The Big Little Book Festival is back
BeaconLit 2025
It's official- BeaconLit is back! Join us on Saturday 12th July 2025 at Ivinghoe Old School Community Hub and Ivinghoe Town Hall, both LU7 9EP.
Our lovely committee of volunteers have worked to create an excellent programme, which is updated regularly. Visit our blog for news as it comes, soon to include an 'On the Day'
Programme
Please note that all but one of the sessions will be held at the Town Hall, accessible via stairs or the stair lift. The Writing Workshop with Julie Cohen takes place over the road at the Hub.
09:00 - 09:30 Arrival and Registration
Registration will be taken in the library for which we fundraise. It can be found downstairs in the Town Hall, on the left.
09:30 - 09:35 Welcome
09:35 - 10:25 New Voices
BeaconLit co-founder DAVE SIVERS introduces three thrilling new talents: HOLLY GRAMAZIO, JOANNA MILLER and BILL RANDALL. Meet some of the most exciting rising stars of the literary world in this ever-popular panel.
Sponsored by Orenda Books
10:45 - 11:35 BeaconLit a la Carte
A choice of event – either:
Poetry Circle – Three excellent poets discuss the craft and read from their work. CLARE ELSTOW acts as moderator (Clare runs the monthly stanza group in Wendover named Chiltern Poets). Joining her will be HANNAH COPLEY (shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize 2024) and RACHEL SPENCE.
or: Create a Character in Seven Easy Steps - a Writing Workshop with JULIE COHEN – Julie is an award-winning, bestselling author and a popular teacher of creative writing. This hands-on, practical and fun workshop on creating a character from scratch starts with a blank sheet of paper. By the end of the workshop you'll have a fully-rounded character and have practised several character-building techniques. Bring, a pen, and a coin.
BeaconLit a La Carte is sponsored by AVT Design
11.55am-12.45pm Jane Casey in Conversation
JANE CASEY, bestselling author talks to fellow crime writer DAVE SIVERS about her acclaimed Maeve Kerrigan series and more.
Sponsored by Tring Brewery
12:45 – 13:30 Lunch Break
13:30 - 13:40 The Roy Chapman BeaconFlash Competition
Author, tutor and judge MORGEN BAILEY reveals the winners of our popular flash fiction competition, sponsored by Roy Chapman Ltd.
Will you be among them?
13:40 - 14:30 Abir Mukherjee in Conversation
ABIR MUKHERJEE, author of the award winning Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in 1920s India and the critically acclaimed contemporary thriller Hunted talks to BeaconLit favourite ADINA CAMPBELL.
Sponsored by PCL Corporate Wear
14:50 - 15:40 Lissa Evans in Conversation
Participating moderator HARRIET QUERALT talks to bestselling author, and TV and radio producer, LISSA EVANS, about her eclectic career.
Sponsored by Creasey & Co
16:00 - 16:50 Scene of the Crime
A trip around the world with four crime writers who whisk their readers away to far-flung places. DENISE BEDDOWS (participating moderator), STEPH BROADRIBB, ABIR MUKHERJEE and ALI LOWE discuss how they bring their locations to life.
Sponsored by Trend Radio
17:20 Close
Confirmed Authors
Dave Sivers
Holly Gramazio
Holly Gramazio
DAVE SIVERS grew up in West London and has been writing all his life, including columns and articles in newspapers and magazines, as well as short stories in Take a Break magazine and other publications.
His books include the popular crime fiction series featuring the Aylesbury Vale detectives, DI Lizzie Archer and DS Dan Baines. His latest novel, Price to Pay is the seventh in the series and his twelfth published title. His DI Nathan Quarrel books are set in Hertfordshire.
Dave lives in Buckinghamshire with his wife, Chris, and is a founder of the annual BeaconLit festival of books and writing.
Dave will introduce the 09:35-10:25 New Voices panel and be in conversation with Jane Casey at 11:55-12:45.
Website:
Holly Gramazio
Holly Gramazio
Holly Gramazio
HOLLY GRAMAZIO is a writer, game designer and curator from Adelaide, currently based in London.
Gramazio founded the experimental games festival Now Play This, and wrote the script for the award-winning indie videogame Dicey Dungeons. Her interests lie in rules, play, cities, and gardens.
Her debut novel The Husbands was an NYT bestseller and was named one of the best novels of 2024 by the Washington Post, NPR and The Times.
Holly will be speaking at the 09:35-10:25 New Voices panel.
Website: hollygramazio.net
Joanna Miller
Holly Gramazio
Joanna Miller
JOANNA MILLER studied English at Exeter College, Oxford and later returned to complete a PGCE in Secondary English at The Department of Educational Studies.
After ten years as a teacher and literacy adviser, she set up an award-winning poetry gift business with celebrity clients. Joanna's rhyming verse has been filmed twice by the BBC and in 2015 she won The Poetry Prize, run by Bloomsbury Publishing and the National Literacy Trust.
In 2021, Joanna graduated from the Faber Academy, after which she was accepted on the Escalator Talent Development Scheme at The National Centre for Writing. She has recently returned to Oxford to study part-time for a diploma in creative writing.
Her debut novel, The Eights, is published by fig tree in March 2025. Joanna lives in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire with her husband and their three teenage children.
She will be speaking in the 09:35-10:25 New Voices panel.
Instagram: @joannamillerauthor / @joannamillerreader
Twitter/X: @JoannaMauthor
Website: joannamillerauthor.com
Bill Randall
Hannah Copley
Joanna Miller
BILL RANDALL was born and raised in Aylesbury, always finding time for the arts alongside working life.
Bill spent ten years working for the police, also playing bass in a London-based alternative rock band.
His experiences in both the police and music industry align with his love of crime fiction, as explored in his first novel, Protection Song.
He will be speaking at the 09:35-10:25 New Voices panel.
Website:
Hannah Copley
Hannah Copley
Hannah Copley
HANNAH COPLEY lives and breathes poetry, as well as reading, writing and teaching both fiction and non-fiction.
She is based in South-East England and is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Westminster, though also works closely on UG, MA and PhD writing courses.
Her second collection, Lapwing (2024, Pavilion Poetry) was shortlisted for the T.S Eliot Prize. Hannah was awarded second in the 2024 Paurel Prize for environmental and eco-poetry.
She will be partaking in the 10:45-11:35 Poetry Circle.
Website:
https://hannahcopley.wordpress.com/
Rachel Spence
Hannah Copley
Hannah Copley
RACHEL SPENCE is a poet and arts writer based in Shropshire, London and Venice.She has published three pamphlets, two collections and has had numerous individual poems be published.
Her first collection Bird of Sorrow (2018, Templar), was highly commended in the Forward Prizes 2019. Her new collection is Daughter of The Sun (The Emma Press, 2025).
Rachel's three pamphlets are: Furies (2016 Templar), Call and Response (2020 The Emma Press) and Uncalendared, which was a winner of the Coast to Coast to Coast Journal competition in 2023.
Of her individual poems, they have been published in The North, PN Review, The London Magazine and the Financial Times. Her non-fiction book, Battle for the Museum, published by Hurst 2024, was an FT Book of the Year.
She will be partaking in the 10:45-11:35 Poetry Circle.
Website:
Clare Elstow
Clare Elstow
Clare Elstow
CLARE ELSTOW has been running Chiltern Poets (a local ‘Stanza’ group, affiliated to the National Poetry Society) since 2015. The group draws its members from a wide area of Buckinghamshire/the Chilterns, and meets in Great Missenden and Wendover.
Like almost everyone in the Chiltern Poets group, Clare writes a poem a month for the (optional) assignments, although she also sets the themes and poetic forms, and provides useful background information and examples.
She’s keen to make poetry accessible and enjoyable. She also enjoys the way poetry and prose can inform and enhance each other. She is working on compiling a poetry collection of her work.
Clare has a background in BBC TV Production, and extensive experience in writing scripts for programmes she produced. These include two that featured performance poet John Hegley, who she now occasionally works with.
She will be speaking in the 10:45-11:35 Poetry Circle.
Julie Cohen
Clare Elstow
Clare Elstow
JULIE COHEN is an award-winning, bestselling author of over 25 novels. Her work has been selected for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club and the Richard and Judy Book Club.
She is a teacher of creative writing and a founder of the Romantic Novelists’ Assoction Rainbow Chapter for LGBTQ+ writers. From 2025 she will be undertaking a PhD by Published Works in Creative Writing at the University of Reading.
Her latest novel (written as Julie Mae Cohen) is EAT SLAY LOVE (Bonnier 2024), and her next novel is PARADISE (Orion 2025). She lives in Berkshire, UK with her teenager and a terrier of dubious origin.
Julie will be leading the 10:45-11:35 Writing Workshop, which runs adjacent to the Poetry Circle.
Websites:
Jane Casey
Clare Elstow
Adina Campbell
JANE CASEY is the author of seventeen crime novels including The Killing Kind, which was adapted for television and is currently available to stream on ITVX.
She was born and raised in Dublin, has an MPhil in Anglo-Irish Literature from Trinity College and worked in publishing for over nine years, primarily as an editor. She now lives in London with her husband and two children.
An award-winning, bestselling novelist, Jane is best known for the Maeve Kerrigan series of London-set police procedurals, the most recent of which is The Secret Room. Her Jess Tennant series is of the YA crime genre.
As a headliner, Jane Casey will be in conversation with Dave Sivers at 11:55-12:45.
Twitter/X: @JaneCaseyAuthor
Adina Campbell
Adina Campbell
Adina Campbell
ADINA CAMPBELL is a UK correspondent for BBC News whose brief includes
delivering stories on criminal justice, policing and equality.
Adina was previously the BBC’s community affairs correspondent and, before working in network news, she
used to report and present on BBC South Today covering stories in Oxfordshire,
Buckinghamshire and surrounding areas.
Adina is a fitness enthusiast and a mum of two boys.
She will be announcing the BeaconFlash winners from 13:30-:13:40 before interviewing Abir Mukherjee at 13:40-14:30
Twitter: @adinacampbell
Abir Mukherjee
Adina Campbell
Abir Mukherjee
ABIR MUKHERJEE is the bestselling author of the award-winning Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in 1920s India, and the critically acclaimed contemporary thriller Hunted.
His books have been translated into fifteen languages and won various awards including the CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel, the Prix du Polar Européen, and the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing.
He also co-hosts the popular Red Hot Chilli Writers podcast which takes a wry look at the world of books, writing, and the creative arts, tackling everything from bestsellers to pop culture. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in Surrey with his wife and two sons.
He will be speaking as a headliner from 13:40-14:30 and then in the 16:00-16:50 Scene of the Crime panel.
Website:
abirmukherjee.com
Lissa Evans
Adina Campbell
Abir Mukherjee
LISSA EVANS has written seven novels, including Their Finest Hour and a Half (filmed as ‘Their Finest’) and a loose trilogy comprising Crooked Heart (longlisted for the Bailey’s Prize), the best-selling Old Baggage, and V for Victory.
Two of her books for children, Small Change for Stuart and Wed Wabbit, were shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. Lissa has a background in radio and TV comedy and was the producer of Room 101 and Father Ted..
Headliner Lissa Evans will be sharing more on her work from 14:50-15:40 in an interview with Harriet Queralt.
Website
Denise Beddows
Steph Broadribb
Steph Broadribb
DENISE BEDDOWS is a Buckinghamshire-based, award-winning author. She writes crime and espionage fiction, cozy crime and true crime.
A member of the Crime Writers Association and the Society of Authors, and with a background in research, investigation and intelligence analysis, she has lived, worked and played in various countries across three continents during a career in government service and speaks six languages.
Denise will be speaking at the 16:00-16:50 Scene of the Crime panel.
Website: https://www.denisebeddowswrites.com/
Steph Broadribb
Steph Broadribb
Steph Broadribb
STEPH BROADRIBB is the author of the bestselling Retired Detectives Club series.
Her most recent book, a collaboration with MJ Arlidge, is The Reunion. She has also written the Lori Anderson bounty hunter series and the Starke/Bell police procedural novels (as Stephanie Marland).
She has an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) and trained as a bounty hunter in California. Her books have been shortlisted for the eDunnit eBook of the Year award, the ITW Best First Novel award, and the Dead Good Reader Awards. She is currently a judge for the CWA Whodunnit Dagger.
She will be speaking at the 16:00-16:50 Scene of the Crime panel.
Website:
stephbroadribb.com
Ali Lowe
Steph Broadribb
Ali Lowe
ALI LOWE is the author of three acclaimed novels: The Trivia Night, The Running Club and, most recently, The School Run, which was a WHSmith Book of the Month in Australia. Her next novel, The Private Island, is on sale in the UK in July.
Ali is a journalist by profession: she was Features Editor at OK! magazine in London and has written for bridal magazines, parenting titles, websites and newspapers. She has dual Australian and British citizenship and lives on Sydney’s northern beaches with her husband and three children.
Join Ali at the 16:00-16:50 Scene of the Crime panel.
Website