Gladstone’s Library names 2026 writers in residence
Four authors have been announced as the winners of the Writer in Residence 2026 award at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden.
The residencies follow a three-month judging process and will see the selected writers live and work in the Grade I listed Prime Ministerial library for up to a month.
The four winners are:
• Laura Beatty, Looking for Theophrastus: Travels in Search of a Lost Philosopher (Atlantic Books, 2022)
• Alison Binney, The Opposite of Swedish Death Cleaning (Seren, 2025)
• David Hendy, The BBC: A People’s History (Profile, 2022)
• Anthony Shapland, A Room Above a Shop (Granta, 2025)
During their residency, the writers will eat, sleep and work at the Library, which has 26 bedrooms, a restaurant, three reading rooms and a collection of tens of thousands of books and archives. Each will also host a talk and a creative writing masterclass that are open to the public. Tickets will be available from November 2025.
Reverend Dr Andrea Russell, Warden of Gladstone’s Library, said: “It’s fabulous that the Library will be welcoming another intake of talented writers and their wonderful books. This year’s shortlist was exceptionally strong, which is always a lovely problem to have in a judging process! We can’t wait to have these writers in residence.”
The Writer in Residence programme was launched in 2011 by then Warden Peter Francis and author Damian Barr. It was created to support published authors who need time and space to write. Since then, more than 50 writers have taken part, funded by a donor.
Gladstone’s Library, founded in the late 1800s by William Ewart Gladstone, is the only Prime Ministerial library in the UK and one of the few residential libraries in the world. It houses around 150,000 books, including 20,000 volumes from Gladstone’s own collection.
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