Chalke History Festival is the UK’s biggest history festival and has previously welcomed well-known figures including former Prime Minister John Major, Have I Got News For You’s Ian Hislop, historians Dan Snow and Antony Beevor, as well as Queen Camilla – then the Duchess of Cornwall.

Whatever the theorists say, ordinary people seem intuitively to feel the opposite How nice it would be, in this season of good cheer, to find something hopeful to say. Being a historian, I shall try: history often helps us to see our problems in proportion. But let us grit our teeth and begin with the depressing news.

Audio from Chalke Valley History Festival 2018. Recent political and economic upheavals have exposed deep divisions in Western society. In conversation with Roland Rudd, Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, draws on his years of experience as a political, economics and business journalist to provide his thought-provoking analysis of the long-term forces driving our politics and his unrivalled insight into what the establishment got so badly wrong.

Audio from Max Hastings' CVHF talk on Saturday 28th June 2014. Journalist, editor and acclaimed author Sir Max Hastings tells the story of how Europe went to war in 1914 precipitating the first of the 20th century’s great tragedies. He challenges the view of some modern historians that British participation was unnecessary and concludes with the christmas truces when the struggle had lapsed into the stalemate which was to last the next four years.

Notorious broadcaster and journalist Jeremy Paxman discusses with Xander Drury his recent book 'Great Britain's Great War' as well as sharing his thoughts on his role as the 'Grand Inquisitor' and life after leaving Newsnight.

Ancient History Matters More Than Modern History. A recording from the IQ2 Debate at CVHF on 29th June 2013 with Boris Johnson, Tom Holland, Dan Snow and Jeremy Black. Chair: Edward Stourton.

Max Hastings is one of the foremost chroniclers of the Second World War. Here he talks about Winston Churchill, our greatest war leader. Always forthright, Sir Max looks at the triumphs and the tragedies, the successes and the failures, whether it be the extraordinary rallying cry of 1940 or the impulsiveness that often drove a wedge between him and his generals and even Britain’s allies. He also touches on some of the lesser-known features of Churchill’s war leadership. This is an affectionate and vivid portrait, but also an unsparing one, in which he is willing to challenge some of the myths that surround our view of Britain’s wartime performance.

Exclusively for the CVHF website, Mayor of London Boris Johnson afforded some time ahead of his talk at Chalke Valley History Festival 2013 discussing with Xander Drury

Xander Drury interviews leading classicist Tom Holland at the Chalke Valley History Festival 2013, shedding light on his love for cricket, his thoughts on the fall of the Roman Empire and his excitement ahead of debating alongside Boris Johnson on Saturday.