Gloucester's Autumn Festival: catch the digital run

Gloucester's Autumn Festival has wrapped up its live run, but there is still a way to catch it. The Gloucester History Festival's autumn edition took over Blackfriars Priory from Saturday 5 to Sunday 20 September, packing 150 speakers and 150 events into those two weeks, with talks covering history, politics and culture. The Digital Festival keeps it going until Sunday 25 October, with digital talks you can buy and watch from anywhere in the world until then.

The live programme was built around a huge roster of names. Tony Robinson brought his Anglo-Saxon England talk on Saturday 19 September, and Jung Chang spoke on a history of modern China that same evening. Caroline Quentin, Dan Jones, David Olusoga, Penny Mordaunt, Michael Wood, Nick Crane, Amy Jeffs, Emily Hauser, Martin Sixsmith, Ronald Hutton, Andrew Graham-Dixon, Janina Ramirez, Turi King, Paul Mason, Damien Lewis, Nicholas Morton, Andrew Lownie, Anne Sebba, Edmund Richardson, Daniel Wilson, Jess Venner, Amy Boyington, Han Parker, Sam Bilton, Kathryn Laverack, Waldemar Januszczak, Kate Lister, Thomas Asbridge, Thomas Williams, Adrian Utley, Philip Selway, Katja Hoyer, John Sweeney, Max Adams, Peter Ricketts, Michael Lewis, Nicholas J Higham, Ben Robinson, James Clark, Rebecca Phillips, Chiz Harward, Mike Teague, Mike Soutar, John Robb, Samira Ahmed, Elodie Harper, Nandini Das and Lucy Worsley all had sessions.

If you want to get a sense of what it was like, the sessions were spread across the fortnight. Friday 11 September opened with Mike Teague on a history of Gloucester Rugby, Andrew Armstrong on the city's Roman walls, Michael Wood on Athelstan, England's first king, and Penny Mordaunt on great British traditions. Saturday 12 September ran from Max Adams on the Domesday Book through to a session on the Beatles and the sixties. Sunday 13 September took in Katja Hoyer on Weimar, John Sweeney on the rise of populism and the right, and Nandini Das on the Tudors. Monday 14 September paired Nicholas J Higham on how the Anglo-Saxons won Britain with Ben Robinson on Britain's coastal heritage, while Tuesday 15 September covered pagan Britain with Ronald Hutton and witch hunting in 17th-century Britain with Marion Gibson.

Wednesday 16 September marked the Gloucester Citizen at 150, alongside Damien Lewis on the SAS Great Train Raid and Paul Mason on how communism shaped the world. Thursday 17 September looked at the Crusades, the house of York and the secret history of Britain's footpaths. Friday 18 September combined a tour of the King's Bastion with Dan Jones on a fortified history of castles, and Saturday 19 September ran from Edmund Richardson on Alexander the Great to a late session on female pleasure with Kate Lister. Sunday 20 September closed with Sinclair McKay on the true story of the Home Guard, Andrew Graham-Dixon on Vermeer and the Dutch Golden Age, and a Radiohead meets Portishead session to end the night.

For now, the digital version is what is left to catch. Digital tickets are £7 each, and a Digital Festival Pass costs £70, which works out to up to a 20% saving compared to buying talks individually. Both are on sale until 25 October. Live events were streamed via Zoom with no account needed, and recordings became available to watch from an hour after each session ended, so the archive is what you are really dipping into. It is a decent way to catch a few of those 150 sessions from home before the whole thing closes on the 25th.