The Cheshire Book Festival of Other Worlds heads to Warrington

By John Freeman on April 14, 2026 • ( 0 )

The Cheshire Book Festival of Other Worlds, a specialist two day festival for Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing lands in Warrington in September.

The event will have dedicated sessions to authors on Magical Realism, Epic Fantasy, Dystopian, Horror Romantasy and Science Fiction.

Guests at the event include Doctor Who and fantasy crime writer Ben Aaronovitch, whose Rivers of London series has been a consistent Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller, and has also been a popular comic series from Titan Comics. He is published in 14 languages and has sold more than two million copies around the world.

Aaronovitch, whose latest novel, Stone and Sky, now available in paperback, is also a trustee on the board of Cityread London and is a long-time supporter of Nigeria’s premiere arts and cultural festival, The Aké Festival.

Horror Fantasy author Emily Cooper is also a guest, a published scientist with a Master’s degree in Biology and a lifelong obsession with the natural world. She lives near Manchester in a 330-year-old cottage, which she’s fairly certain is haunted, providing ample inspiration for her novels. Season of Fear, inspired by Bavarian folklore, is out now in paperback.

Adrian Tchaikovsky leads the Sunday session on science fiction, a much praised author who has practised law but now writes full time. He’s also studied stagefighting, perpetrated amateur dramatics and has a keen interest in entomology and tabletop games. His latest book, Children of Strife, a far-future adventure set within the Children of Time series, has just been published by Tor.

Other guests include August Bloom, who writes magical novels from her cosy writing studio in Gloucestershire, giving the event’s Keynote; Stephen Howard, leading a session on Horror writing and Andrew Shanahan on Science Fiction; Sarah Mughal Rana on High Fantasy; Jerry Ibbotson on Urban Fantasy; and many others.

The event round off with events with Venetia Constantine, on Romantasy, author of The Last Starborn Seer, and a session on Horror & Folk Horror – with Leigh Radford and Liam Higginson, who have debut novels out now.

Leigh Radford trained as a broadcast journalist and is a former book publicist. She is currently developing content for film and television through her production company, Kenosha Kickers. One Yellow Eye is her debut novel.

Liam Higginson was born and raised in rural North Wales and now works in the arcade management office at Llandudno Pier. The Hill in the Dark Grove is his debut novel.

• Cheshire Book Festival of Other Worlds Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September 2026 at the Daresbury Park Hotel Red Brow Lane, Warrington WA4 4BB | Official Site and Tickets Here

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.