Our Top Picks for Chalke History Festival 2026
With 150 speakers - and so much else - at this year's Chalke History Festival, it can be hard to decide what to see. So, here's our handy guide to our top picks.
Featured Articles
The Silent Minute
What do you do when your army has retreated, your ally has capitulated, and you face invasion? You pray.
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by Kit Kowol
Appeasement: An Introduction
Just twenty years after the War to End All Wars, Britain was once again at war with Germany. With hindsight a second conflagration had seemed inevitable, so did Britain sleepwalk into a world war that could have been avoided?
The End of an Era: The Death of Queen Elizabeth I
In the early hours of 24 March 1603 Queen Elizabeth I died quietly in her palace at Richmond. But for those living through those hours of her final decline, it was a time of fear as well as of hope: change was not always to be welcomed and, in not naming an heir, the queen had protected her own position at the expense of a potential future civil war.
The Great Storm of 1703
On the night of 26 November 1703, what has been described as the worst storm in the history of the country hit Britain. Over the next eight hours, it reaped terrible damage across Wales and the south of England, and in its wake were thousands of trees blown down, fleets of ships destroyed, thousands of lives taken, and significant sums of money, in the form of goods, houses, churches, land and animals, washed away.
Latest Interviews
Roger Moorhouse: In Conversation
Roger Moorhouse's brilliant and original new book, 'Wolfpack: Inside Hitler's U-Boat War' was released on 9 October. It was therefore only natural to track him down at We Have Ways Fest to discuss the horror, and the potential, of German submarine warfare.
Tim Bouverie: In Conversation
Tim Bouverie's new book, 'Allies at War', provides a fascinating and fresh look at the anti-Axis politics of the Second World War. So we couldn't help but track him down to discuss it further.
Kate Mosse: In Conversation
We caught up with Kate Mosse, writer extraodinaire and author of international bestsellers like Labyrinth and the Joubert Family Chronicles, to chat about her past works and upcoming projects, and what they all can teach us about the state of the world today.
Robert Lyman: In Conversation
Dr Robert Lyman is a military historian who has not just written a number of excellent books - the latest being 'Victory to Defeat' in conjunction with General Lord Dannatt - but who has also spent twenty years serving in the British military. We caught up with him at this year's Chalke History Festival to chat about his new projects on the Korean War and his brilliant new tour app, Guidl.
Latest Book Reviews
Rage of Party: How Whig Versus Tory Made Modern Britain, George Owers
In 'Rage of Party' George Owers has done more than rehabilitate a fascinating era and its characters, he has also written a thumping good read that is powerfully relevant to our own times.
Mitchell: Father of the Spitfire, Paul Beaver
Paul Beaver's fascinating new book, 'Mitchell: Father of the Spitfire', tells the true story of the man - and the team - behind one of Britain's most iconic machines.
Mission Europe, Kate Vigurs
Kate Vigurs's new book, 'Mission Europe', addresses a significant gap in the historiography of Special Operations Executive. While the work of female agents in occupied France is becoming well known, that of operatives in other countries has been largely overlooked. Until now.
Henry Reece, The Fall: Last Days of the English Republic
Henry Reece’s The Fall: Last Days of the English Republic has a simple premise: to provide a narrative account of the last eighteen months of the English republic, from the death of Oliver Cromwell in September 1658 to the restoration of the monarchy in May 1660.
