Speakers & Chairs 2026

Patrick Baty was a former officer in both the regular Army and also in the Artists Rifles. He has since become the archivist and historian of the latter. His two great grandparents were the artists Robert Bevan and Stanisława de Karłowska and he has researched the circles in which they moved and assisted in exhibitions of their works. Since leaving the Army he has pursued a career in the decoration of historic buildings. His work covers research, paint analysis, colour & technical advice. Projects have ranged from King Henry VIII’s heraldic Beasts and London social housing estates to major structures such as Tower Bridge and Stowe House. He has also worked in the USA.

Andrew Bayliss is Associate Professor in Greek History at the University of Birmingham. He has taught and studied in Australia, Greece and the UK, and his published works on ancient Greek history include Oath and State in Ancient Greece (2012), The Spartans(2020) and The Spartans: A Very Short Introduction (2022).

Sparta is his first full-length book introducing the subject to the general reader.

Flight-Lieutenant Colin Bell DFC was born in East Moley, not far from Hampton Court Palace, in March 1921. Known for his talks on his wartime service, he has made several podcasts for We Have Ways of Making you Talk, continues to drive, to travel and to be active on social media.

Piers Blofeld is a literary agent and, apart from a brief stint as a story consultant in the video games industry he has worked in publishing for the whole of his career. A regular commentator on the mysteries of the book business he has had his own column in Writing Magazine for the last five years. Born and bred in Norfolk, his surname made it all but inevitable he would nurture a fascination with supervillainy and spying. Master of Liesis his first book.

Mark J A Cann is Chief Executive of The British Forces Foundation and the Burma Star Memorial Fund, leading two organisations dedicated to supporting serving personnel and preserving the legacy of those who served. Before entering the charitable sector, Mark served for 12 years in the British Army with the 17th/21st Lancers and later the Queen’s Royal Lancers. His service took him on operations to Belize, Mozambique, Bosnia and Cyprus, as well as postings in India, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom. This experience continues to inform his understanding of leadership, service, and the enduring impact of conflict on those who serve and their families.

A compelling and engaging speaker, Mark brings together lived military experience, historical insight, and contemporary relevance. His talks are known for their honesty, humanity and ability to connect with audiences ranging from school assemblies to large formal events.

Helen Carr is a historian and writer specialising in medieval history and public history. Her bestselling first book, The Red Prince, was a Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year. Her second book, an edited volume of essays titled What is History, Now? has become primary reading for history students and enthusiasts globally. Helen also works in podcasting, television and journalism and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a postgraduate researcher at Queen Mary University of London.

Charles Cumming was born in Scotland. After graduating from the University of Edinburgh, he was approached by the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and used his experiences as the basis for his debut novel, A Spy By Nature.

Cumming’s espionage fiction has since won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and Bloody Scotland Crime Book of the Year, and his novels have been translated into fourteen languages. The Observer has described Charles as ‘the rightful inheritor of John le Carré’s crown’. His most recent novel, Kennedy 35, was a Sunday Times Thriller of the Month and was chosen as a Thriller of the Year by Waterstones and the Financial Times. His recent screenwriting credits include the critically-acclaimed Sky/Peacock adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal.

Lucy Betteridge-Dyson is a military & animal historian, author, and PhD candidate at the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London. She has a strong personal connection to the Burma Campaign through her grandfather, Captain Edwin Alan Robert Syms, who served with 44 (Royal Marine) Commando during the Third Arakan Campaign, the subject of her first book, Jungle Commandos: The Battle for Arakan, Burma 1945. A Burma Star Memorial Fund scholar, her current research combines methodologies from military history and animal studies to explore the role of horses and mules in shaping operations and the institutional development of the British Army and imperial forces between 1918 and 1945.

Charlie English is the former head of international news at the Guardian. A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he is the author of several widely acclaimed histories including The Snow Tourist, The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu, The Gallery of Miracles and Madness and The CIA Book Club. He lives in London.

Ahana Datta Fasel is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Security Science and Technology, Imperial College London. Advising governments and companies globally on their cyber defence strategies, she is a trustee at Privacy International and is on the strategic advisory board of UK Research and Innovation. Previously the Financial Times’ cyber chief, she has held multiple senior roles in the UK Government, serving the Ministry of Justice, the Cabinet Office and the National Cyber Security Centre. Her editorials have been published in the Financial Times and Columbia Journalism Review. She holds a PhD from University College London.

Colin Freeman is a former chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph, now a freelance foreign affairs writer. He has reported on Ukraine since the outbreak of the Russian invasion, mainly for The Daily Telegraph and Spectator. Colin is also the author of three previous books: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The mission to rescue the hostages the world forgot (Icon Books, 2021). Kidnapped: Life as a Somali pirate hostage (Monday Books, 2011) was about the author’s own experience of being abducted in Somalia in 2008. And The Curse of the Al-Dulaimi Hotel and other half-truths from Baghdad (Monday Books, 2008) is a book of reportage about post-Saddam Iraq.

Frank Gardner has been the BBC's Security Correspondent since 2002. He holds a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 2004, while filming in Saudi Arabia, he was ambushed by terrorists, shot multiple times and left for dead. He survived and returned to active news reporting within a year. Although paralysed in the legs, he still travels extensively, reporting from Ukraine to Colombia to Saudi Arabia. Awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to journalism, Frank published his bestselling memoir, Blood and Sand, in 2006. His first novel, the thriller Crisis, which introduced readers to SIS operative Luke Carlton, was a Sunday Times No.1 bestseller. The second and third Luke Carlton thrillers, Ultimatum and Outbreak, were also bestsellers, as was the fourth, the Taiwan-set Invasion. Frank Gardner lives in London.

Annie Garthwaite is the acclaimed author of two novels that bring the women of the Wars of the Roses to life. Cecily (Viking, Penguin 2021) was named a 'top pick' by The Times and Sunday Times, a 'Best Book of 2021' by independent bookshops and Waterstones, and has recently been optioned for television. The King's Mother (Viking, Penguin 2024) was named ‘Book of the Month’ by The Times immediately upon publication. Annie came to writing after a 30-year international business career, determined to cast light on female histories so often overlooked.

Adrian Goldsworthy studied at Oxford, where his doctoral thesis examined the Roman army. He went on to become an acclaimed historian of Ancient Civilisations, with numerous works of non fiction including The Eagle and the Lion, Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors, Caesar, The Fall of the West, Pax Romana, and Hadrian’s Wall.

Monty Halls is a former Royal Marines Officer who served for over a decade. His subsequent careers as expedition leader and broadcaster have made him a house-hold name, most notably presenting Monty Hall’s Great Escape on the BBC. His expeditions have taken him to the some of the most remote corners of the earth.

He continues to support the Royal Marines through his ambassadorship of the RM Charity, where he raises funds for the veteran community. He also advocates for marine conservation. Monty is based in Devon, where he runs Seadog, a production company specialising in military, adventure, and wildlife film-making.

Adam Hart is a 26-year-old historian and journalist from Pembrokeshire in south west Wales. After studying History and Journalism at university, 22-year-old Adam retraced his great grandfather Frank Griffiths' epic escape from occupied Europe in the Second World War after he was shot down on a secret midnight mission to drop supplies to the French Resistance. Travelling 1,200 miles through France, Switzerland and Spain, Adam tracked down and met descendants of the heroic French civilians who risked their lives to hide, clothe, feed and transport Frank out of Europe under the noses of the Nazis. Operation Pimento is not only a riveting true story, but also a vivid account of one young man's journey to discover more about a man he'd never met, but always knew to be a hero. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton in June 2025 and was shortlisted for the Hatchard’s First Biography Prize

Major Chris Hunter is a bestselling author, bomb disposal specialist, high-risk security advisor and motivational speaker. Joining the British Army at sixteen, he served for 17 years predominantly as a high-threat bomb disposal operator, including four years attached to the UK Special Forces. His deployments spanned numerous conflict zones across the globe, earning him the Queen's Gallantry Medal for his actions during a Middle East bomb disposal tour in 2004.

Dan Jones is a bestselling historian, TV presenter and award-winning journalist. His non-fiction books, which have sold more than a million copies worldwide, include the Sunday Times bestsellers THE PLANTAGENETS, THE TEMPLARS, POWERS AND THRONES and HENRY V. His fiction includes the acclaimed Essex Dogs trilogy, set during the Hundred Years War, concluding with LION HEARTS. Dan has written and presented numerous TV series including Secrets of Great British Castles, Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty: The Plantagenets and London: 2000 Years of History. He writes and hosts the Sony Music podcast This is History. For a decade Dan was a weekly columnist for the London Evening Standard; he has also contributed to dozens of newspapers and magazines worldwide, including the New York Times, Sunday Times, Telegraph and Spectator. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Trustee of Historic Royal Palaces.

Fergal Keane is a multi award winning foreign correspondent and author. For nearly forty years he has reported for the BBC from the world’s conflict zones. He is the winner of awards from BAFTA, EMMY, Royal Television Society among others. His book Season of Blood on the Rwandan genocide won the George Orwell Prize for political writing. His most recent work is The Madness - a Memoir of War and Love which explores his experience of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a consequence of his exposure to atrocities.

David Lascelles, 8th Earl of Harewood, is a BAFTA-winning film and television producer. He is one of the founders of Heirs of Slavery, a campaign group that seeks to redress the horrors of the Transatlantic slave trade. He lives in Yorkshire. Out of Colditz is his second book.

Matt Lewis is a medieval historian, author, presenter and podcaster with a focus on the Wars of the Roses. Matt has written biographies of Richard III, of his father Richard, Duke of York, and other medieval figures, as well as accounts of The Anarchy and the Wars of the Roses, and The Survival of the Princes in the Tower. Matt hosts the Echoes of History podcast, co-hosts the Gone Medieval podcast, and presents and contributes to documentaries for History Hit and on traditional television.

Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton was commissioned into the Irish Guards before serving with 22 SAS from 1987-1995 as a troop and squadron commander, with a tour between as an operations officer at special forces headquarters. After leaving the army, he served as Principal Private Secretary to Prince William, Prince Harry and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, between 2005-2014. He is now an author with his first novel, ‘Beyond the Edge of Light’, published in July this year.

Iain MacGregor is a successful editor of non fiction for major publishing houses, working with talented and bestselling historians such as Michael Wood, Simon Schama, William Taubman, Alice Roberts and John Nichol – as well as publishing tie-ins with archives and podcasts such as the Imperial War Museum and R4’s ‘In  Our Time’ series with Melvyn Bragg. He is also a writer and public speaker on modern history, with pieces in the Guardian, BBC History Magazine, the Spectator and the Washington Post. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He lives with his family in London.

Giles Milton is the million-copy, internationally bestselling author of a dozen works of narrative history. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages. One of Milton's previous works, Nathaniel's Nutmeg, is currently being developed into a major screen project. Milton is the writer and narrator of the acclaimed narrative podcast series, Ministry of Secrets, produced by Sony and available on all platforms. He lives in London and Burgundy.

Roger Moorhouse is a specialist in modern German and Polish history, particularly the Third Reich and World War Two. He has written a number of books in this capacity, including Killing Hitler (2006), Berlin at War (2010), The Devils’ Alliance (2014) and the critically acclaimed First to Fight (2019), which was awarded the Polish Foreign Ministry History Prize in 2020. Roger’s books have appeared in more than 20 languages.

Rory Naismith is professor of early medieval history at the University of Cambridge and the author of prize-winning books Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England, The Coinage of Southern England 796–865, Citadel of the Saxons, and Making Money in the Early Middle Ages.

Paul O'Keeffe is a lecturer and writer based in Liverpool. His acclaimed books include Waterloo: The Aftermath and, Culloden: Battle & Aftermath, described by the Daily Mail as ‘As vivid as the Ten O'Clock News... fascinating, detailed, meticulously researched... tremendous'.

Dr Bob Parr MBE is a 25-year veteran of the SAS and UK National Intelligence. He is an Associate of King’s College London and a Visiting Research Fellow with the Changing Character of War Centre at the University of Oxford.

Allison Pearson (Chair) is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She is a columnist for the Daily Telegraph and co-presents the popular Planet Normal podcast with Liam Halligan. Allison’s first novel, I Don’t Know How She Does It, was made into a movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker and her second novel, I Think I Love You, is soon to be a West End musical. She is a tireless advocate for free speech and a passionate supporter of Justice for Veterans.

Roland Philipps was a leading publisher for many years. A Spy Named Orphan, his first book, arose from lifelong connections to Donald Maclean and his story. It was shortlisted for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize 2018, was a Daily Mail Book of the Year and received widespread critical acclaim. His second book, Victoire, was published by The Bodley Head in 2021.

Oliver Price is a historian of Modern Britain. He completed his PhD in 2024 and has had work featured in publications including Contemporary British History, Modern British History and History Today.

Edmund Richardson is Professor of Classics at Durham University. He has published Alexandria: The Quest for the Lost City (2021), The King's Shadow and Classical Victorians: Scholars, Scoundrels and Generals in Pursuit of Antiquity (2013), and was named one of the BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers in 2016.

Andrew Roberts (Lord Roberts of Belgravia) is a biographer and historian of international renown whose books include Salisbury: Victorian Titan (winner of the Wolfson Prize for History), Masters and Commanders (winner of the Emery Reves Award), The Storm of War (winner of the British Army Book Prize), Napoleon the Great (winner of the Grand Prix of the Fondation Napoléon and the Los Angeles Times Biography Prize), George III (winner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography) and Churchill: Walking with Destiny (Council on Foreign Relations Book Prize). Roberts is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Literature and the Royal Historical Society, and a Trustee of the International Churchill Society. He is currently Visiting Professor at the Department of War Studies at King's College, London, and the Bonnie and Tom McCloskey Distinguished Visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Lyndal Roper is Regius Professor of History at the University of Oxford. Her previous books include Martin Luther and Witch Craze. She is a fellow of the British Academy, a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and a fellow of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. She lives in Oxford, South Wales, and Berlin.

George Simm joined the Coldstream Guards in 1969 and served a total of 30 years in the British army, 25 of which were with the SAS. In that time, he served in a multitude of operations of a mostly low intensity, counter-terrorist nature. The fight against the IRA in Northern Ireland dominated much of his service, though operations in Colombia and Bosnia were also notable successes.

The Viscount Slim, Mark Slim, has spent over 30 years working in the commercial property industry, based in the City of London. He is an Executive Director of CBRE and had his own practice for many years. He is also a Non Executive Director of Oakley Properties and Chairman of Trustees for the Burma Star Memorial Fund. Until recently, he was a Non Executive Director of Muntons PLC, a position he held for 12 years.

Thomas Smith is keeper of the scholars at Rugby School and an honorary research fellow at Royal Holloway and the University of Kent. A leading expert on the Fifth Crusade, he is the author of Rewriting the First Crusade and Curia and Crusade. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2017.

Lord Soames of Fletching is a British politician and was Minister for the Armed Forces between 1994 and 1997. He has a deep interest in and knowledge of defence and international relations, and speaks regularly in the House of Lords on matters of national security. Nicholas is the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill and will be talking at the Festival on Churchill, the Great Human Being

Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer OBE saw active service in Northern Ireland, the Falklands campaign, the Gulf War and the Balkans, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus and Germany. Key appointments include: Chief of Staff of an Armoured Brigade, Staff Officer at the Directorate of Special Forces and Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, among many others. Spicer has developed extensive knowledge of intelligence, counterterrorism, complex relations and protective security. In 2001 he founded the private security company Aegis, which has counted the UK, US and Italian governments among its clients. He is the author of An Unorthodox Soldier: Peace and War and the Sandline Affair, a fast-moving account of his military life, including the events surrounding his time in Papua New Guinea when he was captured and held at gunpoint, A Dangerous Enterprise that charts the history of the little-known, yet remarkable 15th Motor Gunboat Flotilla, commanded directly by the Secret Intelligence Service and A Suspicion of Spies the first biography of Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale, a ruthless and effective spymaster whose career spanned the Russian Revolution to the Cold War and beyond.

Lt Col (Retd) Richard Williams MBE MC, commissioned into the Parachute Regiment in 1989, was Commanding Officer 22 SAS from May 2005 to December 2007, having previously served as Officer Commanding G Squadron 22 SAS, the SAS Northern Ireland Troop and the Mountain Troop of D Squadron. He also served as a rifle platoon commander in 1 Para, as ADC to General Hew Pike commanding of 3 (UK) Division, and as the Chief of Staff of 7 Armoured Brigade.