An Evening with Luke Harding
Thursday, 8 October 2026
7 pm, Tattingstone Place
When the post-war world begins to unravel, how do we make sense of what comes next?
For more than eighty years, the international order established after the Second World War has underpinned an era of unprecedented stability and prosperity across much of Europe. Today, that order is being challenged as never before. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the return of territorial conquest, shifting alliances between the world's major powers and growing uncertainty over the future of Western security have transformed the geopolitical landscape.
Few journalists have witnessed these changes more closely — or reported on them more courageously — than Luke Harding.
For over two decades, Harding has chronicled Russia under Vladimir Putin, international espionage, the annexation of Crimea, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the profound geopolitical consequences that continue to reshape the twenty-first century. As The Guardian's Moscow Bureau Chief, he became the first British journalist since the Cold War to be expelled from Russia by the Kremlin, an extraordinary testament to the impact of his reporting.
EA Festival is delighted to welcome Luke Harding back to the Festival stage after his memorable appearance at EA Festival 2023, when, having recently returned from the front line in Ukraine, he spoke with remarkable eloquence about his bestselling book Invasion. Written while reporting from the front lines of that war, the book offered one of the earliest and most compelling accounts of Russia's full-scale assault on Ukraine and its devastating human consequences.
Now Luke returns with an even broader and more ambitious work.
His new book, Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest, moves beyond the battlefield to examine the wider geopolitical transformation that the war has both exposed and accelerated. Drawing on reporting from Ukraine, Greenland, the Korean Peninsula and elsewhere, Harding argues that the assumptions which have governed international relations since 1945 are giving way to a far more volatile era defined once again by imperial ambition, spheres of influence and great-power rivalry.
Far from being simply another book about Ukraine, Betrayal asks a much larger question: what kind of world are we now entering?
Ukrainian Wine Tasting
After Luke’s talk, and in keeping with the theme of the evening, guests will be treated to a select presentation of wines from Ukraine and Lucas Rodd, an expert on Ukraine’s wine industry, will give a brief overview of the country’s rich viticultural history beginning with Shabo, Ukraine’s oldest and most-awarded winery, founded in 1822 outside Odesa.
Doors open at 6 pm. Book talk commences at 7 pm followed by wine presentation at 7:50 pm. Doors close at 9 pm.
About Luke Harding
Luke Harding is an award-winning foreign correspondent and investigative journalist with The Guardian, where he has reported on many of the defining international stories of the past quarter-century. After reading English at University College, Oxford, where he edited the student newspaper Cherwell, he worked for the Sunday Correspondent, Brighton's Evening Argus and the Daily Mail before joining The Guardian in 1996.
During his career he has served as the newspaper's bureau chief in Delhi, Berlin and Moscow, reporting from across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has also covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine, winning the Foreign Press Association's Foreign Story of the Year award in 2002 for his reporting from the siege of Mazar-i-Sharif.
Harding is internationally recognised for his reporting on Russia and Vladimir Putin. While serving as The Guardian's Moscow Bureau Chief between 2007 and 2011, he became the first British journalist since the Cold War to be expelled from Russia by the Kremlin following his critical reporting on the Putin government. In 2022 he was placed on Russia's official blacklist.
Alongside his journalism, Harding is the author of numerous acclaimed books examining Russia, intelligence, espionage and international affairs. His works include Mafia State, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, The Snowden Files, A Very Expensive Poison, Collusion, Invasion and his latest book, Betrayal. Two of his books—WikiLeaks and The Snowden Files—were adapted into major feature films (The Fifth Estate and Oliver Stone's Snowden), while A Very Expensive Poison became an internationally acclaimed stage production. Collusion reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, and both Invasion and Betrayal continue Harding's reputation as one of Britain's foremost chroniclers of modern Russia, Ukraine and the changing international order.