The Elmbridge LitFest 2026 is coming to Walton-on-Thames from 30 May to 7 June 2026, to celebrate the area’s literary traditions in a week long event, across multiple venues, which includes guest speakers, events, workshops, poetry, and a short story competition.
Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre in Walton-on-Thames will be the venue on 6 and 7 June 2026, offering local residents a weekend of author talks, crime fiction discussions, and live poetry performances.
The festival programme at Riverhouse Barn Arts Centre begins on Saturday 6 June with a crime-writing event from 7:30pm to 9:00pm. This session, titled No Alibis: Crime Writer Unmasked, will feature bestselling crime author Helen Fields and novelist Merle Nygate. Fields is a former criminal and family law barrister, while Nygate is a screenwriter and winner of the 2017 Little Brown/UEA Crime Fiction Award for her debut novel, The Righteous Spy.
Events on Sunday 7 June start with a coffee and conversation session from 10:30am to 12:30pm. The afternoon features a talk from 2:00pm to 3:30pm titled From the Mill to Monte Carlo, which tells the story of Charles Deville Wells. Wells was an English gambler and fraudster who famously broke the bank at the Monte Carlo Casino twelve times in 1891, inspiring the well-known music hall song about the man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo.
The Sunday programme continues from 4:00pm to 6:00pm with a performance by The Booming Lovelies, a Surrey-based trio of performance poets featuring Heather Moulson, Sharron Green, and Trisha Broomfield. The group celebrates the experiences of women of a certain age, covering topics such as modern life, nostalgia, and the menopause. The afternoon session also includes open-mic slots for local poets.
The festival concludes on Sunday evening with a book talk beginning at 8pm by Tony Birtley, a multi-award-winning TV journalist, who has covered major global conflicts, and will be discussing his powerful book “The Edge of Madness”, exploring truth, journalism, and the human stories behind world events.
Events will also be taking place throughout the week and you can browse the full list, with details how to book, on the Elmbridge Special Events page.
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