Suffolk Book League was founded in 1982 and has since introduced a varied programme of novelists, historians, poets, journalists, biographers and social commentators to speak in Suffolk about their books.
Our Honorary President is Dame Margaret Drabble.
The use of ‘League’ is historic and might suggest a competitive element or, perhaps, an exclusive club but everyone is welcome to come to our events. Our guests talk about their work but audience members often have not read their featured books. The conversation is always fascinating but there’s no pressure to speak. It’s not necessary to be a subscribed member to attend events but membership allows heavily discounted tickets. Students are offered a special admission price.
We publish BookTalk, our regular online journal, which features local literary events, book reviews and recommendations from visiting authors and other bookish news. We are always pleased to publicise and share interesting literary-related stories.
Our longstanding collaboration is with the Ipswich Institute where most of our events take place and we actively support their biennial New Angle Prize. We are closely involved with the English and Creative writing programmes at the University of Suffolk and have held larger events in their Atrium Building. We have also collaborated with the Eastern Angles Theatre Company and have utilised their theatre space. In 2027 we will welcome our audience to Christchurch Mansion for a Constable event and to MOTE, the Museum Of The Environment, in the old Arlington’s building later in the year.
We are hugely grateful for the support of Andrew Marsh and Jonesy from Dial Lane Books, Ipswich. As well as providing books for our events, Andrew does great work for the burgeoning reading and writing community in Suffolk and in 2025 he began the annual Ipswich Book Festival, to great acclaim.
SBL continue our sponsorship of the Dissertation in English Prize at the University of Suffolk as well as awards for young readers in the Suffolk Schools Mastermind Competition
In 2025 we were delighted to support two reading charities. Let’s Talk Reading aims to help literacy for people of all ages in our community. In 2026 we adopted Got to Read as our Charity of the Year. In 2026 the National Year of Reading, we went ‘all in’ and sponsored Ipswich Book Festival, Bury St Edmunds Literature Festival and Poetry in Aldeburgh.
The SBL is a registered charity (# 296783), the aim of which is to promote, encourage, foster or strengthen by all and every suitable means the habit of reading and the wider and more general distribution of books, by and among all people. You can read more about us including our Constitution by visiting the Charities Commission website.