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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Are We Witnessing The Death of Democracy?
Speakers: Elif Shafak, Sarah Churchwell, Ed Husain, Lionel Shriver, Jonathan Freedland Tolerance, equality, democracy, free speech, a free press, separation of church and state, progress: these and other values of the Enlightenment have guided the West for over 300 years. But with trends such as the rise of populism and nationalism in the West, the […]
Modernists & Mavericks: Bacon, Freud, Hockney & The London Painters
Speakers: Martin Gaysford, Hannah Rothschild Painting in London in the post-WWII years is a story of friendships and shared experiences. Drawing on first-hand interviews, acclaimed art historian Martin Gayford, in conversation with Hannah Rothschild, examines the interwoven lives of artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and David Hockney, and the teachers and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
If All The Seas Were Ink
Speakers: Ilana Kurshan, Yoel Finkelman When she was 27, Ilana Kurshan found herself alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce. She joined the world’s largest book club, learning daf yomi, Hebrew for ‘daily page’ of the Talmud, taking her copy wherever she went. In If All the Seas Were Ink, Ilana takes […]
Eve Was Shamed
Speakers: Helena Kennedy, Matthew Stadlen What comes after #MeToo? In this ‘chilling exposé’ of British justice, Helena Kennedy QC, one of our most eminent lawyers and human rights activists, confronts a system that is discriminating against – and failing – women. The law, she argues, holds up a mirror to society and it is not […]