The Gibunco Gibraltar Literary Festival returns from 9 to 15 November 2026 with a programme that moves well beyond the traditional reading and signing. Book launches, a heritage walk, a candlelit concert, an afternoon tea and the well-liked Lightning Talks sit alongside live performance. The programme is delivered by Gibraltar Cultural Services on behalf of the Ministries of Culture and Tourism.
Books and Bookshops at the Centre
The festival opens on Monday 9 November with the launch of Alice's Table 8 by Alice Mascarenhas at BOOKgem at 11am. The author will be at the bookshop from 10.30am to 2pm for photographs and book signings, a format that keeps the launch close to the local retail base that readers use day to day. The same day, Manolo Galliano leads the literary tour "Walk Through Words: A Literary Journey Through Gibraltar." It begins at the Gibraltar Garrison Library and ends at BOOKgem, tracing the stories behind the Rock's historical libraries and booksellers. The organisers report that the tour is sold out, which suggests strong local appetite for place-based literary history.
Music, Memory and Live Performance
Music gives the week its evening rhythm. At 7.30pm on 9 November, John Suchet OBE presents "Beethoven: The Last Master" at Holy Trinity Cathedral, accompanied by a string quartet from the Straits Philharmonic Orchestra. The candlelit format suits a programme aimed at classical listeners, performers and readers of musical biography. On Thursday 12 November at 6pm, Phil Manzanera OBE presents "Revolución to Roxy" at the Aurora Ballroom, Sunborn Hotel. The event is framed as a conversation and anecdote session with live guitar, reflecting a career spanning more than five decades, and it shows how a festival can treat rock memoir as performance rather than simple talk.
Talks, Politics and Public Life
The festival also turns to public history and research. On Wednesday 11 November at 6pm, Lord Charles Moore, identified in the programme as Margaret Thatcher's authorised biographer, and Kate Ehrman present "The Fall of Margaret Thatcher: A Whodunnit" at Grand Battery House. The semi-dramatised account of her final days in office will be followed by a Q&A with Dr Harry Brunjes. The Lightning Talks return to the Garrison Library at 6pm on 10 November, with Dr Alex Menez, Christina Giuffre, Katy Cheeswright, Karim Vatvani and Deborah Mattana describing their research, writing processes and sources of inspiration. Their short format gives audiences direct access to working authors and researchers.
Readers should note the limits of the published information. The programme gives titles and formats, but full descriptions of the works, audience figures and the content of the talks are not yet available, so the assessment here rests on the event listings alone. The Grant Harrold afternoon tea at The Rock Hotel on 10 November, sponsored by Seabourn Cruise Line, is also reported as sold out.