We are back for the fourth edition of our mini-festival, this time over four days from Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th November 2025.
Once again we will be gathering around the village, welcoming the most fascinating writers and speakers, listening to the best live music in the Legion Club, St Mary’s Church and the shop, drinking and dancing in the pub, plus workshops, an afternoon at the Youth Centre, a walk in the woods and more.
Keep reading below for all the event info and tickets. There are also a very limited number of weekend tickets only available in the shop – these are already getting snapped up.
This time we have set up a £5 supporter ticket. This is an optional extra ticket for those that might want to join us over the weekend at some of the free events (screen-printing, the disco at the pub or walk) or just because you want to support our work here at the shop and the continuation of these Real Magic Weekends.
Right, keep reading, there’s a lot to get excited about below!
THURSDAY:
THE PIN JAR W/ SAM REID (1800 at The King and Queen)
In conversation with Will Burns plus live music from Bumper
‘So hauntingly lyrical… an extraordinary trip for your imagination. I adored it.’ Maxine Peake
A story-cycle from the deep taproot of the Sussex ‘Weald’, The Pin Jar is a record of vernacular folk tales as transcribed by the enigmatic composer and amateur ethnographer Francis J. Cardwell, who habitually, compulsively, taped the various stories and songs he encountered in the now lost pubs of his county. Earthy, half-haunted, dialect-rich—this is the true stuff of deep weird England. Sam Reid’s beguiling debut presents us with the folk process of story-telling and song reimagined as a radical literary experiment and fictional archive of place-memory. Sam will be in-conversation with Will Burns (The Paper Lantern / Natural Burial Ground).
Bumper aka Tom Rogers-Coltman is a guitarist and composer based in London. He makes instrumental music for acoustic guitar and cassette tapes, collecting field recordings and writing songs about walking and things he thought he’d forgotten.
FRIDAY:
THE MOONLIGHT EXPRESS W/ MONISHA RAJESH (1800 at Real Magic Books)
‘A moonlit express train to travel writing heaven.‘ William Dalrymple
The wonder of the night train: headlamps ablaze, passengers boarding after sunset and leaving before sunrise, slipping in and out of compartments unseen. For Monisha Rajesh, the singular thrill of sleeper trains inspired a new journey around the world – one filled with moonlit landscapes, cosy compartments and quirky companions.
From Austria’s Nightjet to the Caledonian Sleeper and the Santa Claus Express, Rajesh invites us on an adventure aboard the world’s most wondrous night trains. Along the way, she samples reindeer stew in Scandinavia, retraces the original route of the Orient Express, sips on pisco sours aboard the Andean Explorer, and watches the sun rise over the Potomac River on the Silver Meteor to New York.
A decade ago night trains were giving way to budget airlines and high-speed rail. But as people search for slower and more environmentally friendly ways to travel, night trains are in the midst of a renaissance. By turns romantic and hilarious, Moonlight Express brings us along for the ride – and drops us back at the platform before sunrise.
Monisha Rajesh is a British journalist whose writing has appeared in Time magazine, the New York Times, and Vanity Fair. Her first book, Around India in 80 Trains, was named one of the Independent’s best books on India. Her second book, Around the World in 80 Trains, won the National Geographic Traveller Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year.
REAL MAGIC MUSIC W/ BROWN HORSE (1930 at The Legion)
We love Brown Horse, and cannot wait for them to squeeze onto the stage at the Legion, you won’t want to miss them. They make thoughtful and teary-eyed, distorted, country-tinged indie rock. Delicately arranged, but unafraid of building a yowling wall of guitars, accordion, banjo and pedal steel. This is music for long lonely drives and late, late nights in strange places. After signing with legendary label Loose Music, their debut album, Reservoir, was released in January 2024 to wide critical acclaim. Their second album, All The Right Weaknesses, was released earlier this year. Recorded quickly and mostly with live, full-band takes creating moments of unpredictability and excitement that feel candid and singular, a snapshot of in time with six musicians playing together at once.
Support comes from the righteous Bones Shake, a scuzzy, brilliant, blues and garage rock three-piece from Manchester. They are going to fully warm you up. Plus resident DJ, Zephyr George.
DEADLY DOZEN W/ PETER BERRY (1300 at Real Magic Books)
Peter Berry is the author of the Deadly Dozen trilogy of detective books. Before dedicating himself to writing, Peter had a colourful career in PR. He was Jamie Oliver’s head of PR travelling the world with the A List chef and keeping the tabloids at bay. Before that he was in the music business working with artists as diverse at The Who, Steps, Meat Loaf (always two words) and Atomic Kitten. He also used to receive Christmas phone calls from the actor, James Stewart. A latecomer to writing, after four years, eighteen drafts, numerous rejection letters and four title changes, his first novel Lunch with the Deadly Dozen was published when Pete was 56 and has sold 10,000 copies.
Peter will be in conversation with our own Liam Black (another very successful local writer!) about his super interesting career, how he writes and his advice for anyone who wants to follow in his footsteps, no matter what the stage of their careers.
MAMA SHROOMS W/ GEMMA OGSTON (1500 at Real Magic Books)
Writer Gemma Ogston joins Sophie to talk about her two books The Healing Cookbook and Self-Care Cookbook, her career and latest project Mama Shrooms. Discussing the power of ‘functional mushrooms’ and how they can help lead a balanced and energised life in the hectic pace of modern world.
Gemma will be bringing some mushroom based treats for us, using a recipe from her latest book. We’ll be discussing facing winter with energy and a boosted immune system, perimenopause and how mushrooms can help and a whole host of other mushroomy, autumnal subjects. Join us for drinks, nibbles and great conversation.
PINCH PERKINS: MAGICAL CHARACTER WORKSHOP W/ CATHY FITXGERALD (1430 at Wendover Youth Centre)
Calling all knights, fairies, heroes and ogres! Join Pinch Perkins author Cathy FitzGerald to bring a scene to life, peek behind the curtain of how stories are made, and invent magical new characters of your own. (Ages 7+, parents welcome!)
KEVIN THE VAMPIRE: MONSTER MAKING W/ MATT BROWN (1530 at Wendover Youth Centre)
Join Matt Brown as he reads from his Kevin the Vampire books and shares the secrets of how to make magnificent monsters and brilliant beasts.
For ages 7+, parents welcome too!
UP THE YOUTH CLUB W/ EMMA WARREN (1700 at Wendover Youth Centre)
A searching look at the rise and fall of the youth club by renowned cultural documentarian Emma Warren, highlighting the seismic impact they have had on UK culture and why we need to ensure their existence for future generations.
’Youth clubs have always existed. They always will, because there will always be young people. How we care for our youth, and what we owe them, is a question for all of us.’
In Up the Youth Club, Emma Warren maps the shifting story of youth clubs in the UK and Northern Ireland, from factory workers in Victorian Boys’ and Girls’ clubs to renegade self-emancipatory spaces in the 1970s and the music-generating youth clubs of more recent decades. With a mixed lineage in church evangelism, the patronage of the upper classes, grassroots’ DIY, and erratic state funding, the youth club has had a huge, yet almost invisible, effect on music, sport, culture and society.
Arguing that we cannot advocate for what we do not understand, Warren positions youth clubs as a kind of engine room – from the famous success stories to come out of their doors, such as The Specials or Stormzy, to the untold stories of young people finding shelter, sustenance and stimulation for over a century – and why their dwindling numbers, largely due to austerity and funding cuts, is of serious concern for us all. With this impassioned history, Warren invites us to pick up the torch and play an active part in protecting and re-igniting this vital part of UK society.
REAL MAGIC EVERYTHING AT THE CHURCH (1830 at St Mary’s Church)
Special guests: Sidney Jones and the Murmuration (live), Designing Hope with Sarah Housley (talk) + T. Evans-Jesra Quartet (live)
Join us at St Mary’s Church for a little festival within a mini-festival, we’ll congregate for live music and talks in the most beautiful space in Wendover.
Sidney Jones returns with her band the Murmuration to head up our evening in the church. For anyone who caught her performance in the shop this time last year you know that you are in for a treat -she’s a star. Ever since that gig and using the church back in May we knew we had to make this one happen. Slightly nervous and mercurial, Sidney Jones and the Murmuration draw on avant-pop, rock, singer-songwriter folksiness and other theatrics they have yet to categorise. You gotta see it to believe it! We sometimes say that things we put on will be special, and have we lied to you? Do we not provide? Well folks, this will be special.
Sarah Housley will be in conversation with both Carl and Sophie about her new book, Designing Hope – Visions to Shape Our Future. Described as ‘an antidote to despair’ and a book that will fire up your imagination, we will be discussing some possible futures and how we can all play a part. Sarah is a design futurist and trend forecaster. She has consulted for numerous brands on topics ranging from the future of water to our future relationships with robots, and speaks internationally and has contributed to BBC Radio 4, as well as print and digital media including The Financial Times, The Guardian, British Vogue and Stylist magazine. She teaches Futures & Innovation at the London College of Fashion.
Plus there will be more live music from the T. Evans-Jesra Quartet, a unique 4-piece electric guitar ensemble.
This is Real Magic!
DISCO AT THE PUB – PAMELA’S BIRTHDAY EDITION (2100 at the King and Queen)
FREE ENTRY – VOLUNTARY DONATION
Our infamous pub disco returns, this time for a special edition as Real Magic family member Pamela Laferriere celebrates her 50th birthday! Always a massive highlight of the weekend, this time we’re joined by the unofficial DJ of after parties everywhere, the brilliant Acid Mojito, with Carl and Sophie muscling in occasionally, as we gather in the back room of the King and Queen to dance until midnight to dancefloor classics, rave anthems, hip hop and dancehall and other unlikely pub disco selections.
SUNDAY:
A REAL MAGIC WALK IN THE WOODS (1030 at Real Magic Books)
FREE ENTRY – VOLUNTARY DONATION
Join us for our traditional Real Magic walk. We’ll head up into the woods for a two hour hike, work off that disco hangover and back at the shop in time for the bar reopening and our first talk of the day. Keep reading below!
UNGONE W/ HANNAH PATTERSON (1300 at Real Magic Books)
Ungone tells the story of a single decision —a deceptively simple thing — through which the fractured, multi-layered nature of identity and the self is both revealed and interrogated. Eve is attempting to come to terms with her ageing mother, who has dementia and lives in a care home, and employs Erin, a total stranger, to visit the home and pretend to be her. The act has profound consequences, as all three women begin a process of doing, undoing and redoing, with complicated and ultimately necessary truths revealed about each of their lives.
LEGENDA W/ DR JANINA RAMIREZ (1500 at Real Magic Books)
LEGENDA is the new book from bestselling author of FEMINA, a brilliant reappraisal of the medieval women whose lives have been exploited over centuries for political, nation-building ends.
‘Ramirez blasts a powerful spotlight into the so-called Dark Ages and reveals a vibrant world, awash with colour and character’ DAN SNOW
In LEGENDA, bestselling historian Professor Janina Ramirez peels back the layers of time to reveal how the lives of women have been co-opted by those intent on crafting national identities. Their names are well known, and summaries of their achievements have been recited in classrooms for decades, but medieval women like Joan of Arc, Lady Godiva and Isabella of Castile have been misrepresented, their stories twisted and weaponised. Meanwhile, ground-breaking 18th- and 19th-century women who blazed a trail through revolutionary Europe have been forgotten, their legacies too easily dismissed or ignored.
Questioning established narratives and searching for the real women behind the legends, Ramirez interrogates what defines a nation and who gets to build it, shining a light on how history is so often hijacked to serve the ideological and political interests of the present.
‘Like the interlace stonework on an Anglo-Saxon cross, Janina Ramirez’s themes are interwoven with a conssumate skill’ TOM HOLLAND, author of Dominion and host of The Rest is History
‘Ramirez makes us look into the mists of history in new, exciting and provocative ways’ PETER FRANKOPAN
CRAFTLAND W/ JAMES FOX (1700 at Real Magic Books)
Britain has always been a craft land. For generations what we made with our hands defined our identities, built our communities and shaped our regions. Craftland chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions that once governed every aspect of life on these shores.
Travelling the length of Britain, from the Scilly Isles to the Scottish Highlands, James Fox seeks out the country’s last remaining master craftspeople. Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and coopers, bell-founders and watchmakers, we glimpse not only our past but another way of life — one that is not yet lost and whose wisdom could shape our future.
For as long as there are humans, there will be craft. It is all around us, hiding in plain sight, enriching even the most modest things. And in this increasingly digital age, it is perhaps more valuable than ever. Craftland is a celebration of that deeply necessary connection between our creative instincts and the material world we inhabit, revealing a richer and more connected way of living.
James Fox is an academic and multi-award-winning, BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, known for his many acclaimed BBC documentaries. He is Director of Studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Creative Director of the Hugo Burge Foundation, a charity dedicated to supporting the arts and crafts across Britain. He is the author of the celebrated The World According to Colour: A Cultural History and Craftland, which was an instant Sunday Times bestseller.
REAL MAGIC MUSIC W/ JOYERIA (1830 at Real Magic Books)
Joyeria is what happens when a Canadian spends his adult life patiently crafting his own path as a songwriter in London instead of following his heroes and peers in search of an assumed authenticity in Austin or Nashville. It’s what happens when a stubbornly solo artist finds a true collaborator in a producer like Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey. It’s what happens after a songwriter has worked hard for a long time in the dark, looking for lighting in a bottle — and finds it.
So far, Joyeria has charted his career in invisible ink. Always a shape shifter, never a genre chaser. He’s quit bands when their buzz was the buzziest, he’s released music under names even devotees could never remember how to spell and has insisted on building his backstory entirely with gaps in the narrative. He’s a maths-wiz, a crack chess player, a painter and Dad who smokes on the sly. Built like a hockey player, with a frame carved out by late nights and tour life – he is an imposing figure until you step into the presence of his gently voracious enthusiasm.
+ support from new local hero Martha and the Fairy
