Authors ~ Storytellers ~ Poets ~ Musicians ~ Acrobats
Discussions ~ Readings ~ Talks ~ Performances
FRIDAY 8th MAY
Listening to the Seasons, with Vivaldi – and Dr HANNAH FRENCH
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
12.30pm ~ 8th May ~ £9 (£8)
Listening habits can ground us in the year. Music can have seasonal messages of comfort, insight, and hope, if we listen for them.
To spend a year in the company of Vivaldi is to witness the sounds of ancient human festivals and the beauty and brutality of nature. His 300-year old music can enhance our experience of the ever-evolving seasons, today.
In her new book, The Rolling Year, BBC Proms and Radio 3 presenter and former tutor at the Royal Academy of Music, Dr Hannah French, explores the creation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, bringing to them new perspectives and a seasonal freshness.
Tasting Notes: the art and science of pairing beer and music – with PETE BROWN Presented by the Old Town Swindon Beer & Cider Festival
Christ Church, 26 Cricklade Street, SN1 3HG
2pm ~ 8th May ~ £10
Ticket includes four beer tasters and a souvenir glass!
This unique session includes guided tastings of selected Festival beers, carefully paired with music to heighten the experience; plus the chance to chat with Pete Brown, broadcaster, cultural beer historian, Sunday Times weekly beer columnist, and frequent Beer Writer of the Year.
Book sales and signings at venue too!
Braver New World – with JOHN KAMPFNER
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
6.30pm ~8th May ~ £9 (£8)
Which countries are getting things right, solving the world's most pressing problems, and facing today’s challenges with bravery and imagination? Who are the people making real, radical, and rightful change happen? And what can we learn from them?
At a time when democracies seem paralyzed by fear and populations are turning inward, award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and documentary maker, John Kampfner travels the world in a quest to find out who is getting things right. He finds good things happening in at least a few countries, including Austria, Japan, Morocco, Taiwan, and Finland, none of them utopias but all united in finding solutions.
The Good Society, and how we make it – with KATE PICKETT
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
8pm ~ 8th May ~ £9(£8)
How do we provide education that allows every child to flourish? How do we make sure that everyone has good health care? How do we ensure safety, justice, and a sustainable environment for all? Any more questions?
Social scientist, co-founder of the Equality Trust, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of York, and co-author of international bestseller The Spirit Level, Kate Pickett OBE has some answers.
In her latest book, The Good Society, Kate shows that to make a good society – in which everyone has what they need in order to be as well as they might be - we must prioritise the health, care, and education of those who have the least and suffer the most. This means confronting once and for all the fundamental problems of inequality.
