Romance Writing Festival returns to Bournemouth

Bournemouth's romance writers have a date in the diary for autumn. The second Romance Writing Festival lands on Saturday 3 October, running a full day from 9am to 10pm at the Marsham Court Hotel on East Cliff, and it is built around the practical side of getting a romance novel onto shelves rather than just the reading of one.

The day is packed with sessions. There are ten expert talks and panel discussions in total, split into five talks on the writing journey and five panels, alongside three 90-minute masterclasses and six one-to-one sessions with literary agents. The names on the bill carry real weight in the genre: Katie Fforde in conversation with BBC South's Edward Sault, Sue Moorcroft, president of the Romantic Novelists' Association, and Sharon Kendrick, who has written more than 120 Harlequin Mills & Boon books and sold over 27 million copies. The rest of the line-up takes in Jeevani Charika on the 'messy middle', Gary Dalkin and Sophie Beal on editing, Alex Thompson from Trobadour Publishing and The Book Guild, Isabelle Knight on building your author brand, and Liam Livings, Abiola Bello, Suzan Holder, Nikki Moore, Clare Swatman and Janet Gover on 'Slay the Slush Pile'. The masterclasses are led by Amy de la Force on romantasy, agent Saskia Leach and Lola Jaye on historical fiction. Between the sessions, there are literary walks around Bournemouth and walks along the beach.

Money is the part worth knowing before you commit. A full festival day ticket is £125 and covers a welcome tea or coffee, access to the ten panels and talks, a Ploughman's buffet lunch, an evening networking event with a welcome drink, a £5 bookshop voucher and the free lunchtime walks. If you only want the high-intensity bits, the masterclasses are £150 and the agent one-to-ones are £70, neither of which need a festival ticket. The early bird discount of 10% ran until 31 May, so full prices now apply. Tickets are sold through romancewritingfestival.co.uk.

The venue is a big part of the appeal. The Marsham Court is a four-star family-owned hotel on the East Cliff with sea views over Bournemouth Bay, and for anyone coming from out of town, there is a festival rate of £99 a night for two people, bed and breakfast in a standard double or twin room, using the code BWF26. That rate covers the nights of Friday 2 and Saturday 3 October with no minimum stay, which is handy if you want to make a weekend of it. The hotel has 95 rooms, check-in from 2pm and check-out at 11am, with free on-site parking, free Wi-Fi throughout and a reception open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

For context, the first edition was on 18 October 2025 at the Royal Bath Hotel with Katie Fforde, Milly Johnson and Paige Toon, so this is the second outing for the strand. It sits within the wider Bournemouth Writing Festival programme, which is run by the BWF. If you are already planning your writing year, the main Bournemouth Writing Festival is set for 24, 25 and 26 April 2026 at Pavilion Dance South West on Westover Road, so the romance edition in October is the other half of the city's writing calendar.