FlipSide Festival – The Old Theatre, Framlingham, Suffolk

Booker Prize-winning novelist Samantha Harvey, celebrated writer Colin Thubron and writer and biographer Sara Wheeler are among the writers coming to Framlingham on Saturday 3 October for the 2026 FlipSide Festival.

Taking place at the historic Old Theatre from 10am to 6pm, this year’s festival, Travels in Time and Space, explores journeys, migration, language, memory and the ways books carry us through place and time.

From the origins of language to the experience of migration; from landscapes that inspire fiction to journeys across continents and into inner worlds, FlipSide 2026 will bring an exceptional range of perspectives to Suffolk.

The programme features:
• Laura Spinney, science writer and author of Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, exploring the origins and movement of language in Words in Motion.
• Colin Thubron, travel writer, novelist and past president of the Royal Society of Literature, discussing the relationship between place, fiction and fact in Passage to Page. His latest novel, Passage, was published in August 2026.
• Colin Grant, historian and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, on What We Leave We Carry, his oral history of migration to Britain, published this year.
• Samantha Harvey, whose novel Orbital won the 2024 Booker Prize, in conversation with Dan Franklin, FlipSide trustee and former publishing director of Jonathan Cape, about Other Worlds, from outer space to the landscapes of the inner life.• Sara Wheeler, travel writer and biographer, whose Jan Morris: A Life was published this year, in conversation with novelist and biographer Lucy Hughes-Hallett about the life and writing of Jan Morris.

• Blake Morrison and Ian Patterson, two leading poets, critics and memoirists in
conversation about the connections between reading, writing and the lives we make
through books.

The day will be introduced and hosted by FlipSide’s curator Gareth Evans.

Tickets, including full-day, half-day and low-price options, are now on sale.

Full programme and booking information: https://www.flipsideuk.org/

EVENT DETAILS
What: FlipSide Festival 2026 – Travels in Time and Space
When: Saturday 3 October 2026, 10am–6pm
Where: The Old Theatre, 10 Church Street, Framlingham, Suffolk, IP13 9BH
Tickets: Full-day £70, half-day £40 and low-price half-day £20
Programme and booking: FlipSide Festival 2026