26 Jun - 27 Jun 2026
Melbourne Hall © Andrea Jones
The next Garden Museum Literary Festival will take place at Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire, on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 June 2026, hosted by the Marquis and Marchioness of Lothian.
Join us for two days of conversation and inspiration, with talks by garden designers, writers and makers, with plenty of relaxed time to explore the gardens at Melbourne Hall in between.
With sweeping lawns, charming avenues, and captivating vistas, Melbourne Hall is a true treasure of early 18th-century English garden design.
It was laid out by Rt. Hon Thomas Coke, Vice Chamberlain to Queen Anne, with help from the garden landscape designers George London and Henry Wise in the formal style. It is noted for its long tunnel of Yew, its wrought iron arbour created by Robert Bakewell and its statuary by Jan van Nost, notably the Four seasons monument, a gift from Queen Anne.
The Marquis of Lothian took over running the Melbourne estate in 1987. His wife the Marchioness of Lothian is a painter of both portraits and landscapes. Her passion for gardening has developed the garden at Melbourne in many ways. Her eye for colour and detail means that the Melbourne garden is a haven of delightful and unusual specimen trees, shrubs and herbaceous borders.
Gyles Brandreth & Alan Titchmarsh on Winnie-the-Pooh, enchanted places and the magic and humour of gardens
Kendell Cronstrom & Alejandro Saralegui on Madoo: The Making of an American Garden
Antonia Fraser on Lady Caroline Lamb: A Free Spirit
Francois Gordon in conversation with Tania Compton on Russell Page
Lord Michael Howard of Lympne on Lord Melbourne – His extraordinary Life and Times
Andrea Jones & Jodie Jones on Melbourne Hall Gardens
Arabella Lennox-Boyd
Matthew Parris on How I got where I am today
Harriet Rix on The Genius Of Trees
Rupert Everett
Mary Keen on A garden for every day of the year (a small one)
Jack Lindfield on Sandringham Gardens Then & Now
Philip Mansel on Versailles in England; the influence of the gardens of Louis XIV
Gabriel Wick on Anglomanie and the French Landscape Garden
Sarah McNear in conversation with Sue Stuart-Smith on Edward Steichen and the Garden
Dan Pearson
Orlando Reade on John Milton’s Garden Designs
Miranda Seymour on A Radical Princess
Tom Stuart-Smith on Optimism
Sonja Waites & Shane Connolly on Memories of Pulbrook & Gould
19 Apr 2026
7 May 2026
15 May 2026
