Henley Literary Festival have excitedly announced that, one of the best selling authors of all time with estimated book sales to date of over 200 million, John Grisham is joining the festival online this autumn for the only UK event so far announced around his highly anticipated new book A Time For Mercy, a follow-up to his 1989 classic A Time To Kill.

John Grisham will appear at the Festival direct from his US home on 15th October at 8pm. Each ticketholder will receive a copy of the new book, which is published just two days earlier.

The author of over 30 international bestsellers including The Client, Camino Winds, The Rainmaker and the Theodore Boone middle grade series for children, has seen several of his novels adapted into blockbuster films, including The Firm with Tom Cruise and The Pelican Brief with Denzel Washington. He joins fellow chart-topping novelists David Mitchell, Fern Britton, John Boyne and Joanna Trollope on the line-up of 40 online events for adults and children in September and October, alongside a wide range of speakers including Graham Norton, Andrew Marr, Candice Brathwaite, Michael Morpurgo, Nadiya Hussain and James Haskell. 

Festival director Harriet Reed said: “An exciting aspect of an online festival is the possibilities it opens up, allowing us to have speakers joining us direct from the US, Canada and Ireland as well as to potentially reach audiences internationally. As we can’t bring tens of thousands of visitors to Henley this year we are excited to bring a bit of Henley to the world and having one of our most-requested authors join the line-up is fantastic.”

After kicking off with pop-up events in early September featuring Nadiya Hussain, Kate Humble, Lynda La Plante and Kim Darroch, the Festival presents a busy nine days of events from 26th September to 4th October, followed by special post-Festival events in October with Damon Hill & Johnny Herbert, Jodi Picoult, Andrew Marr and now Grisham. 

Full information and booking can be found at henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk or by phone on 01491 575948 (10am-12pm weekdays). 

For more information please contact harriet@henleyliteraryfestival.co.uk