T S Eliot Festival 2026 | Ferrar House
Cultural Experiences
The nineteenth annual T S Eliot Festival at Little Gidding
Sunday 5 July 2026
The nineteenth annual T S Eliot Festival at Little Gidding
The T S Eliot Festival is back again this year on
Sunday 5 July
with another exciting line-up providing an inspirational day of talks, readings, and discussions at Little Gidding, near the pigsty, the dull façade, and the tombstone.
This year’s lineup includes the past president of the International T S Eliot Society,
Jayme Stayer
; prize-winning poet
Hannah Sullivan
; regular presenters of the podcast
Close Readings
,
Seamus Perry
and
Mark Ford
; former Old Bailey judge
Charles Wide
.
Jayme Stayer
will deliver this year’s Little Gidding Lecture. The title is ‘Unitarian, Puritan, Calvinist, Jansenist, Atheist: The Reverend Mr Eliot’s Erstwhile Heresies'. Professor Stayer is the author of
Becoming T S Eliot: The Rhetoric of Voice and Audience in Inventions of the March Hare
.
Hannah Sullivan
won the T S Eliot prize in 2018 for her collection
Three Poems
. She is associate professor of English literature at New College, Oxford. Her talk ion T S Eliot and anti-Semitism is called ‘The Diabolical Thirties’.
Seamus Perry
and
Mark Ford
will offer a taste of their podcast format at this year's Festival. The topic is ‘John Hayward and the Making of
Little Gidding
’.
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 the lunch break.
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 gardens 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 £60. (Students pay only £25.)
Information Source: T S Eliot Society and the Friends of Little Gidding | eventbrite
