Women’s London: A Tour Guide to Great Lives
Speakers: Rachel Kolsky Join prize-winning tour guide, award-winning librarian and author Rachel Kolsky as she profiles her latest book, Women’s London. Inspired by walking tours she devised for The Women’s Library and responding to those who encouraged her to put her words on paper, she published a guide book to London featuring the impact women […]
Great Philosophers & Where They Went Wrong
Ferdinand Mount has long been fascinated by the great thinkers and politicians of the past two millennia. In his riveting and provocative book, Prime Movers, Mount takes us on a colourful journey, examining the ideas of twelve key savants — from Pericles to Jesus Christ, and from Adam Smith to Karl Marx. These are the people […]
Insiders-Outsiders: Refugees From Nazi Europe & Their Contribution to British Culture
Insiders / Outsiders examines the extraordinarily rich contribution of refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe to the visual culture, art education and art-world structures of the United Kingdom. In every field, emigres arriving from Europe in the 1930s introduced a professionalism, internationalism and bold avant-gardism to a British art world not known for these attributes. At a […]
Literary Friction
Speakers: Octavia Bright, Carrie Pitt,Yelena Moskovich Jewish Book Week hosts an edition of Literary Friction the monthly podcast about books and ideas, hosted by friends Carrie and Octavia. Listen-in for lively discussion, book recommendations and a little music too. Carrie and Octavia will be interviewing Ukranian-born, American and French artist and author Yelena Moskovich, speaking […]
Survivor Café
Speakers: Elizabeth Rosner, Jane Haynes As first hand survivors of many of the twentieth century’s most monumental events—the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Killing Fields—begin to pass away, Survivor Café addresses urgent questions: How do we carry those stories forward? How do we collectively ensure that the horrors of the past are not forgotten? Examining current brain […]
The Age of the Demagogue
Speakers: Rana Mitter, Fawaz A. Gerges, Anne Applebaum, Anshel Pfeffer, Ian Robertson “Strongman politics are ascendant”, Barack Obama wrote recently: “The politics of fear and resentment… is now on the move”. From America to China, from Europe to Brazil, in India and across the Middle East, ‘macho’ leaders are very much in fashion. So why is […]
The Curious Case of Being Human
Speakers: Adam Rutherford, Rohan Silva We believe we are exceptional, but is there really anything special about humans that makes us different from other animals? In this entertaining tour of life on Earth, scientist and broadcaster Dr Adam Rutherford’s The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us examines what, if anything, sets […]
Jerusalem on the Amstel: The Quest for Zion in the Dutch Republic
Speakers: Lipika Pelham, Keren David Lipika Pelham tells the extraordinary story of the Sephardi Jews of 17th century Amsterdam. The community, part of a ‘carnival of nations’ formed of French Huguenots, North African merchants, Spanish Moriscos and Iberian New Christians, was integral to the success of the Dutch Golden Age. They traded, wrote, staged plays […]
A Long Night in Paris: Thriller Fiction
Speakers: Dov Alfon, Jenni Frazer Former editor in chief of Haaretz and international best-selling author Dov Alfon discusses his electrifying novel, A Long Night in Paris. Hailed by critics as ‘the best Israeli thriller ever written’, Alfon’s hero, Colonel Abadi, head of Israel’s most secretive intelligence service, grapples with ruthless Chinese commandos, the byzantine Paris […]
Claudia Roden: The New Book of Middle Eastern Food
Speakers: Claudia Roden, Lucy Silver Legendary food writer Claudia Roden, exiled from Egypt in the ’50s, was drawn to the subject of food through a desire to remember her lost heritage. Claudia has had a seismic impact on what and how we eat, and how we think about food. Her Book of Middle Eastern Food, offering […]
Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World
Speakers: Oren Harman, Sam Leith Evolutions, ‘a breath-taking race through the immense scope of time and space that is our universe’, brings to life the latest scientific thinking on the birth of the universe and the solar system, our journey from a single cell to the intricate complexities of the human mind. Reawakening our sense […]
Churchill: Walking With Destiny
Winston Churchill towers over every other figure in 20th century British history. Award-winning historian Andrew Roberts draws on new sources to depict him intimately, laying bare Churchill’ s faults and virtues. Above all, this vivid new biography reveals the wellsprings of his personality: his aristocratic disdain for the opinions of almost everyone else, his love […]