Swindon & Wiltshire News
Swindon – literature hub
If you harbour an ambition to be a writer, then Swindon is not a bad place to be.
Over the years, I’ve had quite an association with a literary Swindon, especially the Swindon Festival of Literature 2025 which begins on May bank holiday. In (pre-Covid) years gone by I and other writers have written extensively about Festival events in the Festival Chronicle.
The hub of literature rests in two main places aside Swindon Library – Lower Shaw Farm and the Richard Jefferies Museum.
Driving Force behind Swindon Festival of Literature 2025
Matt Holland has been the driving force behind the lit fest since its inception back in the 1990s and, I hope he won’t mind me saying this, has a few passions – his family, tennis, running, literature and old tractors.
He’s lived on Lower Shaw Farm since it was a farm with a herd of cows and watched Swindon grow up around him and his family. These days it’s an organic cooperative with a host of international volunteers, a few hens, sheep, pigs and three acres of running-around room for families wanting a breather in the suburban development. The spring birth of Indian Runner ducks have provided many ahs at Swindon Festival of Literature – a few authors (Kate Humble, Tony Hawkes) have been sent home with ducklings, sometimes as extra train passengers.
This Festival has some recognisable festival faves which draw on Matt’s enviable contact book, such as Alistair McGowan (pictured above, a tennis partner of Matt’s) and philosopher Roman Krznaric.
Sod 70
As usual it doesn’t have much in the way of fiction writers – Matt sees a key festival mission as bringing serious, but accessible, intellectual thought to a town (and county) without a university and also subjects he’s personally invested in – such as Dr Terri Apter’s Grandparenting and Dr Paul Morland’s No One Left and why the world needs more children, and Prof Muir Grey’s Sod 70, on ageing better. Matt himself could be a one-man study in ageing better after 70. And there’s the year-on-year no-festival-without-them faves of the Dawn Chorus (opening event at 5.30am), Family Day and Festival Finale.
Writing Ambition
The taking part writing development events now take over the whole Festival Saturday, such as the creative writing workshop and book fair at Swindon Hub, and the Flash Fiction competition at Swindon Arts Centre.
Lower Shaw Farm isn’t just Matt’s family home and business. It’s the nexus of literature and wellness in Swindon. Artwords is based at the Farm, with an impressive roster of regular events with memorable names – Mum’s the Word informal writing group, Memoirs on Monday, Words on Wednesday (Swindon Hub), a reading group, Writers’ Kitchen and Writers’ Cafe, and Poetry Swindon which started at the Farm, then went to the Richard Jefferies Museum, then back to the Farm.
The Museum also has it’s fair share of literature-related things, no surprise as its the eponymous birthplace of the Victorian nature writer. The Museum usually hosts the environment-related Festival events. This year, radio producer Duncan Minshull will walk-and-talk-and-read from his book Globetrotting.
Swindon Festival of Literature 2025 begins on the early May bank holiday, 5th May, and ends Sunday 11 May 2025. Tickets available online and on the door.
More reading: Swindon’s painting credentials
Featured picture: Matt giving a round of applause to the launch of the Swindon Festival of Literature (and the red tractor) photo © Business Biscuit/Festival Chronicle
This article strictly copyright Business Biscuit. Not to be reused without express permission.
