Authors ~ Storytellers ~ Poets ~ Musicians ~ Acrobats
Discussions ~ Readings ~ Talks ~ Performances
#90B47E
THURSDAY 4th MAY
KATE RAWLES – on why she cycled a bamboo bike through South America.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
12.30pm ~ 4th May ~ £8 (£7)
How can cycling a long way on a bizarre bicycle in a southern continent tell us anything about our planet’s biodiversity?
Writer, former university lecturer, and member of the Royal Geographic Society, Kate Rawles, is the author of The Life Cycle, which charts a thirteen-month journey through rainforests, over salt flats, and by raging rivers, a journey that helps her discover the role we can all play in protecting the world’s biodiversity.
KEGGIE CAREW – on our relationships with animals.
Reading Room, Central Library, Regent Circus SN1 1QG
Tel 01793 535534
7pm ~ 4th May ~ £6 (£5)
In a Polish forest, a young woman befriends a boar; in Saskatchewan, an Englishman sets up home with two beavers; a gorilla cracks a joke; and the entire population of Croatia anxiously awaits the arrival of a single stork.
Animals have shaped our lives, our land, our civilisation, and may well shape our future. They could save us! What is the foundation of our relationship with animals and why is it important?
Costa prize-winning writer Keggie Carew is the author of Beastly, a 40,000-year story of animals and humans, seen eye-to-eye and claw-to-hand, with our animal relatives.
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Photograph: Jonathan Thomson
NIGEL BIGGAR – on a moral reckoning, of colonialism.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
6.30pm ~ 4th May ~ £8 (£7)
Was colonialism driven by greed and a litany of racism, exploitation, and violence, or was it, in many ways, a governance for good? Does the decolonial argument mispresent history? What do you think?
With encyclopaedic breadth and analytical depth in his book Colonialism - a moral reckoning, Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, Nigel Biggar offers a moral inquest into the colonial past, forensically contesting damaging falsehoods and thereby helping to rejuvenate faith in the future of the West.
Photograph: Elizabeth Handy
ANDREW DOYLE – on free speech and the new puritans.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
8pm ~ 4th May ~ £8 (£7)
What are culture warriors? What constitutes hate speech? What is cancel culture? What is free speech? Any other questions?
In his latest book, The New Puritans, writer and broadcaster and also the author of Free Speech, Andrew Doyle examines the underlying belief-systems of an ideology that has risen so rapidly it dominates many major political, cultural, and corporate institutions. He reasons that, to move forward, we need to understand what the new puritans hope to achieve. Written in a spirit of optimism and understanding, this book offers a powerful case for the reinstatement of liberal values.
JULIE COHEN – on Summer People and celebrating Bert’s Books' Birthday!
Bert’s Books
54 Godwin Court, Swindon SN1 4BB
7pm ~ 4th May ~ £5
A bookshop party - with special guest Julie Cohen, author of Bert’s Books Book of the Year 2019 The Two Lives of Louis & Louise.
Enjoy a complimentary drink while Bert and Julie discuss her books - and take the chance to buy her latest paperback Summer People - a full week before it’s available anywhere else!
Tickets from: bertsbooks.co.uk/product/berts-birthday-party
