Supported using public funding by Arts Council England

Calibre's Online Book Festival

Welcome to Calibre Conversations, our first online book festival celebrating our 50th anniversary. This event promotes audiobooks and the well-being reading brings. We also emphasise the importance of accessibility and representation in books. Follow our socials to discover new authors and titles and stay updated on upcoming interviews!

Young People's Authors

We've interviewed 5 different children's authors as part of the festival so that people of all ages can find something new:

Jenny Ireland

Author of books for young adults talks about her unputdownable debut novel “The First Move” and why it was important to her to have a wide representation of characters in her story. 

Joe Haddow

Children’s author, radio producer and podcast host Joe inspires us to get creative talking about his book “Art is Everywhere”.

Candy Gourlay

Award nominated author of children’s and young adult novels talks about growing up in the Philipines and about the inspiration for two of her captivating novels “Bone Talk” and “Wild Song”. 

Philip Reeve and Sarah Mcintyre

The writing and illustrating duo team up again to tell us all about their exciting children’s series “AdventureMice”. 

The Magazine Girls

Three of the seven authors of "The Magazine Girls" share their fascinating stories and experiences on popular magazines between the 1960s and 1980s. Listen to the interview via the link beneath here.

Audio cover

Mat Osman

Musician and member of iconic British rock band Suede gives us an insight into his writing career and becoming an author. We discuss his latest book “The Ghost Theatre” - a gripping and fantastical tale of a group of misfit actors in Elizabethan London. Watch the interview or listen to the audio below.

Mat Osman Interview in Audio

Upcoming interviews

  • Roger Moorhouse

    Roger Moorhouse

    Author and historian talks about the amazing story behind his book “The Forgers: The Forgotten Story of the Holocaust’s Most Audacious Rescue Operation”.

  • Lisa Jewell

    Lisa Jewell

    Lisa's first novel,  Ralph’s Party (1999) was the best-selling debut novel of the year. Since then she's published twenty-one novels, including Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs and None of This is True, which won two awards at the 2024 British Book Awards. 

  • Pippa Stacey

    Pippa Stacey

    Disabled writer, speaker, and content creator, talks about her book “How to Do Life With a Chronic Illness” based on her lived experiences and demonstrates why for the past three years has been named in the Disability Power 100 as one of the most influential disabled people in the UK.

Enjoying our festival? Please fill in our quick survey so we can get your valuable feedback which will help us to plan and improve future events. If you're unable to fill it in online, please call our membership services team on 01296 432339 who will be able to help.

Click here to complete the survey online

Find out more about Calibre's 50th anniversary celebrations by clicking here.