The 27th Graham Greene International Festival (24-27 September 2026)
This year we had an incredibly exciting and varied selection of speakers taking on many shades of Greene. First launched in 1998, the festival is held each autumn close to Greene’s birthday, 2 October (1904). The festival takes place in Berkhamsted, Greene’s birthplace in Hertfordshire, just 30 minutes by train from London’s Euston station. Across four days, Greene’s life and work is celebrated in a warm, welcoming and inclusive event. This year our speakers range from well-known Greene admirers to broadcasters, playwrights, journalists, novelists, film-makers, scholars, young researchers and straightforward fans and admirers.
The 2026 festival – our 27th – took place from Thursday 24 September to Sunday 27 September. Read Festival director Kevin Ruane’s preview here. News about the 2027 festival will be released in the spring.
For questions or queries please email the festival director Kevin Ruane kevin.ruane@canterbury.ac.uk
Festival 2026 – relive and reflect …
We had a wonderful line-up of speakers for our 2026 festival including Robin Ince, for many years the co-host of BBC Radio 4’s The Infiinte Monkey Cage, best-selling novelist Jo Baker, acclaimed biographer Adam Sisman, journalist and scholar Melanie McDonagh, and author and espionage expert Robert Verkaik. 2026 is the centenary of Greene’s conversion to Catholicism as well as the 75th anniversary of the publication of one of his finest novels, The End of the Affair (1951), and both moments in Greene’s life will be celebrated at the festival alongside many other aspects of his long, varied and stellar career.
For the programme and speakers – for a shop window into what we do – just follow the links below.
And did you know that festival events (other than meals) are FREE to students/under-25s? Tis true.
Plan your visit to the Festival
Berkhamsted is a wonderful destination for a “getaway” so here are some accommodation options in Greene’s home-town.
All Festival sessions are held centrally in Berkhamsted – notably the Town Hall and Berkhamsted School.
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Relive the 2024 and 2025 Festivals in our image gallery
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