Sherborne Travel Writing Festival 10 - 12 April 2026

While our horizons may have drawn in, travel writers have continued to reach out, rediscovering and reinterpreting the world for a new age. The Sherborne Travel Writing Festival is a unique annual event, now in its fourth year.

At its heart is the idea – and the timely theme – of empathy.

'Travel writers are bridge builders, venturing out into the world to understand different peoples, cultures and times. Empathy lies at the heart of our work, and the fundamental belief that through better understanding others we can better counter the division and isolation of the present day,'

writes festival founder and curator Rory MacLean.

Join us in Dorset this coming April to travel on foot, by bicycle, with wolves and astride an elephant in the company of twelve of the UK’s leading travel writers, thinkers, historians and broadcasters intro paragraph...

This year's exciting list of authors will include Peter Frankopan and the winner of the first ever Sherborne Travel Writing Prize.