Explore Events

Hundreds of events for adults, teenagers and children feature authors, illustrators, musicians, poets, policians, thinkers, prize-winners and rising stars every August.

Showing events on Thu 18 Aug.

Use one or more of the search filters below to find events.

    Browse this year's themes
     

    Esa Aldegheri: The Freedom Drive

    Thursday 18 August 12:15 - 13:15

    Esa Aldegheri: The Freedom Drive Book
    • Attend in person
    It’s the stuff of dreams. Esa Aldegheri sets out, carefree, from Orkney on a motorbike with her partner. In the cold fog of winter they cross to the citrus orchards of the Mediterranean, then on to the Syrian hills of Hatay, then Pakistan, India,...
     

    Christopher de Bellaigue: A Life That Changed History

    Thursday 18 August 13:00 - 14:00

    Christopher de Bellaigue: A Life That Changed History Book
    • Attend in person
    • Watch online
    In over 600 years of Ottoman rule, the longest-reigning sultan was Suleiman the Magnificent. The Lion House by Christopher de Bellaigue narrates the epic tale of Suleiman’s rise to become the most powerful man of the 16th century. Fans of Hilary...
     

    Workshop: Dan Richards on How to Ask the Right Questions

    Thursday 18 August 13:00 - 15:00

    Workshop: Dan Richards on How to Ask the Right Questions Book
    • Attend in person
    Interviews, whether recorded or in front of a live audience, can seem intimidating, fraught propositions. What if your subject clams up or answers in monosyllabic grunts? Writer Dan Richards has the experience and skills to make your confabs fabulous...
     

    David George Haskell: The Call of the Wild

    Thursday 18 August 13:30 - 14:30

    David George Haskell: The Call of the Wild Book
    • Attend in person
    • Watch online
    Open your ears to choruses of frogs and birds, the thwops and whistles of whales and the chirrups of crickets as David George Haskell introduces his non-fiction rallying cry, Sounds Wild and Broken. The music made by the world’s creatures contains...
     

    Sidarta Ribeiro: Why Do We Dream?

    Thursday 18 August 14:15 - 15:15

    Sidarta Ribeiro: Why Do We Dream? Book
    • Attend in person
    • BSL interpreted
    Dreams have been a favourite topic of psychology for a long time – but advances in biochemistry and neuroscience now confirm that dreams are more important than we might think. The Oracle of Night leads us on a grand-scale investigation through...
     

    Simon Woolley: Shaking Up the Establishment

    Thursday 18 August 14:30 - 15:30

    Simon Woolley: Shaking Up the Establishment Book
    • Attend in person
    • Watch online
    • Captioned
    When Simon Woolley created Operation Black Vote in 1996, he inspired hundreds of thousands of people to participate in the democratic process. Raised on an impoverished estate in Leicester, he has become a political force to be reckoned with, the first...
     

    Reading the World

    Thursday 18 August 15:00 - 15:30

    Reading the World Book
    • Attend in person
    Can writers give us a fresh perspective on global and local issues? Each afternoon a leading writer discusses books, research and ideas confronting this time of uncertainty and change.
     

    Michèle Roberts: Three Women and the Artist Matisse

    Thursday 18 August 15:30 - 16:30

    Michèle Roberts: Three Women and the Artist Matisse Book
    Why not try? Signe Gjessing & Selby Wynn Schwartz: The Invention of Freedom Signe Gjessing & Selby Wynn Schwartz: The Invention of Freedom Mon 15 Aug 17:30 - 18:30
     

    Jenni Fagan: 'Geillis Duncan Has a Broomstick'

    Thursday 18 August 16:00 - 17:00

    Jenni Fagan: 'Geillis Duncan Has a Broomstick' Book
    • Attend in person
    • Watch online
    • Captioned
    Combining a fertile imagination with a powerful sense of social justice, Jenni Fagan has a talent for writing great fiction. Her latest novella Hex underlines that, retelling the true story of Geillis Duncan – one of the first women accused in the...
     

    Scholastique Mukasonga: Mother Courage

    Thursday 18 August 16:15 - 17:15

    Scholastique Mukasonga: Mother Courage Book
    • Attend in person
    Scholastique Mukasonga’s The Barefoot Woman, her second novel, is a testament to the bravery of her mother, a Tutsi woman who called on heartbreaking ingenuity to protect her children from Hutu soldiers during the Rwandan atrocities. In powerful...