The Swan Hotel, Lavenham
14 November 2025
2025 is the year in between our biennial Literary Festivals and we’re delighted to tell you about an inspiring new event which is a taster for the stimulating programme planned for the Lavenham Literary Festival in 2026. We have great pleasure in inviting you to A Literary Feast which will take place on Friday 14 November during the day of the Lavenham Literary Dinner. Ticket holders for the daytime Literary Feast will receive a Swan Hotel voucher entitling them to 10% off their food bill for lunch or a cream tea, redeemable on the day only.
​
We are also very excited to tell you that our guest speaker for the Lavenham Literary Dinner 2025 on
14 November is national treasure and critically acclaimed actor ALISON STEADMAN OBE.
5pm - 6pm
11:00am - 4pm
12pm - 1pm
2:30pm - 3:30pm
Miranda Doyle
TELLING STORIES
11:00am - 4pm
Author Miranda Doyle leads a creative writing workshop on fiction and nonfiction narratives. She will look at openings, narrative structure and how to write using both surprise and suspense. Journalist and former television producer Nicola Gooch joins Miranda to enrich the discussions.
Miranda Doyle’s memoir A Book of Untruths was published in 2019. She is currently writing a novel on the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876 and teaches Life Writing for The Faber Academy and Arvon Writers’ Retreats.
Nicola Gooch former journalist, television producer and commissioning editor brings to the workshop her experience of what makes a story.
.jpeg)
TICKETS GO ON SALE ON THE 8TH OF SEPTEMBER 2025
For those who would like to submit five hundred words of a narrative opening by email three days ahead of the workshop Miranda will give feedback individually later by email.
Bruce Boucher
SIR JOHN SOANE'S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
12pm - 1pm
Bruce Boucher is an art historian, curator and former director of The Sir John Soane’s Museum London. He specialises in Italian Renaissance, Baroque and neo-classical art and architecture.
Sir John Soane’s architecture has enjoyed a revival of interest over the last seventy years, yet Soane as a collector and the strategy and motivation for his bequest to the nation has remained largely unexplored. This book illuminates an unfamiliar side of his personality, examining his fascination with ruins, his response to Gothic architecture and his investment in modern British painting and sculpture.
TICKETS GO ON SALE ON THE 8TH OF SEPTEMBER 2025
Henry Montgomery
REMEMBRANCE - CAN WE DO IT BETTER?
2:30pm - 3:30pm
Henry Viscount Montgomery of Alamein is the grandson of the war hero ‘Monty’. He is a farm management consultant, president of The Spirit of Normandy Trust, The Portsmouth D-Day Story Trust and The Friends of the Fusilier Museum Warwick. He travels to Normandy each year with the Spirit of Normandy.
On the eightieth anniversaries of VE and VJ Days Henry considers how Remembrance could become more meaningful and successful for younger generations once the last of the veterans have passed away. What lessons in reconciliation do we still need to learn?
TICKETS GO ON SALE ON THE 8TH OF SEPTEMBER 2025
Ashley Hickson-Lovence
SOUL-STIRRING SONNETS: WHY I AM NOT A BUS DRIVER
5pm - 6pm
Ashley Hickson-Lovence is the author of the acclaimed novels The 392, Your Show, the prize-winning Young Adult novel Wild East and the poetry collection Why I am Not a Bus Driver. He has a PhD in Creative Writing from UEA, has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Black Excellence Award for outstanding Contribution to Literature.
Ashley explores how the sonnet form can illuminate lived experience with freshness, rhythm and emotional depth. His captivating talk and performance are inspired by his latest poetry collection Why I am not a Bus Driver.
TICKETS GO ON SALE ON THE 8TH OF SEPTEMBER 2025
We are very excited to tell you that our guest speaker for the Lavenham Literary Dinner 2025 on 14 November is national treasure and critically acclaimed actor ALISON STEADMAN OBE.
Her career has spanned stage, screen and television from Beverley in Abigail’s Party in the 1970s to a triumphant return as Pamela in the BBC’s 2024 Christmas special Gavin and Stacey. Always pushing boundaries – reclining naked on a sofa in her first role and embracing groundbreaking female characters from day one – she has excelled in both comedy and drama. Alison won an Olivier, a National Society of Film Critic Award, has been nominated for two BAFTAs and was awarded the OBE for services to British Drama. Her memoir Out of Character was published in 2024 and Alison will be taking us behind the scenes of nearly six decades of her acting career.
Purchasing Lavenham Literary Dinner Tickets
The historic Swan at Lavenham Hotel and Spa is delighted to host this year’s Lavenham Literary Dinner with guest speaker ALISON STEADMAN. Alison will be talking about her recent memoir Out of Character and her acting career over nearly seven decades.
The evening starts at 6.45pm when you can enjoy a sparkling pre-dinner drink. A delicious three-course dinner will follow in the Gallery Restaurant at the heart of The Swan in superb medieval surroundings – the perfect setting for a fabulous literary evening.
​
Tickets cost £85 including a pre-dinner drink but excluding wine at dinner, and will be available from midday on Monday 8 September 2025.
To book tickets please email functions@theswanatlavenham.co.uk and include your telephone number where possible.
The Swan will respond to your emails in strict order of receipt with an indication of whether or not your application has been successful. Please note that emails received before midday on 8 September will be disregarded.
​
We look forward to seeing you at what promises to be a wonderful evening.
Book your ticket
Email: functions@theswanatlavenham.co.uk
From midday on Monday 8 September 2025
