A Brief History of Our Time

From the first Festival in 2007 we have sold more tickets every year and staged more events. This year there will again be more than 100 writers and actors performing. We could not do this without a wonderful range of volunteers and supporters whose enthusiasm for the Festival is totally in keeping with our belief when we started the event that the people of Henley would be the making of the HLF.

To keep the festival going we rely upon the support of the Friends of the Festival , local venues and our generous sponsors. This year we officially became a Not for Profit organisation which means that all the revenue from the festival is used just to make the event happen and prepare for the following year.

We have again attempted to keep the prices down and believe they are fair and reasonable and this is only possible thanks to the help and generous assistance we receive from our wonderful authors.

Finally it would not be possible to have made HLF 2011 happen without the help of Linda Gray, Pam Morris, Harriet Reed-Ryan, Caroline Blagg, Geoff Pitcher, Sophie Stephenson and our interns Megan Lynch , Jason Wuenscher and Katy Waterson.

Our Patrons

The Henley Literary Festival is delighted to welcome its first patrons. They are people from various backgrounds who have supported the festival since its inception; appeared at events or who have helped Henley to become established as a highly-rated literary celebration.

Nansi Diamond is a leading figure in Henley's theatrical life as a performer, administrator and volunteer and has directed the River Readings at the festival since 2007 with skill and panache and has been a true supporter of the HLF in every aspect.

Emma Freud has worked as a TV presenter for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and as a radio broadcaster on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 4, a trustee of Comic Relief, director of Red Nose Day and the script editor of for all her partner Richard Curtis' films including Four Weddings and A Funeral, Bridget Jones' Diary, Notting Hill and Love Actually.

Daniel Hahn is the author of the history book The Tower Menagerie and one of the editors of The Ultimate Book Guide a series of reading guides for children and teenagers, his translation of The Book of Chameleons won the Indepdendent Foreign Fiction Prize in 2007.

Sir Alastair Horne the distinguished historian and biographer was a Foreign Correspondent with the Daily Telegraph and has been an inspiration to his local festival with his regular appearances.

Andrew Subramaniam is a partner at HW Fisher & Company, chartered accountants and heads The Authors and Journalists Team dedicated to writers and journalists.

Donald Trelford was editor of The Observer newspaper from 1975 to 1993, a regular broadcaster and has published books on snooker and cricket and co-authored (with Daniel King) a book on the 1993 Times World Chess Championship in London between Nigel Short and Gary Kasparov.

Simon Williams is one of our best known and highly-regarded actors with a string of television,West End and film successes who first came to prominence playing James Bellamy in Upstairs Downstairs and has appeared at every Festival.