THE speakers have been revealed for the 2026 Malvern Festival of Ideas.

It will run from March 13 to 15 with speakers and performers engaging large audiences of all ages on the theme of social change.

Malvern St James School, Abbey Road, will be the venue again.

Festival director Andrew Webb said: 'We've invited thought leaders, creatives and changemakers to join us to share insights, challenge perspectives and inspire action for social change.

"Our voices can drive progress. Join us in shaping the conversations that will define the future.

"We will be exploring factors and causes and asking questions such as how can we ensure equal opportunities and rights for all, regardless of gender, race or socioeconomic status?

"How do advancements in AI and automation affect jobs, privacy and societal structures?

"How can we bridge the gap between wealthier and poorer nations, especially in access to education, healthcare and resources?

"Who benefits from the Culture War?"

The headline speakers so far are Mike Berners-Lee, a professor at Lancaster University, writer and researcher on sustainability and responses to 21st-century problems.

He is the author of A Climate of Truth, There is No Planet B and How Bad Are Bananas? The carbon footprint of everything.

Danny Dorling, professor of geography at the University of Oxford, is a social geographer, author and broadcaster with powerful insights into inequality, housing, health and education.

Lucy Eckersley, the 'Punk Biologist', is senior events officer at the Royal Society of Biology and a wild animal biologist, science presenter and passionate advocate for making science unapologetically cool.

Reni Eddo-Lodge, award-winning British journalist and author, saw her acclaimed book Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race win the Jhalak Prize in 2020 and she hosts the acclaimed podcast About Race.

Ele Fountain, author of award-winning Boy 87 as well as the acclaimed Lost, Fake and Wild, has most recently released Storm Child.

Emily Hauser, senior lecturer in classics and ancient history at the University of Exeter, is the author of the historical novels For the Most Beautiful, For the Winner and For the Immortal.

Her fiction and academic work challenges patriarchal readings of antiquity, offering fresh, feminist perspectives.

April-Louise Pennant is a Leverhulme Trust early career fellow at Cardiff University, a scholar-activist, speaker, writer and consultant in the social sciences and humanities, on education, policy and community action.

Michael Rosen, an acclaimed children's author, poet, presenter, political columnist, broadcaster, activist and academic, is professor of children's literature at Goldsmiths, University of London.

S F Said is an award-winning, best-selling children's author whose stories blend myth, activism and imagination.

His first book Varjak Paw won the Nestlé Smarties Prize for children's literature.

Adele Zeynep Walton is a British-Turkish journalist and online safety campaigner with Families and Survivors to Prevent Online Suicide Harm and Bereaved Families for Online Safety.

She is the author of Logging Off: The Human Cost of Our Digital World.

Jeanette Winterson is an acclaimed author and writes, teaches and speaks on literature, technology and the power of language to shape identity and change.

She is professor of new writing at the University of Manchester.

Lola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey, is a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, a former actor and a professor of cultural studies at Middlesex University.

She has led initiatives on ethical fashion, modern slavery and cultural heritage.

Tickets will be available from December 1 at www.malvernfestivalofideas.org.uk.