LAURIE MAGUIRE – on All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Shakespeare!

Do you think it possible that by being unimaginative we might create tragedy, and by exercising our imagination might be able to avoid it? Could more problems be solved if we approached them from other people’s point of view? How much truth about life is contained in good fiction?

Author, speaker at The Globe and Stratford upon Avon, Canadian Fellow of English at the University of Oxford, and all-round Shakespeare enthusiast, Laurie Maguire reckons that we read literature for the same reasons we read self-help books: to find solace, inspiration, guidance, advice, and com-fort that we are not alone and others have shared our experiences, as part of the human condition. “Shakespeare and self-help will always overlap.”

Laurie’s latest brilliantly-accessible book, Where There’s a Will There’s a Way, shows how, if you have ever fallen in love with the wrong person, felt insecure or been too cocky, had trouble with your family, struggled with obsessive behaviour, or participated in any other folly of life, Shakespeare welcomes you in for a chat!

KNITTING & KNOWING – with needles, knowledge, and stories

Here is an opportunity to knit yarn and tell a yarn. Knitting lends itself to many things: focussing fingers on one thing and the mind on many! Knitters are at ease together and stories flow.

The story of knitting is a long one, as are the stories of life.

This is an evening for anyone who likes both, either telling or hearing stories, plus home-made biscuits and good company too.

JBLOODAXE POETS – a reading and celebration
with MONIZA ALVI & IMTIAZ DHARKER

For 30 years, Bloodaxe Books have been publishing the best in contemporary poetry, moving with the times, however confusing, happy, or troubling they may be.

Moniza Alvi, whose latest collection is Europa, and Imtiaz Dharker, The Terrorist at My Table, are two poets who are part of these times.

Moniza’s work relates to both ancient and modern traumas, including enforced exile and alienation. In her challengingly-titled collection, Imtiaz asks crucial questions about how we live now and what any of us knows about our neighbours.

JOHN MILTON: His Paradise Lost? –
presented and performed by LANCE PIERSON

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of John Milton, regarded by many as the second-greatest poet in the English language.

Despite his influences on J R R Tolkien, Philip Pullman, and even J K Rowling, and with ideas and phrases that have entered the English psyche and language, John Milton is not exactly on the twenty-first century best-seller list!

Tonight we explore his reputation, celebrate his work, and discover whether his writing and thoughts really have stood the test of time.

This show, presented by professional poetry performer Lance Pierson, will feature extracts from Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, L’Allegro and Il Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, and Milton’s Sonnets.