
Phoebe Haywood, who has been writing about ChipLitFest since 2016, shares her thoughts as the festival closes its doors.
Empires fall; ChipLitFest ends. I was devastated to see the announcement that this brilliant festival was closing down.
The world is dark enough already without losing such a bright beacon of appreciation for books and authors, especially to such an unfair cause as the current financial climate. However bittersweet the ending, though… what a fantastic run it has been. ChipLitFest was my literary home for nine years and I write this article (and my final blog post) as a thankful tribute to that fact.
I started reviewing books and events for ChipLitFest in 2016 as its new Junior Reporter, kindly introduced to the festival team by the wonderful young people’s author Jo Cotterill. My first photo on the ChipLitFest Committee webpage showed my dorky fringe and two bespectacled eyes peering over the top of her book Looking at the Stars…She quickly tasked me with covering the children’s side of the festival programme – which has always been phenomenally strong. Even now, I am still staggered by the sheer range of children’s literature that ChipLitFest featured over the years. From picture books to YA, from adventure stories and mysteries to moving social issues, there was always something for any age and interest in the line-up.
It’s no wonder then that every young audience I saw at ChipLitFest had so much enthusiasm for reading. I remember on one occasion, a young girl tottered past with a disproportionately huge stack of books, sporting a bloodthirsty glint in her eye that said she fully intended for the author to sign every single one. I pitied that author, but thought it was probably their own fault for agreeing to write a series!
ChipLitFest also showed a deep commitment to fostering a love of stories in children outside of the festival period itself, through its Children’s Programme. Working with the Chipping Norton Schools Partnership, it ran creative writing workshops and author visits to local schools.
All this is to say: I have been only one of many, many young readers whose interest in books has been supported and encouraged by ChipLitFest. The festival has been an incredible champion for children’s literature.

But in more recent years, I have also had the fortunate opportunity to appreciate the older side of the festival’s line-up and weekend programme. As equally rich and diverting as its children’s line-up, ChipLitFest has explored fiction, non-fiction, and poetry alike – through talks and interviews with a vast array of creative individuals.
The diversity of ChipLitFest’s events was one of the main forces that made the festival weekend such a fantastically chaotic, whirlwind experience. You could enjoy an interview with an ex-journalist about their recent fictional thriller, then pop next door to hear a lecture on observational astronomy, before spinning around to hear a poet explain the message behind their latest anthology (all of these are real events I attended). I used to read fantasy almost exclusively and might have never left my genre bolthole if ChipLitFest hadn’t eagerly pushed its rich tapestry of samples from the wider literary world at me. Now I’m happy to wander through all sections of a bookshop in the same way I zig-zagged through the rainbow of festival events taking place each year.
I always made sure, for example, to attend the “New Voices” event – in which three debut authors would be interviewed about their books. I loved going to that event each year, not only because it featured a great selection of books to read, but also because it was so supportive in promoting these new writers. ChipLitFest has always respected the amazing (hard!) work that authors do to bring a book into reality and, for me, that appreciation manifested most poignantly whenever “New Voices” welcomed and celebrated new additions to the ranks.
Another staple event for some was the annual ChipLit Quiz. Unfortunately, my bus home precluded me from ever attending this, but at the penultimate ChipLitFest event at the end of November 2024 (by the marvellous John Finnemore), I bumped into John Dougherty – an old friend, fantastic children’s author, and Patron of ChipLitFest, who mentioned how much he would miss the ChipLit Quiz. I may never have taken part, but it was clearly a beloved event for many regulars.
I did however (frequently!) attend the “Very Short Introduction” (VSI) series of events; half-hour lectures about a non-fictional subject, taking place at quarter past the hour… They were the perfect stop-gap between events in different venues, leaving plenty of time to move around town but filling an otherwise dull hour of waiting with a newsflash on various fascinating topics. On the road to different events, VSI was an intersection – and for this reason, it also became a meeting spot for friends with otherwise completely separate schedules. On numerous occasions, I recall seeing someone I knew at a VSI, managing a quick chat before and after the talk, then waving goodbye and not seeing them for the rest of the day.
It was the kind of atmosphere that the whole of ChipLitFest wore as perfume: a pervasive joy in trying everything and still itching for more. No matter what kind of books the festival featured, it encouraged the pursuit and devouring of them (although not in the culinary sense – no, not even the cookbooks).
Something that felt particularly special to me was ChipLitFest’s workshops and other interactive events. While many attendees seemed content to sit back, relax, and take in the myriad delights of the festival, there were others like myself who were inspired by the creativity on display and wanted to join in.
There were many opportunities to do just that. Sometimes it was taste-testing samples of recipes from cookery books or sommelier guides. Sometimes it was being an active witness to a live drawing session. Often it was a writing workshop, led by an author and filled with creative exercises to be tried and shared with the wider group. I made a few friends through those classes and enjoyed being able to ask craft-related questions. More than anything else, though, I relished the chance to actually focus on being creative in my writing. I may be on the other side of an MA in Scriptwriting now, but in previous years a lot of my energy was spent on schoolwork and undergraduate essays. ChipLitFest’s writing workshops validated and protected a space for me to write creatively; even if I hadn’t followed it as a career, it let me enjoy my passion guilt-free for just a moment.
ChipLitFest has always been a celebration of creativity, but its standing offer for attendees to get creative themselves made it a universal value. People gained the self-confidence and zeal to write (or draw, compose, cook, garden, brew, etc. etc.!) in Chipping Norton – and then took it away with them for daily life.
Speaking of Chipping Norton, ChipLitFest couldn’t have asked for a better location. As a small town, venues were close together so it was easier to shuttle between events like a pinball. Quiet, friendly, pretty buildings - every festival year felt cosy. The venues themselves were simply fantastic. Indeed, I need to say a massive personal thank you to both the Chipping Norton Theatre and ChipLiFest’s partner bookshop, Jaffé & Neale, which have both become special havens for me.
The Theatre not only hosted more events than I can count, but also various social get-togethers for the ChipLitFest Friends/Patrons/Committee. My first ever networking attempt (I stood in a corner smiling vacantly for about an hour because I was fourteen and had no social skills yet) was at a Festival Reception somewhere upstairs. For the wider public, the bar was always a warm space for book-signing and post-event chatter. It’s such a glamorous venue too, so it’s no surprise that most of the more famous celebrity guests I saw at ChipLitFest had events there – including Liza Tarbuck, Jo Brand, David Baddiel and, obviously most recently, John Finnemore. Although the other venues in town were superb, the Theatre was the quintessential ChipLitFest venue to me – especially since Jaffé & Neale were just down the road!
Jaffé & Neale is a gorgeous bookshop and café in Chipping Norton and has served as the perfect rest-stop between ChipLitFest events for many years. It was a calm oasis that anchored the chaos of ChipLitFest and festival-goers were commonly seen there, nibbling on cake while reading the book from the talk they just attended. If they forgot to get a copy while at the event, no problem; Jaffé & Neale had copies of every book in the festival line-up available to buy during the ChipLitFest weekend. It used to offer the upstairs area as a green room for authors too... ChipLitFest couldn’t have asked for a better partner bookshop.
In the vein of giving due thanks, ChipLitFest would not have happened without some extraordinary people. It’s worth remembering that everyone who worked on ChipLitFest was a volunteer. These people loved books and authors so much that they planned, promoted, organised and set up/took down an entire literary festival each April in Chipping Norton. ChipLitFest has always been an act of devotion.
So I am humbled and grateful to have been a small part of that incredible team, alongside such Friends, Patrons, Volunteers, and Committee members. I know there are many individuals who were instrumental in bringing ChipLitFest to life, but whose names and faces I don’t know since our orbits never collided. Nevertheless, I would like to thank them for their work on the festival – I may have helped in my own tiny way with the festival’s blog page as a reviewer, but I am acutely aware that, without their time and dedication, there would be no festival line-up or events to review.
There are some names and faces I most certainly do know, however, as it has been my privilege to work with them on the Chiplitfest Committee team for the past decade or so.
Charlotte Sabin and Milly Weaver were both so lovely in helping me to settle into my role as Junior Reporter – making sure that I had books to review, authors to interview, and school visits to accompany.
I’d like to give massive thanks also to ChipLitFest Patron John Dougherty and author Jo Cotterill for their guidance and encouragement, especially in those early years.
It was always a pleasure to see Alison Gomm and Laura Parker at festival events and social occasions, and a joy to read Laura’s brilliant reviews and interviews on the ChipLitFest blog.
It was lovely to see Jenny Aston too, although I never saw her in one place for too long! She was forever dashing around town as our festival photographer and I was (and still am) in awe of her ability to be seemingly everywhere at once. I don’t think she ever missed an event.
Last but certainly not least: Jenny Dee, our magnificent Festival Director since 2016. That was the year I joined the team, so she has always been an intrinsic part of ChipLitFest to me. Every year, I saw first-hand how tirelessly she worked to make each festival a great experience for everyone – and I know that I only saw a fraction of her efforts. She was the lynchpin to everything, coordinating all the interlocking parts of the festival with an eagle-eyed overview. Yet she still took the time to show a personal interest in her team members, with many a kind word given about my writing progress. Jenny gave so much of herself to ChipLitFest; it is impossible to imagine the festival without also thinking of her.
One final thank you is owed to the vast number of authors, illustrators, poets, public figures, and other creative individuals who came to speak at ChipLitFest. Thank you for sharing your stories. Thank you for letting me write about them. And thank you for supporting this incredible literary festival.
I will miss ChipLitFest, so very dearly – but I carry memories of my time there with equal fondness. Hopefully this thankful tribute has conveyed a measure of how much I loved this festival and why. Goodbye, ChipLitFest…