Thursday 11 February 6:00 pm via crowdcast
ANNIE FREUD on Hiddensee
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/annie-freud-on-hiddensee
Annie Freud will introduce and read poems from Hiddensee, her most recent collection. In the five years it took to write these poems, Annie was conscious of an unexpected upswell of desire to live her life as intensely as possible and do things she had never done before. In the writing of Hiddensee, the elaboration of its themes and forms, journeys back to her youth and to more distant pasts, trials of illness and ageing, homages to other authors and escapes into the French language, Annie became embodied by that desire. Annie is a poet, painter, editor and tutor in poetry composition. She is renowned for her live performances. The Best Man that Ever Was, her debut collection published by Picador (2007), was awarded the Dimplex Prize for New Writing. The Mirabelles (2010) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize followed by The Remains appeared in 2015. Hiddensee was published in January 2021 and it has already received deserved high praise. Fiona Sampson writing in The Guardian says of Hiddensee: ‘Modest, gentle and universal, these understated poems are a small masterclass in the art of synthesis’. Annie will be introduced by fellow poet Rachael Boast to whom Hiddensee is dedicated and who spoke and read from her own poetry collection at Shute Festival 2018.
ANNIE FREUD on Hiddensee
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/annie-freud-on-hiddensee
Annie Freud will introduce and read poems from Hiddensee, her most recent collection. In the five years it took to write these poems, Annie was conscious of an unexpected upswell of desire to live her life as intensely as possible and do things she had never done before. In the writing of Hiddensee, the elaboration of its themes and forms, journeys back to her youth and to more distant pasts, trials of illness and ageing, homages to other authors and escapes into the French language, Annie became embodied by that desire. Annie is a poet, painter, editor and tutor in poetry composition. She is renowned for her live performances. The Best Man that Ever Was, her debut collection published by Picador (2007), was awarded the Dimplex Prize for New Writing. The Mirabelles (2010) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize followed by The Remains appeared in 2015. Hiddensee was published in January 2021 and it has already received deserved high praise. Fiona Sampson writing in The Guardian says of Hiddensee: ‘Modest, gentle and universal, these understated poems are a small masterclass in the art of synthesis’. Annie will be introduced by fellow poet Rachael Boast to whom Hiddensee is dedicated and who spoke and read from her own poetry collection at Shute Festival 2018.
Thursday 25 February 6.00 pm via crowdcast
ARMAND D'ANGOUR on Socrates in Love
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/armand-dangour-on
Armand D’Angour will be talking with Shute Festival director Bijan Omrani about his rediscovery of the central role that a woman of letters – Aspasia of Miletius – played in the life and thought of Socrates, the Father of Western Philosophy. Armand’s radically new approach to understanding the life and thought of Socrates is revealed in his book Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher. A Professor of Classics at Oxford, Armand pursued careers as a cellist and businessman before becoming a tutor at Jesus College in 2000. His business experience inspired the topic of his research into ancient innovation, and he published The Greeks and the New in 2011. Author of articles and chapters on the language, literature, psychology and culture of ancient Greece and Rome, his research into ancient Greek music led to a short presentation on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hOK7bU0S1Y) which has reached over 750,000 views since its publication in December 2017. Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher, published in 2019, has been widely acclaimed by scholars and readers, and has given rise to several ongoing projects across different media.
ARMAND D'ANGOUR on Socrates in Love
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/armand-dangour-on
Armand D’Angour will be talking with Shute Festival director Bijan Omrani about his rediscovery of the central role that a woman of letters – Aspasia of Miletius – played in the life and thought of Socrates, the Father of Western Philosophy. Armand’s radically new approach to understanding the life and thought of Socrates is revealed in his book Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher. A Professor of Classics at Oxford, Armand pursued careers as a cellist and businessman before becoming a tutor at Jesus College in 2000. His business experience inspired the topic of his research into ancient innovation, and he published The Greeks and the New in 2011. Author of articles and chapters on the language, literature, psychology and culture of ancient Greece and Rome, his research into ancient Greek music led to a short presentation on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hOK7bU0S1Y) which has reached over 750,000 views since its publication in December 2017. Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher, published in 2019, has been widely acclaimed by scholars and readers, and has given rise to several ongoing projects across different media.
Thursday 11 March 6.00 pm via crowdcast
LAURENCE ANHOLT on Festival of Death
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/laurence-anholt-on
Laurence Anholt will be talking with fellow writer Jason Webster about his Mindful Detective, a most unusual murder mystery series set around the author’s home near Lyme Regis, Dorset and featuring DI Vincent Caine - a Buddhist detective, who feels too much for his own good! The first title in the series, Art of Death, set in the world of contemporary Fine Art was described by author Kate Ellis as ‘Quirky and compelling’. The recently published second title, Festival of Death features a bizarre murder live on stage at the Glastonbury Festival. The Mindful Detective series has been optioned for TV by World Productions, creators of Line of Duty and The Durrells. In a career spanning 35 years, Laurence has created more than 200 books for every age and genre - from children’s picture books, such as the self-illustrated Anholt’s Artists series, to Young Adult novels like The Hypnotist, winner of the Historical Association book of the year. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into 30 languages around the world. Find out more at the Laurence's website https://www.anholt.co.uk or on Twitter @LaurenceAnholt
LAURENCE ANHOLT on Festival of Death
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/laurence-anholt-on
Laurence Anholt will be talking with fellow writer Jason Webster about his Mindful Detective, a most unusual murder mystery series set around the author’s home near Lyme Regis, Dorset and featuring DI Vincent Caine - a Buddhist detective, who feels too much for his own good! The first title in the series, Art of Death, set in the world of contemporary Fine Art was described by author Kate Ellis as ‘Quirky and compelling’. The recently published second title, Festival of Death features a bizarre murder live on stage at the Glastonbury Festival. The Mindful Detective series has been optioned for TV by World Productions, creators of Line of Duty and The Durrells. In a career spanning 35 years, Laurence has created more than 200 books for every age and genre - from children’s picture books, such as the self-illustrated Anholt’s Artists series, to Young Adult novels like The Hypnotist, winner of the Historical Association book of the year. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into 30 languages around the world. Find out more at the Laurence's website https://www.anholt.co.uk or on Twitter @LaurenceAnholt
Thursday 25 March 6.00 pm via crowdcast
MARTIN HESP on The Last Broomsquire
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/martin-hesp-on-the-last
Martin Hesp will be discussing his novel The Last Broomsquire with Shute Festival director Sam Knights. Set in the Quantock Hills, it weaves together the real-life story of a 19th century love story culminating in murder and subsequent public hanging with a plethora of other real-life incidents. Martin says of this real-life adventure. “What fascinated me was that during a period of just a couple of decades, quite incredible things went on in just a small area of the hills. For example, local squire Andrew Crosse was one of the earliest experimenters in electricity – feeding lightning bolts from collecting rods in trees (they are still there) down to his Fyne Court laboratory where one day he thought the great voltages had created life. Mary Shelley, writer of Frankenstein, knew him and many think she adopted his story for her famous book.” The Last Broomsquire also features the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth who both came to live on the Quantocks. Martin has spent 45 of his 64 years working in journalism. He has won many major awards and for 20 years was editor-at-large of the Western Morning News, the main daily newspaper in the South West. He now works as a freelance editorial consultant and writes novels in his spare time. His Exmoor Lockdown Diary features on his website have drawn a huge audience over recent months, online at Martin Hesp Food and Travel
MARTIN HESP on The Last Broomsquire
Crowdcast link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/martin-hesp-on-the-last
Martin Hesp will be discussing his novel The Last Broomsquire with Shute Festival director Sam Knights. Set in the Quantock Hills, it weaves together the real-life story of a 19th century love story culminating in murder and subsequent public hanging with a plethora of other real-life incidents. Martin says of this real-life adventure. “What fascinated me was that during a period of just a couple of decades, quite incredible things went on in just a small area of the hills. For example, local squire Andrew Crosse was one of the earliest experimenters in electricity – feeding lightning bolts from collecting rods in trees (they are still there) down to his Fyne Court laboratory where one day he thought the great voltages had created life. Mary Shelley, writer of Frankenstein, knew him and many think she adopted his story for her famous book.” The Last Broomsquire also features the poets Coleridge and Wordsworth who both came to live on the Quantocks. Martin has spent 45 of his 64 years working in journalism. He has won many major awards and for 20 years was editor-at-large of the Western Morning News, the main daily newspaper in the South West. He now works as a freelance editorial consultant and writes novels in his spare time. His Exmoor Lockdown Diary features on his website have drawn a huge audience over recent months, online at Martin Hesp Food and Travel
Thursday 15 April 6.00 pm via crowdcast
CAROLINE EDEN on Red Sands
Crowdcast link: TBC
Caroline Eden will be talking with fellow writer Sophie Ibbotson about her latest book intertwining food, travel and people, Red Sands. Caroline is a writer and critic contributing to The Guardian, BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent and The Times Literary Supplement. She is the author of four books, all of which focus on the Turkic-speaking world: Samarkand (2016), Black Sea (2018), The Land of the Anka Bird (2020) and Red Sands (2020). Lit up by emblematic recipes, Red Sands is filled with human stories, forgotten histories and tales of adventure, while bringing in universal themes that relate to us all: hope, hunger, longing, love and the joys of eating well on the road. Beginning on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in oil-rich Kazakhstan, the story heads into the kitchens of underground desert mosques, through the world’s largest walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan, to remote orchards in Tajikistan, into cafés and canteens in Uzbekistan’s leafy capital and to dining rooms in Soviet-era sanatoriums, all the while exploring how food mirrors and shapes landscapes, history and culture. Red Sands was featured in various ‘best books of 2020’ lists, including BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Week and The New Yorker. Tim Hayward, writing in The Financial Times, wrote: ‘Eden continues her explorations, not just of fascinating and often under-reported places, but also of the boundaries between reportage, travel and food. There is nobody writing about food at the moment who’s committed to this level of immersion and it rings out in every line.’
CAROLINE EDEN on Red Sands
Crowdcast link: TBC
Caroline Eden will be talking with fellow writer Sophie Ibbotson about her latest book intertwining food, travel and people, Red Sands. Caroline is a writer and critic contributing to The Guardian, BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent and The Times Literary Supplement. She is the author of four books, all of which focus on the Turkic-speaking world: Samarkand (2016), Black Sea (2018), The Land of the Anka Bird (2020) and Red Sands (2020). Lit up by emblematic recipes, Red Sands is filled with human stories, forgotten histories and tales of adventure, while bringing in universal themes that relate to us all: hope, hunger, longing, love and the joys of eating well on the road. Beginning on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in oil-rich Kazakhstan, the story heads into the kitchens of underground desert mosques, through the world’s largest walnut forests in Kyrgyzstan, to remote orchards in Tajikistan, into cafés and canteens in Uzbekistan’s leafy capital and to dining rooms in Soviet-era sanatoriums, all the while exploring how food mirrors and shapes landscapes, history and culture. Red Sands was featured in various ‘best books of 2020’ lists, including BBC Radio 4’s The Food Programme, Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Week and The New Yorker. Tim Hayward, writing in The Financial Times, wrote: ‘Eden continues her explorations, not just of fascinating and often under-reported places, but also of the boundaries between reportage, travel and food. There is nobody writing about food at the moment who’s committed to this level of immersion and it rings out in every line.’
Thursday 29 April at 6.00 pm via crowdcast
EMMANUEL BACH in concert on the violin
Crowdcast link: TBC
The young performer Emmanuel Bach won the 2018 Royal Over-Seas League String Competition and is an Artist on the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, 2017–20. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at venues such as Wigmore Hall, St George’s Bristol, St Martin-in-the Fields, St James’s Piccadilly and Queen Elizabeth Hall. Emmanuel has played concertos including Brahms, Mendelssohn, Paganini No.1 and Tchaikovsky. In 2017, he played in a live-streamed masterclass conducted by Maxim Vengerov, on the Brahms Concerto. He was invited to play as a co-soloist with Anne-Sophie Mutter in Bach’s Double Concerto. As a chamber musician, he was a Fellow on the Yale Summer School 2016, USA, working with the Artis, Brentano and Emerson String Quartets. From 2013-15, he held a Leverhulme Fellowship at Pro Corda Chamber Music Academy, coaching young musicians. He also plays with the Bach Quartet, whose performances include playing on Radio 3 Music Day 2017. He has benefitted from masterclasses with musicians including Miriam Fried, Dong-Suk Kang, Shlomo Mintz, Cho-Liang Lin and Hugh Maguire. He also attended the Academié Riviera 2018 with Pierre Amoyal. Emmanuel read Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, gaining a double First. He studied with Natasha Boyarsky, receiving his Masters from the Royal College of Music. He completed an Artist Diploma in 2018 at the RCM with Radu Blidar. Alongside solo and chamber playing, he played on orchestral schemes with the BBC and London Symphony Orchestras.
EMMANUEL BACH in concert on the violin
Crowdcast link: TBC
The young performer Emmanuel Bach won the 2018 Royal Over-Seas League String Competition and is an Artist on the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, 2017–20. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at venues such as Wigmore Hall, St George’s Bristol, St Martin-in-the Fields, St James’s Piccadilly and Queen Elizabeth Hall. Emmanuel has played concertos including Brahms, Mendelssohn, Paganini No.1 and Tchaikovsky. In 2017, he played in a live-streamed masterclass conducted by Maxim Vengerov, on the Brahms Concerto. He was invited to play as a co-soloist with Anne-Sophie Mutter in Bach’s Double Concerto. As a chamber musician, he was a Fellow on the Yale Summer School 2016, USA, working with the Artis, Brentano and Emerson String Quartets. From 2013-15, he held a Leverhulme Fellowship at Pro Corda Chamber Music Academy, coaching young musicians. He also plays with the Bach Quartet, whose performances include playing on Radio 3 Music Day 2017. He has benefitted from masterclasses with musicians including Miriam Fried, Dong-Suk Kang, Shlomo Mintz, Cho-Liang Lin and Hugh Maguire. He also attended the Academié Riviera 2018 with Pierre Amoyal. Emmanuel read Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, gaining a double First. He studied with Natasha Boyarsky, receiving his Masters from the Royal College of Music. He completed an Artist Diploma in 2018 at the RCM with Radu Blidar. Alongside solo and chamber playing, he played on orchestral schemes with the BBC and London Symphony Orchestras.
Thursday 13 May at 6.00 pm via crowdcast
ALEX WHEATLE on The Humiliations of Welton Blake
Crowdcast link: TBC
Born in 1963 to Jamaican parents living in Brixton, Alex spent most of his childhood in a Surrey children’s home. He returned to Brixton in 1977 where he founded the Crucial Rocker sound system and performed his own songs and lyrics under the name of Yardman Irie. He spent a short stint in prison following the Brixton uprising of 1981. Following his release from prison he continued to write poems and lyrics and became known as the Brixtonbard. Alex’s first novel, Brixton Rock, was published to critical acclaim in 1999. Five more novels, East of Acre Lane, The Seven Sisters, Island Songs, Checkers and The Dirty South followed, all highly praised. Alex also appears regularly on BBC1’s The One Show and on radio. He wrote and performed his own one-man autobiographical show for Tara Arts, Uprising, and took the performance on tour in October 2012 and into the beginning of 2013 all over the country. He has appeared at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Hay Festival, Bristol Festival of Ideas, Edinburgh Book Festival amongst others. He is Creative Writing Lecturer in Children & Young Adults fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University. Steve McQueen has based one episode in his 6 part Small Axe series for BBC on Alex’s life, which was recently broadcast by the BBC. Alex was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to literature in 2008.
ALEX WHEATLE on The Humiliations of Welton Blake
Crowdcast link: TBC
Born in 1963 to Jamaican parents living in Brixton, Alex spent most of his childhood in a Surrey children’s home. He returned to Brixton in 1977 where he founded the Crucial Rocker sound system and performed his own songs and lyrics under the name of Yardman Irie. He spent a short stint in prison following the Brixton uprising of 1981. Following his release from prison he continued to write poems and lyrics and became known as the Brixtonbard. Alex’s first novel, Brixton Rock, was published to critical acclaim in 1999. Five more novels, East of Acre Lane, The Seven Sisters, Island Songs, Checkers and The Dirty South followed, all highly praised. Alex also appears regularly on BBC1’s The One Show and on radio. He wrote and performed his own one-man autobiographical show for Tara Arts, Uprising, and took the performance on tour in October 2012 and into the beginning of 2013 all over the country. He has appeared at Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Hay Festival, Bristol Festival of Ideas, Edinburgh Book Festival amongst others. He is Creative Writing Lecturer in Children & Young Adults fiction at Manchester Metropolitan University. Steve McQueen has based one episode in his 6 part Small Axe series for BBC on Alex’s life, which was recently broadcast by the BBC. Alex was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to literature in 2008.
Thursday 27 May at 6.00 pm via crowdcast
Panel Discussion – Climate Change & the Environment
SUSAN SHAW & DIETER HELM
Crowdcast link: TBC
Sir Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. He was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital, until the end of the second term of the Committee in November 2020. He has written many books, most recently Net Zero (September 2020, William Collins) in which he addresses the action we all need to take to tackle the climate emergency. His other books include: Green & Prosperous Land (2019, William Collins), Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels (2017), The Carbon Crunch: Revised and Updated (2015) and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet (2016), all published by Yale University Press. Dieter has provided extensive advice to UK and European governments, including The Cost of Energy Review for the UK government in October 2017 and for the European Commission in preparing the Energy Roadmap 2030. He served both as a special advisor to the European Commissioner for Energy and as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on the Roadmap. He also assisted the Polish government in its presidency of the European Union Council. Dieter is Chairman of Natural Capital Research, developing natural capital models and assessments for the better use of land, and Honorary Vice President of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
Panel Discussion – Climate Change & the Environment
SUSAN SHAW & DIETER HELM
Crowdcast link: TBC
Sir Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. He was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital, until the end of the second term of the Committee in November 2020. He has written many books, most recently Net Zero (September 2020, William Collins) in which he addresses the action we all need to take to tackle the climate emergency. His other books include: Green & Prosperous Land (2019, William Collins), Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels (2017), The Carbon Crunch: Revised and Updated (2015) and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet (2016), all published by Yale University Press. Dieter has provided extensive advice to UK and European governments, including The Cost of Energy Review for the UK government in October 2017 and for the European Commission in preparing the Energy Roadmap 2030. He served both as a special advisor to the European Commissioner for Energy and as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on the Roadmap. He also assisted the Polish government in its presidency of the European Union Council. Dieter is Chairman of Natural Capital Research, developing natural capital models and assessments for the better use of land, and Honorary Vice President of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.
Susan Shaw is a founding partner of the law firm Living Law. focusing on sustainable development and making the law more broadly accessible across societies. She specialises primarily in international law in the field of the environment, public law, energy law and human rights. She is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, a participant in the UN Harmony with Nature initiative (Expert, Earth Jurisprudence), as well as an observer to the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury. Prior to establishing Living Law, Susan worked for a number of years with the Scottish Government, and also ClientEarth -- the UK's leading public interest litigation non-governmental organisation -- as a Project Leader for EU Energy and Coal within the Strategic Litigation programme. She established an EU-wide programme for ClientEarth to drive and accelerate the energy transition and decarbonisation in Europe, working in partnership with leaders in the environmental field in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the UK, amongst others.
Thursday 10 June at 6.00 pm via crowdcast
EMMA STONEX in conversation with PADDY MAGRANE on The Lamplighters
Crowdcast link: TBC
Emma Stonex is a highly successful novelist who has already written several books under a pseudonym. The Lamplighters is her debut under her own name and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. She lives in the South West with her family. The Lamplighters is inspired by the real-life unsolved vanishing of three lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isles in 1900. Emma became interested in the story years ago, but only felt able to begin writing once she had discovered as much as she could about lighthouse keepers, their families, and what that monastic life must have been like. She hopes to present an authentic view of light-keeping, as opposed to the romantic notions we often harbour around lighthouses, and to capture some of the mystery and melancholy of the vast, indifferent sea. Emma will be in conversation with Paddy Magrane about her inspiration for the novel, her writing process, and what it is about lighthouses and the ocean that beguiles humankind through the ages. In the midst of a pandemic, these symbols of hope and endurance shine brighter than ever before.
EMMA STONEX in conversation with PADDY MAGRANE on The Lamplighters
Crowdcast link: TBC
Emma Stonex is a highly successful novelist who has already written several books under a pseudonym. The Lamplighters is her debut under her own name and has been translated into more than twenty languages. Before becoming a writer, she worked as an editor at a major publishing house. She lives in the South West with her family. The Lamplighters is inspired by the real-life unsolved vanishing of three lighthouse keepers from the Flannan Isles in 1900. Emma became interested in the story years ago, but only felt able to begin writing once she had discovered as much as she could about lighthouse keepers, their families, and what that monastic life must have been like. She hopes to present an authentic view of light-keeping, as opposed to the romantic notions we often harbour around lighthouses, and to capture some of the mystery and melancholy of the vast, indifferent sea. Emma will be in conversation with Paddy Magrane about her inspiration for the novel, her writing process, and what it is about lighthouses and the ocean that beguiles humankind through the ages. In the midst of a pandemic, these symbols of hope and endurance shine brighter than ever before.
Thursday 24 June at 6.00 pm via crowdcast
JASON WEBSTER & SALUD BOTELLA on the Art of Flamenco
Crowdcast link: TBC
Jason Webster was born in California to British parents in 1970 and spent his childhood in the US, Britain and Germany. He first moved to Spain in the early 1990s having graduated in Arabic and Islamic History from St John’s College, Oxford. He has written a dozen books on Spanish themes, including Duende: A Journey in Search of Flamenco; Guerra: Living in the Shadows of the Spanish Civil War; a biography of the Spanish WWII double agent Garbo (The Spy with 29 Names); and the Max Cámara series of crime novels. The fifth of these, A Body in Barcelona (2015), predicted the Catalan independence crisis. In 2011, his short story, ‘Rafaelillo’ was included in OxTravels, a collection of pieces by twenty-five leading travel writers published in aid of Oxfam with an introduction by Michael Palin. In 2013 he presented ‘Flashmob Flamenco’, a documentary on BBC Radio 4 on the response within the Flamenco community to the economic crisis in Spain. He has appeared in TV documentaries for the BBC, Five and the Discovery Channel as an expert on Moorish Spain.
JASON WEBSTER & SALUD BOTELLA on the Art of Flamenco
Crowdcast link: TBC
Jason Webster was born in California to British parents in 1970 and spent his childhood in the US, Britain and Germany. He first moved to Spain in the early 1990s having graduated in Arabic and Islamic History from St John’s College, Oxford. He has written a dozen books on Spanish themes, including Duende: A Journey in Search of Flamenco; Guerra: Living in the Shadows of the Spanish Civil War; a biography of the Spanish WWII double agent Garbo (The Spy with 29 Names); and the Max Cámara series of crime novels. The fifth of these, A Body in Barcelona (2015), predicted the Catalan independence crisis. In 2011, his short story, ‘Rafaelillo’ was included in OxTravels, a collection of pieces by twenty-five leading travel writers published in aid of Oxfam with an introduction by Michael Palin. In 2013 he presented ‘Flashmob Flamenco’, a documentary on BBC Radio 4 on the response within the Flamenco community to the economic crisis in Spain. He has appeared in TV documentaries for the BBC, Five and the Discovery Channel as an expert on Moorish Spain.
Born in Spain and based in south-west England, Salud Bottella started dancing at the age of eight. She has been schooled in Flamenco, Spanish Classical and Folk, Ballet and Contemporary, as well as training as an actress at the Escuela del Actor in Valencia. Salud draws on her wide-ranging artistic background to perform highly acclaimed and unique one-woman shows combining dance with elements such as poetry, humour, improvised audience interaction and rap. Her themes include the passion and mystery of duende - the enigmatic force at the heart of Flamenco - as well as self-expression and discovery through dance. In addition to her stage acts, Salud has developed dance-presentations for schools, educating younger audiences about Flamenco. These classes and workshops include dance performances, an introduction to the basic rhythms and styles within the art form, and talks by her husband Jason Webster.
Thursday 15 July at 6.00pm via crowdcast
CORINNE FOWLER on Colonialism and Country Houses
Crowdcast link: TBC
Corinne Fowler is a professor of English at the University of Leicester. Her project, Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted is a child-led history and writing project which seeks to make historic houses' connections to the East India Company and transatlantic slavery widely known. Between 2019-2020 she was seconded to the National Trust to conduct research tests on all aspects of curation, interpretation and training to lay the groundwork for telling the stories of the colonial connections of country houses. Her recent book, Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England's Colonial Connections, explores the repressed history of rural England's links to transatlantic enslavement and the East India Company. Corinne will be in conversation with Shute director and historian Bijan Omrani who has undertaken substantial research into Shute House.
CORINNE FOWLER on Colonialism and Country Houses
Crowdcast link: TBC
Corinne Fowler is a professor of English at the University of Leicester. Her project, Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted is a child-led history and writing project which seeks to make historic houses' connections to the East India Company and transatlantic slavery widely known. Between 2019-2020 she was seconded to the National Trust to conduct research tests on all aspects of curation, interpretation and training to lay the groundwork for telling the stories of the colonial connections of country houses. Her recent book, Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England's Colonial Connections, explores the repressed history of rural England's links to transatlantic enslavement and the East India Company. Corinne will be in conversation with Shute director and historian Bijan Omrani who has undertaken substantial research into Shute House.
Thursday 29 July at 6.00 pm via crowdcast
KAROLINE KAN on Under Red Skies
Crowdcast link: TBC
Karoline Kan was born in Tianjin in 1989 and studied at Beijing International Studies University. After graduating she worked for three years at That’s Beijing, writing long-form features in English about Chinese people’s lives in a society shaped by a changing culture, economy and politics. She then worked at Radio France International, focusing more on hard news, which helped her develop a better understanding of China from different angles. From summer 2016 to the end of 2018, she worked for The New York Times in Beijing and is now an editor at China Dialogue. Karoline has also contributed to various other publications including Foreign Policy, Roads and Kingdoms, The World Policy and The Anthill, writing from her perspective about Chinese politics, history, ethnic policies and other social issues. Karoline’s debut work of non-fiction, Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss and Hope in China was published in spring 2019. In her quest to understand the shifting sands of global, connected China, Karoline turns to her family, who have survived Maoism and its legacy by breaking with tradition. Navigating a society beset by poverty and often violent political unrest, the Kans swapped rural villages for crowded city streets in search of a better way of life. Kan recounts gripping tales of her grandmother, who struggled to help her family through the Great Famine; of her mother, who defied the One-Child Policy by giving birth to Karoline; and of her cousin, a factory worker scraping by on less than £1 per hour. An ambitious millennial pursuing her career and personal life in a time of dizzyingly rapid social change, Kan discovers her own story's roots in the China of previous generations.
KAROLINE KAN on Under Red Skies
Crowdcast link: TBC
Karoline Kan was born in Tianjin in 1989 and studied at Beijing International Studies University. After graduating she worked for three years at That’s Beijing, writing long-form features in English about Chinese people’s lives in a society shaped by a changing culture, economy and politics. She then worked at Radio France International, focusing more on hard news, which helped her develop a better understanding of China from different angles. From summer 2016 to the end of 2018, she worked for The New York Times in Beijing and is now an editor at China Dialogue. Karoline has also contributed to various other publications including Foreign Policy, Roads and Kingdoms, The World Policy and The Anthill, writing from her perspective about Chinese politics, history, ethnic policies and other social issues. Karoline’s debut work of non-fiction, Under Red Skies: Three Generations of Life, Loss and Hope in China was published in spring 2019. In her quest to understand the shifting sands of global, connected China, Karoline turns to her family, who have survived Maoism and its legacy by breaking with tradition. Navigating a society beset by poverty and often violent political unrest, the Kans swapped rural villages for crowded city streets in search of a better way of life. Kan recounts gripping tales of her grandmother, who struggled to help her family through the Great Famine; of her mother, who defied the One-Child Policy by giving birth to Karoline; and of her cousin, a factory worker scraping by on less than £1 per hour. An ambitious millennial pursuing her career and personal life in a time of dizzyingly rapid social change, Kan discovers her own story's roots in the China of previous generations.
Thursday 16 September at 6.00pm via crowdcast
CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH on Criminal Justice
Crowdcast link: TBC
Clive Stafford Smith is the founder and Director of Reprieve, a charity providing free legal and investigative support to some of the world’s most vulnerable people – to help those facing execution around the world, and those victimised by states’ abusive counter-terror policies, including torture and extrajudicial killing. In 2001, Clive sued for access to the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Believing the camp was an affront to democracy and the law, his goal was to close Guantánamo. Clive has helped secure the release of 69 prisoners from the camp, including every British prisoner. A graduate of Columbia Law School in New York, Clive worked as a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, focusing on death penalty and civil rights cases. Today, Clive oversees Reprieve’s casework alongside representing prisoners on death row. He has represented over 300 prisoners facing the death penalty in America, preventing the death penalty in all but six cases. Clive has received an OBE for Humanitarian Services and an International Bar Association’s Human Rights Award.
CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH on Criminal Justice
Crowdcast link: TBC
Clive Stafford Smith is the founder and Director of Reprieve, a charity providing free legal and investigative support to some of the world’s most vulnerable people – to help those facing execution around the world, and those victimised by states’ abusive counter-terror policies, including torture and extrajudicial killing. In 2001, Clive sued for access to the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. Believing the camp was an affront to democracy and the law, his goal was to close Guantánamo. Clive has helped secure the release of 69 prisoners from the camp, including every British prisoner. A graduate of Columbia Law School in New York, Clive worked as a lawyer with the Southern Center for Human Rights, focusing on death penalty and civil rights cases. Today, Clive oversees Reprieve’s casework alongside representing prisoners on death row. He has represented over 300 prisoners facing the death penalty in America, preventing the death penalty in all but six cases. Clive has received an OBE for Humanitarian Services and an International Bar Association’s Human Rights Award.
Thursday 14 October at 6.00pm via crowdcast
James Crowden on Cider Country
Crowdcast link: TBC
Cider-making has been at the heart of country life for hundreds of years. But the fascinating story of how this drink came into existence and why it became so deeply rooted in the nation’s psyche has never been told. In order to answer these questions, James Crowden traces an elusive history stretching back to the ancient civilisations of Central Asia and the Mediterranean – and even the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan. After its arrival on Western shores, the exotic fruit was warmly embraced by monastic communities in Britain; monks were some of the earliest cider makers and planted some of the oldest orchards. But the nation’s love-affair with cider didn’t fully blossom until after the reformation, when the thirst for knowledge about the drink was at its peak. This infatuation with experimentation would lead to remarkable innovations and the creation of a ‘sparkling cider’, a technique that pre-dated Dom Pérignon's champagne by forty years – a story which still gives the French a run for their money. The Cider drinker has never been far from controversy and has taken various guises throughout time; pirates and privateers in search of the unknown world, or politicians keen to win the favour of their fellow parliamentarians. The beverage has also played a revolutionary role, as the cyder riots of 1763 would prove. Turning to the present day, Crowden meets the next generation of cider makers and unearths a unique philosophy that has been shared through the ages. In the face of real challenges, these enterprising artisan craft cider companies are still finding new ways to produce this golden drink that is enjoyed by so many. Full of subtle flavours and remarkable characters, Cider Country is the unusual and enthralling story of Cider and the remarkable people who have made it. James will be in conversation with writer and journalist Martin Hesp.
James Crowden on Cider Country
Crowdcast link: TBC
Cider-making has been at the heart of country life for hundreds of years. But the fascinating story of how this drink came into existence and why it became so deeply rooted in the nation’s psyche has never been told. In order to answer these questions, James Crowden traces an elusive history stretching back to the ancient civilisations of Central Asia and the Mediterranean – and even the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan. After its arrival on Western shores, the exotic fruit was warmly embraced by monastic communities in Britain; monks were some of the earliest cider makers and planted some of the oldest orchards. But the nation’s love-affair with cider didn’t fully blossom until after the reformation, when the thirst for knowledge about the drink was at its peak. This infatuation with experimentation would lead to remarkable innovations and the creation of a ‘sparkling cider’, a technique that pre-dated Dom Pérignon's champagne by forty years – a story which still gives the French a run for their money. The Cider drinker has never been far from controversy and has taken various guises throughout time; pirates and privateers in search of the unknown world, or politicians keen to win the favour of their fellow parliamentarians. The beverage has also played a revolutionary role, as the cyder riots of 1763 would prove. Turning to the present day, Crowden meets the next generation of cider makers and unearths a unique philosophy that has been shared through the ages. In the face of real challenges, these enterprising artisan craft cider companies are still finding new ways to produce this golden drink that is enjoyed by so many. Full of subtle flavours and remarkable characters, Cider Country is the unusual and enthralling story of Cider and the remarkable people who have made it. James will be in conversation with writer and journalist Martin Hesp.
Thursday 11 November at 6.00pm via crowdcast
STEPHEN GRIFFITHS on Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
Crowdcast link: TBC
Since 1992, Stephen Griffiths has been Head Gardener at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens on the west Dorset coast. He took on the challenge of restoring the 15-hectare woodland valley gardens following extensive storm damage and neglect, and was responsible for a 10-year development plan, mplementing new plant collections from all over the world suited to the garden's special micro-climate, designing new planting schemes, and developing the garden as a visitor destination. Stephen has exhibited displays at Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows, and won a number of awards including the Christies Historic Houses Association Garden of the Year. He is the author of The Abbotsbury Gardens Story, a history of the Garden.
STEPHEN GRIFFITHS on Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens
Crowdcast link: TBC
Since 1992, Stephen Griffiths has been Head Gardener at Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens on the west Dorset coast. He took on the challenge of restoring the 15-hectare woodland valley gardens following extensive storm damage and neglect, and was responsible for a 10-year development plan, mplementing new plant collections from all over the world suited to the garden's special micro-climate, designing new planting schemes, and developing the garden as a visitor destination. Stephen has exhibited displays at Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows, and won a number of awards including the Christies Historic Houses Association Garden of the Year. He is the author of The Abbotsbury Gardens Story, a history of the Garden.
Thursday 25 November at 6.00pm via crowdcast
LUCY MADDOX & NOREENA HERTZ on Mental Health during the Pandemic
Crowdcast link: TBC
Dr Lucy Maddox is a consultant clinical psychologist, lecturer and writer. She is the author of Blueprint: How Our Childhood Makes Us Who We Are and a children’s book on mental health called What is Mental Health? Her current roles include working for Action for Children (an adoption and fostering agency) and as Senior Clinical Advisor for the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. She previously worked in the NHS for 13 years, mostly in adolescent inpatient settings, as well as lecturing for several universities, on different aspects of child development and clinical work with children and young people, on compassion fatigue in the helping professions, and on science communication. Lucy has also written for a range of publications including The Guardian, Prospect, Mosaic and Science magazine. She also runs a blog called Psychology Magpie.
LUCY MADDOX & NOREENA HERTZ on Mental Health during the Pandemic
Crowdcast link: TBC
Dr Lucy Maddox is a consultant clinical psychologist, lecturer and writer. She is the author of Blueprint: How Our Childhood Makes Us Who We Are and a children’s book on mental health called What is Mental Health? Her current roles include working for Action for Children (an adoption and fostering agency) and as Senior Clinical Advisor for the British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. She previously worked in the NHS for 13 years, mostly in adolescent inpatient settings, as well as lecturing for several universities, on different aspects of child development and clinical work with children and young people, on compassion fatigue in the helping professions, and on science communication. Lucy has also written for a range of publications including The Guardian, Prospect, Mosaic and Science magazine. She also runs a blog called Psychology Magpie.
Thursday 2 December at 6.00pm via crowdcast
DAVE HUTCHINSON on Europe in Autumn
Crowdcast link: TBC
After a 25-year career in journalism, Dave Hutchinson turned to science fiction and thriller writing. His recent Fractured Europe series, including Europe in Autumn, is an espionage thriller and takes place in a fragmenting near-future Europe. The LA Review of Books described it as "one of the most sophisticated science fiction novels of the decade", and Dave himself has won or been nominated for a number of literary awards, including winning the 2017 British Science Fiction Association award for Best Novel, and also shortlistings for the Arthur C Clarke, Kistchie and John W Campbell Memorial Awards.
DAVE HUTCHINSON on Europe in Autumn
Crowdcast link: TBC
After a 25-year career in journalism, Dave Hutchinson turned to science fiction and thriller writing. His recent Fractured Europe series, including Europe in Autumn, is an espionage thriller and takes place in a fragmenting near-future Europe. The LA Review of Books described it as "one of the most sophisticated science fiction novels of the decade", and Dave himself has won or been nominated for a number of literary awards, including winning the 2017 British Science Fiction Association award for Best Novel, and also shortlistings for the Arthur C Clarke, Kistchie and John W Campbell Memorial Awards.