Sunday 6 July 2025
The TS Eliot Festival is back again this year on Sunday 6 July with another exciting line-up providing an inspirational day of talks, readings, and discussions near the pig-sty, the dull façade, and the tombstone.
This year’s lineup includes Eliot scholar Sarah Kennedy, prize-winning poet George Szirtes, editor of the ten-volume The Letters of T.S. Eliot John Haffenden, former Old Bailey judge Charles Wide, and acclaimed actress Katherine Waterston.
Sarah Kennedy will deliver this year’s Little Gidding Lecture. The title is ‘Eliot’s Doubt’. Professor Kennedy is the RJ Owens Fellow in English and a College Associate Professor at Downing College, Cambridge. She is the author of T. S. Eliot and the Dynamic Imagination (Cambridge University Press).
George Szirtes won the TS Eliot prize in 2004 and the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2024. Szirtes, who arrived in the U.K. at the age of eight, will be talking about his evolving relationship with Eliot’s poetry. In addition to his many volumes of poetry, he is the author of a 2019 memoir, The Photographer at Sixteen (MacLehose Press).
For those who wish to look beyond the dull façade, Charles Wide will be leading a series of brief, informative tours of St. John’s Church during and after lunch.
Katherine Waterston will be the master of ceremonies for ‘My Favourite Eliot’, a chance for members of the audience read aloud their favourite Eliot text. Waterston starred with Eddie Redmayne in the Fantastic Beasts film series and with Jodie Comer in The End We Start From (2023).
John Haffenden, in conversation with biographer Adam Begley, will discuss editing The Letters of T.S. Eliot, with emphasis on the correspondence between Eliot and John Hayward and their collaboration in the making of ‘Little Gidding’.
Featuring talks and poetry, conversation and debate, and delicious food and wine, the Festival is a delightful celebration of Eliot and of Little Gidding, and a chance to meet other Eliot scholars and enthusiasts. It takes place in the garden of Ferrar House at Little Gidding in rural Cambridgeshire. In addition to the programme of Eliot-related events, morning coffee, a two-course buffet lunch, and afternoon tea will be served. Doors open at 11:00, the programme begins at 11:30, and the Festival concludes at 5:30.
All meals and refreshment are included in the ticket price of £55. (For members of the TS Eliot Society and of the Friends of Little Gidding, tickets are £45; for students, £25.)
Tickets
Click the button below to buy tickets for this year’s Festival; or buy from Eventbrite via eliotfestival2025.eventbrite.co.uk.