Speakers & Chairs 2026

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.