Salman Rushdie and Richard E. Grant confirmed for Cliveden Literary Festival 2025

Salman Rushdie and Richard E. Grant are among the speakers revealed at this year’s Cliveden Literary Festival.

The annual sell-out success at the historic Cliveden House features today’s leading writers across culture, politics, and history.

Established in 2017, the forum for thought-provoking ideas, lively discussions and political debate returns on Saturday, October 11 and Sunday, October 12.

Novelist Salman Rushdie will return to the festival again this year, this time with Rachel Eliza Griffiths to discuss their creative partnership.

Actor Richard E. Grant will talk about his personal life and the highs and lows of Hollywood with Georgia Beaufort.

Meanwhile, politician Michael Gove and Sarah Vine will speak to Andrew Roberts about their marriage and divorce in the political spotlight.

Renowned philosopher Alain de Botton will discuss his theories of love, heartbreak and sorrow.

Then Wild Swans author Jung Chang and The Silk Roads’ Peter Frankopan will consider the past, present and future of China with Geordie Greig.

Panels of experts will also gather to discuss the most compelling issues of 2025.

The intrigue inside the White House, the divided American nation, and 21st-century espionage will appeal to guests interested in the political sphere.

In the literary realm, visitors can explore the enduring allure of Jane Austen or learn about the writing of crime stories – both real and fictional.

Pressing questions in British politics will then be cross-examined in Cliveden’s very own Question Time, with Alex Burghart and Emily Maitlis.

Across the weekend, the Festival will also host a cast of writers, philosophers, polemicists and politicians, including Elif Shafak, Marlon James, Anthony Horowitz, William Boyd, Joanna Coles, Peter Godwin, Helen Castor, Patrick Marber, Tristram Hunt, Merve Emre, Jake Sullivan, Bari Weiss, Andrew Davies, Tina Brown, James Marriott, Charles Moore, Jonathan Bate, David McCloskey, Dambisa Moyo, Jonathan Freedland, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, Nicholas Boggs, Mark Rosenblatt, Gordon Corera, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, Freya Johnston, Robert Hardman, Sarah Churchwell, Yana Peel, Andrei Soldatov, Adam LeBor, James McAuley, Tim Bouverie, Anne Somerset, Cindy Yu, Jake Wallis Simons, Alice Loxton, Luke Pepera and Caroline Derby.

Cliveden Literary Festival is run by a committee of authors and historians, who also feature, including Catherine Ostler, Natalie Livingstone, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Andrew Roberts.

The event is renowned for having ‘something for everyone’ in the setting of Cliveden, which is a ‘mirror of the beauty that I find in books’ according to Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

Now in its eighth year, the festival draws on the history of Cliveden House as a literary saloon frequented by thinkers and writers including Alexander Pope, George Bernard Shaw, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Jonathan Swift and Sir Winston Churchill.

During the weekend, visitors can explore the National Trust gardens and enjoy scenic walks to the River Thames.

Last year’s programme featured Salman Rushdie discussing his career with Ian McEwan, screen stars Rachel Weisz and Emily Maitlis in conversation and ex-MI6 chief Alex Younger and Niall Ferguson investigated global threats to the West.

Returning speaker Elif Shafak described the festival as a cultural space we leave ‘feeling much more nurtured, nourished and inspired’.

Tickets went on sale this week and are available to book on the Cliveden Literary Festival website.