Farm and Food Literature Festival 2024

The Farm & Food Literature Festival, co-curated with Chelsea Green Publishing - is a celebration of words, stories and experiences from the wonderful world of agroecology, regenerative farming and sustainable food. This is the third year of these sell-out events, and we’re delighted to return in 2024 with a great line-up of guest speakers.

Expect inspirational talks and debates from a dazzling line-up including our keynote speaker, Helen Rebanks, author of the Sunday Times best-selling The Farmer's Wife: My Life in Days.

More speakers to be confirmed over the coming months.

Helen Rebanks

Helen Rebanks is the author of the Sunday Times-bestselling The Farmer's Wife: My Life in Days. She and her family work as a tight-knit team that has made their farm globally important with their farming innovations. They advise internationally and host events regularly at the farm to share their expertise and encourage others to farm sustainably.

Jane Cooper

The Lost Flock is the story of the remarkable and rare little horned sheep, known as Orkney Boreray, and the wool-obsessed woman who moved to one of Scotland’s wildest islands to save them. When Jane Cooper took the bold step to uproot her quiet suburban life in Newcastle and relocate to Orkney, she was embarking on a new life as a farmer and shepherd. Astonished to find that she was the sole custodian of this lost flock in the world, she began investigating their mysterious and ancient history, tracking down the origins of the Boreray breed and its significance to Scotland’s natural heritage.

Robin Harford

Robin Harford is the bestselling author of Edible and Medicinal Wild Plants of Britain and Ireland. For over fifteen years, Robin has experimented with and explored the world of wild plants, uncovering how our ancestors used plants to nourish and heal themselves. His book is an invaluable addition to any forager, herbalist, gardener, horticulturist or naturalist’s library.

Alice V Robinson

Millions of animal hides are incinerated every year as a by-product of the meat industry, yet leather is also seen as a luxury product within the high-end fashion world. As a fashion designer, Alice Robinson could not find the provenance for the leather she was using, so she took matters into her own hands and bought a bullock from her local farm in Shropshire, and took the animal through the supply chain to create an entire collection from one animal. The result was stunning, and her collection went on to be shown at the V&A Museum. Throughout Field, Fork, Fashion Alice shows why farmers working with nature can be linked directly with a sustainable and ethical leather supply chain.

Rosamund Young

Rosamund Young runs Kite’s Nest Farm with her partner Gareth and formerly with her late brother, Richard Young. Rosamund is the author of The Secret Life of Cows, which was published by Faber & Faber in 2017 with a foreword by Alan Bennett; it was a Sunday Times bestseller and a Times Book of the Year. Her new book, The Wisdom of Sheep & Other Animals: Observations from a Family Farm transports you to the wild meadows of Kite’s Nest Farm and gives a peek into the surprising private lives of some of our most familiar animals. There's a lot more to sheep than you might think!

Derek Gow

Britain’s favourite maverick rewilder Derek Gow embarks on an adventure to uncover the mythology, mystery and history of wolves in Britain. Derek has a dream that one day we will see the return of the wolf to Britain. Hunt for the Shadow Wolf is Derek Gow’s quest to uncover the true nature of this magnificent creature, asking why in the past we have turned the wolf into a savage beast and painted its extermination as a ‘civilising mission.’ Now, as we look to heal our landscape, Derek makes clear why we must reconcile our relationship with the wolf and fully understand our shared history before we can begin to bring it back to these lands.

Sally Morgan

Sally Morgan is the editor of Soil Association’s Organic Farming magazine, writes regularly for gardening and smallholding magazines and is a member of the Garden Media Guild. She also runs smallholder courses on her organic farm in Somerset. Her previous books include The Climate Change Garden and Living on One Acre or Less.

Sophie Yeo

Sophie Yeo is a writer and journalist who has written about nature and climate change for publications including The Washington Post, The Guardian and BBC Future. She is also the founder and editor of Inkcap Journal, a publication focusing on conservation in Britain, which won the Press Gazette Newsletter of the Year award in 2022. Her book, Nature's Ghosts, looks at what history can teach us about how to avoid ecological catastrophe.

Mike Bartlett

Mike Bartlett’s new play, coming soon to Chipping Norton Theatre, follows the imagined story of an Oxfordshire barn and its surrounding community between the 1930s and the present. In conversation with Director John Terry, Mike will discuss creating character and writing dialogue in ways that capture the idiosyncrasies of rural communities, and how the play draws on his own personal roots and his home in a small Oxfordshire village. Mike is one of the country’s most acclaimed screenwriters and playwrights, with TV credits including Life, Doctor Foster and Press, and theatre productions such as The 47th at London’s Old Vic, King Charles III in the West End and Earthquakes in London at The National Theatre.

Delicious and nutritious refreshments and lunch from the FarmED Cafe are included in the price of your ticket.

Testimonials

"The speakers were really inspiring in their work and discussion about protecting nature, and the FarmED setting made it feel possible to do what was being recommended" - Attendee, 2023

"Incredibly inspiring speakers and topics - made me want to get out there, rewild, grow food, raise my voice more, protest and generally pass on the knowledge!"- Attendee, 2023

"I was inspired to write and also to pursue my interest in working in horticulture." - Attendee, 2023

"Great to know that there is a resource and community near to where I live that I can engage with and learn from." - Attendee, 2023

Ticket Prices

Delivery of our mission is a collective effort and our values embrace inclusivity and diversity. We don’t want price to be a barrier to anyone visiting FarmED or attending our events. Read more about our tiered pricing policy here.

If cost is a barrier to you attending, then please do ask us for financial support. The FarmED Bursary offers free or subsidised places to those that will benefit most.

We like to take photos and occasionally videos of our events to use on our website and social media, please let us know if you do not want to be photographed.

Cancellation Policy

We understand that there may be times when you need to cancel your booking.  Our cancellation policy is outlined here.