Day 3 Events – Saturday 26th September 2026

Morning, afternoon and evening sessions.

Morning:

Deans’ Hall, Berkhamsted School (Castle Street)

£28

9:45 – Professor Andrew Biswell: Cover Stories – Graham Greene and the artist Paul Hogarth.

The director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Andrew Biswell, paints a portrait of artist Paul Hogarth whose book covers for the Penguin paperback editions of Greene’s novels from the 1960s to the 1980s are a great favourite of Greene readers.

(Break for tea and coffee 10:45-11:15)

11:15 – Ian Thomson: “Our Man in Tallinn” – Graham Greene’s chance encounter with a model spy in Estonia.

Ian Thomson, the award-winning biographer and travel writer who spoke so engagingly last year about Greene and Haiti’s Hotel Oloffson, takes us this time round to Estonia in 1934.

Afternoon (including the Birthday Toast):

Deans’ Hall, Berkhamsted School (Castle Street)

£37, including Birthday Toast

14:30 – Melanie McDonagh: Graham Greene, Catholicism and literary turn to Rome 1900 to 1955.

Journalist and author Melanie McDonagh will talk about her new book Converts which examines the reasons for the high conversion rate of British writers to Catholicism in the early 20th century, not least of them being Graham Greene.

(Break for tea and coffee 15:30-16:00)

16:00 – Robin Ince: The Fallen Idol (1948) – from short story to the big screen.

Robin Ince, for many years co-host with Professor Brian Cox of BBC Radio 4’s hugely popular The Infinite Monkey Cage, looks at the 1948 film The Fallen Idol, directed by Carol Reed with a screenplay by Greene drawn from his story ‘The Basement Room’.

17:00 – The Birthday Toast.

Evening:

Old Hall, Berkhamsted School (Castle Street)

20:00 – Festival Dinner – separate booking required.

Three courses with wine and coffee: vegan/vegetarian options available. Please book online by Thursday 10 September.