Cliveden Literary Festival 2026

Chanel and Tatler join distinguished guests and Literati at Britain’s most notorious stately house. Fashion, fiction, and history come together. Literary obsessed.

The country’s smartest festival at Cliveden welcomed prestigious groups of socialites, sybarites, and speakers on the 10th and 11th of October. Some recognisable speakers include Emily Maitlis, Kemi Badenoch, Patrick Radden Keefe, Yana Peel, Jay McInerney, and the legendary Candace Bushnell.

From its inception in the 1660’s, Cliveden has been a monument, set in 400 acres of historic drama and scandal. This week, the regal setting played host to well-known stars, where the only drama and scandal was locating the cloakroom to stash our Chanel tweeds from the unpredictable October sun.

Beyond its relation to the Profumo affair, Cliveden House has a less known pedigree as a literary salon, serving as muse to scribes and scholars including Rudyard Kipling, Alexander Pope, George Bernard Shaw, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The Literary Festival evokes the spirit of these great writers and proved to be both sanctuary and forum for lively, innovative discussion and debate. And debate, we did. But first, fashion.

Fashion First

The bookish and Buckinghamshire version of Versailles rang with echoes of glamour over the weekend. From a Sex and the City live session on Saturday, where author Candace Bushnell divulged all secrets of the Carrie Bradshaw industrial complex. From cosmopolitan dating advice, to what it’s like to duck Donald Trump at the club, (excuse the pun).

Candace, with full candor, confessed her life lessons with a “get the money” mantra that women and young women should heed, along with her tips on creative writing using “peaks and troughs”. As a SATC fan, with my Groove Armada theme song as ringtone for over 10 years, and my Sex and the City Thievery Corporation theme song version as my bedtime alarm, I worshipped the show’s take on friendship. But mostly, I revered the leading character’s disciplined ability to churn out a New York article so reliably poignant for her newspaper and Vogue columns. Suffice it to say, I never expected to meet Candace but I had a 10-year-long question waiting to put to her. At the opening of Q&A to the floor, up shoots one hand. “Will you write books for horsey girls?” asked I. Giggles shot through the audience and praises rippled across the room. Imogen Edwards-Jones on stage mouths her approval over to me. Candace Bushnell answers: no. “The US doesn’t want it, and the UK has Jilly Cooper.” She’s right, of course.

But over in John Sandoe Books, the truly sparkly and spirited Candace shared with me her unadulterated cheerfulness and precious time, as she discussed my oh so conspicuous commitment to Chanel while signing a book for her no.1 equestrian fan (c’est moi, bien sûr).

Mission accomplished.

With vintage Chanel flying in all directions from festival goers, myself included, the glamour continued even into Sunday, where a true Parisian story captivated and bedazzled the audience anew in the Great Cliveden Hall. It was here amongst a panel of three that Edward Chisholm revealed the chic and timeless quest that fueled his writing of Murder in Paris ’68. Chaired by Hermione Eyre, the session painted the vivid historic backdrop of death and glamour. A perfect verbal tapestry for those of us with a palette for sophisticated noir tones.

The gripping tales of the author’s crusade into historic writing exposed the lines of truth and invention in capturing a non-fiction, and the creative void in between. In discovering the author’s commitment, with his vintage popped-collar coat ensembles, thrifted and donned to immerse himself in the mind of the protagonist, Alain Delon, I was spellbound. As a fashion thrifter and 60’s lover with a wide imagination, it was also dangerously validating. Through the streets of Paris, in the shadowed footsteps of his real-life historic figure, Edward Chisholm hunted what all great writers seek; connection. His restraint from continuing this immersive pursuit into the world of illicit and clandestine parties in the footsteps of the Delon was admirable. My copy of the author’s book was signed. His advice for my writing career, delivered.

Reading the Room

Adjacent to the weekend’s glamour and high-society intrigue, was Cliveden’s factual, forecasting, and forensic foray into topics of current affairs, delivered by the event’s arbiters of global changing values: Louis Sarkozy, Michael Mortiz, Julian Barnes, Michael Gove, David McCloskey, Tom Holland, Patrick Radden Keefe, Misha Glenny, Alex Burghart, Maurice Glasman, Matt Goodwin, Emily Maitlis, and Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the Opposition.

These sessions covered the Middle East, the United States, Weimar to Nuremberg, Marshal Law, and of course, the nations’ Leading Questions for Kemi Badenoch was Saturday’s soup du jour, followed by an evening panel where Emily Maitlis delivered The State of the Nation (with one vacant chair for a last-minute no-show from Wes Streeting). Oo-er.

Inspiring, sometimes tense, and mostly riveting. I had my political fill, which is not easily done, but each room surged with pro-sovereignty energy.

As a British biracial woman, with lineage from Northumberland, and Scotland, the discussions filled the air with a high potency of good common sense which admittedly uplifted the patriotism in me. The unanimous murmuring pride was evident through a wave of nods, chortles, and applause that dominoed row by row, seemingly the closest thing to a Mexican wave us Brits can hope for. References to literary classics and a mastery of literary jargon were littered through each conversation for good measure. My English professor would be chuffed to know his classes were sine qua non for me knowing each and every one.

The uncanny experience of bearing witness to something profound and personal was an unexpectedly bonding experience, like being part of a live time capsule. Many of us entered as festival-goers but left as a community. Overall, the intellectual unity was more beautiful than any couture piece anyone could have worn.

The Write Stuff

At the burgeoning of my writing career, have I slipped blithely into the heaving literary chasm? With nary a scuff on my Chanel pumps from the long gravel paths, nor a single salacious scratch on my good name from a prying politburo that tends to stick to anyone remotely unconventional, a vow orbited my mind; to return one day as a speaker for my book, once published. As General David Petraeus once confessed, he only wrote so he could visit Cliveden as a proper author, not ‘just’ a ‘celebrity general’. Fueled by the all-encompassing & exhilarating vacuum of the event, I concur.

Winston Churchill, as a frequent guest of Cliveden (and friend of Gabrielle Chanel) once declared, “we shape our buildings; there-after they shape us.”

Long may Cliveden shape an environment for civilised debate, free speech, and formidable fashion.