Durham Book Festival 2025

Submitted: 19th September 2025

Durham Book Festival 2025

Who here loves a good book festival? If you haven’t considered heading to Durham before now, get yourself at one of the many events taking place over the three days of October dedicated to all manner of bookish goodness.

The website says “Durham invites you to celebrate the transformative power of words.” And boy, is that true. There are three locations hosting authors; Gala Durham, Clayport Library and Collected Books. There’s also an online option.

Events to watch out for:

Time for Crime with Ann Cleeves and Steph McGovern

The Killing Stones – book map

This is going to be a top event – two local authors who are great friends and it shows. Ann Cleeves of course, famous for Vera and Jimmy Perez has now sent Perez from Shetland to Orkney in her latest novel The Killing Stones.

Deadline – book map

Steph McGovern is a well-known and much loved broadcaster and TV presenter as well as a great lover of books. Now the author of her own gripping crime thriller, she has used the world of Live TV – who better to take us behind the scenes – to weave an exciting cat and mouse game for our reading pleasure.

Oh and Queen of the Bay, Vic Watson who runs Bay Tales is the host!