Panel talks held at BookFest enable diverse conversations and connection between readers and authors. Sophia Smith Galer and Laura Spinney’s joint panel, How Languages Live and Die, opened up fascinating discussions surrounding linguicide – otherwise known as language death – which is explored in through Galer’s book How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words.
When discussing how the festival has changed across the years, volunteer Elijah Wang told us: “It used to be very much just literature-based, but now they’ve expanded to visual arts and design. I think that’s probably the best part.”
As well as maintaining traditional elements of the festival, stalls featured at this year’s BookFest reflect how the literary world is adapting to an ever-growing media landscape.
TooFar Media, a returning stall at this year’s BookFest, is an example of how literature has evolved alongside the digital world.
Founded by Rich Shapero, an author and venture capitalist based in the U.S., TooFar Media is described as a “multimedia experiment combining book, music, art, animation and video.”
“With TooFar Media, you get to experience a story from a different angle” says JP Hernand, who represented the company at this year’s BookFest. “You get to mix the words with animation, music (and) art… it’s really interesting, since a lot of people these days are struggling to stay focused on something.”
Wimbledon BookFest runs until Sunday October 25th. Tickets for panelists across the next few days can be found on their website.
Featured image by Katy Deboo.