Announcing our 2025 Christmas Book Fair!

The Foreword Festival is partnering with the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket, and the John Peel Centre Writers’ Group, to bring you a fantastic line-up of authors, books, and activities for children – and entry is FREE!

Join us at the John Peel Centre on Sunday December 7th, 10am-3pm for a Christmas event with a Foreword Festival twist.

We’ve lined up 17 local authors for the event, plus FREE Christmas craft activities for children. The bar will be open, serving mulled wine and Christmas treats. The line-up includes familiar faces and brand-new authors, and plenty of books, bookish gifts, and genres to finish off your Christmas shopping (not forgetting a few sneaky treats for yourself!).

You’ll find crime fiction, contemporary fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, books for teenagers, and lots of children’s fiction to help you fill up everyone’s stockings.

And for the twist? We’ll have a big screen showing off all our books and authors, and the musical soundtrack for the event has been chosen by the authors themselves. Expect theme songs for their books and series, walk-on music for their favourite characters, and plenty of songs about writing. Listen out for songs you love – and check to see which authors are dancing along!

If you spot a book you like the look of on the screen, we’ll be happy to direct you to the author’s table. You’ll get to meet the author, and have the chance to buy signed copies of their books.

We really hope you can make it! Come and support our amazing local authors, and who knows? You might find the perfect present (for you, or for someone else!).

John Peel Centre, Church Walk, Stowmarket, IP14 1ET
Sunday 7th December
10am-3pm

See you there!