Wantage Literary Festival – Monday 27 October 2025

Matthew Yeomans | Seascape

Environmental | Travel | History | Adult
Monday 27th October | 12pm at The Beacon | The Ridgeway Room
Adult £13.50 | Student £8

Seascape: Notes from a Changing Coastline by Matthew Yeomans is an insightful exploration of the relationship between humans and the sea along the Wales Coast Path. This talk takes readers on a journey along the 870-mile trail, uncovering how the sea has shaped lives through history, influenced Welsh mythology, literature, and culture, and the growing role the sea plays in our lives today. Matthew Yeomans challenges readers to face the realities of climate change and adapt to new ways of living, emphasizing the importance of recovering a healthy relationship with the sea. In ‘Seascape’, he offers a perceptive look at the changing coastline of Wales.

Matthew Yeomans, a seasoned journalist and author, has contributed to The Guardian, The New York Times, National Geographic, and Wired.

BOOK NOW

Alison Weir | Queens at War: England’s Medieval Queens

Medieval History | Political History | Historical Biography | 13 years+
Monday 27th October | 2pm at The Beacon | The Ridgeway Room
Adult £13.50 | Student/child under 14 years £8

The fifteenth century was a turbulent age and each of the five queens who appear in Alison Weir’s latest book were caught up in wars that changed the courses of their lives: the Hundred Years War between England and France, and the Wars of the Roses, between the royal Houses of Lancaster and York. Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI all married to seal a peace with France. Edward IV married – scandalously – for love, Richard III to gain great estates. Of their respective wives, Joan of Navarre was imprisoned as a witch; Katherine of Valois, who brought her husband the French crown, later married her wardrobe master and became the ancestress of the Tudors; Margaret of Anjou fought a civil war on her feeble husband’s behalf; Elizabeth Woodville lived to see her sons, the Princes in the Tower, disappear from history; and Anne Neville died after losing her only child, forsaken by her husband. Theirs are stirring stories of triumph and tragedy, love and loss, murder, and malice.

Alison Weir is Britain’s biggest-selling female historian. She has published thirty-two titles and sold more than three million books.

BOOK NOW

Alexandra Loske | The Royal Pavilion Brighton: A Regency Palace of Colour and Sensation

Art History | Architecture | Cultural Studies | 13 years+
Monday 27th October | 2.15pm at The Beacon | The Lockinge Room
Adult £13.50 | Student/child under 14 years £8

Alexandra Loske illuminates the architectural and artistic significance of this magnificent palace, originally created as a pleasure retreat for George IV. The Pavilion is celebrated for its Chinoiserie interiors and Indian-inspired exterior, which reflect the eclectic tastes of the Regency era. The author traces its history from its beginnings in the late 18th century, through its transformation during the Napoleonic Wars, to its legacy in the early Victorian period. This journey is enriched by new photography, recent research, conservation projects, and insights from the loan exhibition ‘A Prince’s Treasure: From Buckingham Palace to the Royal Pavilion’ (2019–22), highlighting the vibrant colours and sensual beauty of the Pavilion’s interiors.

Alexandra Loske is an art historian, writer, and curator. She curates the Royal Pavilion and Historic Properties at Brighton & Hove Museums and is a Research Associate at the University of Sussex.

BOOK NOW

Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry | Oathbreakers: The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe

Medieval European History | Historical Analysis | 13 years+
Monday 27th October | 4pm at The Beacon | The Lockinge Room
Adult £13.50 | Student/child under 14 years £8

The authors of ‘The Bright Ages’ return with a real-life Game of Thrones – the story of the Carolingian Civil War, a bloody, protracted battle pitting brother against brother, father against son, that would end an empire, upend a continent, and redefine the future of Europe.

By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since the heyday of Rome. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him – and then placed their knives at each other’s neck. The Carolingian Civil War would rage for years as kings fought kings, brother faced off against brother, and sons challenged fathers. Oathbreakers is the dramatic history of this brutal, turbulent time. Medieval historians Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry illuminate what happens when a once unshakeable political and cultural order breaks down and long suppressed tensions flare into deadly violence.

Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry will talk about this turbulent time, what deep cracks in a once-stable social and political fabric might reveal, the bloody consequences of disagreeing on facts and reality, and what happens when things fall apart.

Matthew Gabriele is a Professor of Medieval Studies and Chair of the Department of Religion and Culture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

David M. Perry is a journalist, historian, and speaker, working at the University of Minnesota, promoting the value of studying history.

BOOK NOW

Date

27 Oct 2025

More Info

WLF 2025
Category
WLF 2025