It may not be a giant water slide down Park Street but this year's Bristol Festival of Ideas certainly has some brilliant events that are sure to tickle your intellect. Now in its ninth year, this month-long event aims to stimulate your minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate with experts from a massive range of fields.
In this post, we pick out 11 of the events that the BGS Librarians are most excited to see. In most cases we have copies of the speakers’ published works in the Library so you can check them out for yourself.
At the time of publishing, all events have tickets available and can be purchased from the Bristol Festival of Ideas website.
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Thu 8 May 2014, 18.30-19.30
Foyles, Cabot Circus, Bristol |
Too often novels set in the past are distracted by the ‘props’ of history, its costumes and spectacle. Suzannah Dunn, author of both historical and contemporary fiction, discusses her belief that it’s not about staging the drama of history, but rather sharing insights into people’s emotional lives, their relationships and what they might have thought.
Tenterhooks by Suzannah Dunn - available in our Fiction section.
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From triangles, rotations and power laws, to fractals, cones and curves, in his new book bestselling author Alex Bellos takes us on a journey of mathematical discovery with his signature wit, engaging stories and limitless enthusiasm. As he narrates a series of eye-opening encounters with lively personalities all over the world, Alex demonstrates how numbers have come to be our friends, how fascinating and extremely accessible they are, and how they have changed our world.
Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos - available in our Non-Fiction section (MA510)
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Screening and Discussion
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A row broke out in early 2014 when some politicians and academics attacked schools for showing Blackadder Goes Forth as history and condemned the Blackadder view of the First World War – doomed youth, led to deaths by donkeys, in a futile conflict – as wrong. In an article in the Daily Mail in January 2014, Education Secretary Michael Gove wrote:
‘The war was, of course, an unspeakable tragedy, which robbed this nation of our bravest and best. But it’s important that we don’t succumb to some of the myths which have grown up about the conflict in the last 70 or so years. The conflict has, for many, been seen through the fictional prism of dramas such as Oh! What a Lovely War, The Monocled Mutineer and Blackadder as a misbegotten shambles – a series of catastrophic mistakes perpetrated by an out-of-touch elite.’
In this special event, we are showing the complete Blackadder Goes Forth and having a live debate with historians Stephen Badsey, Jeremy Banning, and Kate Williams on its relevancy, accuracy and impact.
This event is part of Bristol 2014, a partnership programme commemorating the centenary of the start of the First World War and its impact upon the city.
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In his new book, Sonic Wonderland, he uses his experiences of visiting sewers, caves, tidal bores, burial mounds, sand dunes, concert halls and more to explore how sound is made and altered by the environment, how our body hears, perceives and reacts to peculiar sounds, and how sounds and acoustics have inspired musicians, artists and writers. He takes us on an original and compelling tour of the world’s most amazing acoustic phenomena and a passionate plea for a deeper appreciation of and respect for our shared sonic landscapes.
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On a pilgrimage to Wuthering Heights, Samantha Ellis found herself arguing with her best friend about which heroine was best: Jane Eyre or Cathy Earnshaw. She was all for wild, passionate Cathy; but her friend found Cathy silly, a snob, while courageous Jane makes her own way.
And that’s when Samantha realised that all her life she’d been trying to be Cathy when she should have been trying to be Jane.
Ellis offers a funny, touching, inspiring exploration of the role of heroines, and our favourite books, in all our lives – and reveals how they change over time, for better or worse, just as we do.
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Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? How come concrete pours? Why does a paperclip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does?
From the towering skyscrapers of our cities to the most ordinary objects in our homes, world-leading materials scientist Mark Miodownik tells enthralling stories that explain the science and history of materials we take entirely for granted, while introducing some of humankind’s most ingenious and improbable inventions.
Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape our Man-made World by Mark Miodownik - available in our Non-Fiction section (620.11)
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In the sixteenth century, Spanish conquistadors discovered the New World. The vast quantities of gold and silver would make their country rich, yet the new wealth, which was plunged into multiple wars, would eventually lead to the economic ruin of their empire. Eminent historian and politician Kwasi Kwarteng shows that this moment in world history has been echoed many times, from the French Revolution to both World Wars, right up to the present day, when our own financial crisis saw many of our great nations slip into financial trouble. Kwarteng reveals a pattern of war-waging, financial debt and fluctuations between paper money and the gold standard, and creates a compelling study of the powerful relationship that has shaped the world as we know it, that between war and gold.
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- Chopin: Ballade No 1 in G minor Op 23; Nocturne in C sharp minor Op Posth
- Gershwin: Pieces from ‘Strike up the Band’
- Bridge: Piano Sonata
- Szpilman: Suite for Piano: ‘The Life of Machines’
- Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No 7 in B flat Stalingrad
- Sally Beamish: Voices in Silence
Marking the outbreak of both World Wars, this programme captures perfectly the ‘Extreme Times, Extraordinary Music’ aspect of The World Changed series. The World Changed – Extreme Times, Extraordinary Music looks at the seismic shifts taking place around the period of the First and Second World Wars.
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Sun 18 May 2014, 11.00-12.00 (talk); 13.00-17.30 (screening - includes short interval).
Watershed, Bristol
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Gone With the Wind is one of the most successful and fêted works of all time. The film is 75 years old and still going strong. Based on Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 bestselling novel, it became the supreme triumph of Hollywood’s Golden Era, winning eight Oscars, including one for British actress Vivien Leigh. It has retained iconic status across the globe, surviving social and political change, critical attack, and a new era of multiculturalism and racial awareness. In the 21st century’s concern to make reparation for the slave trade and slavery, and with new representations of the horrors of slavery on the southern plantation – Twelve Years a Slave being the most powerful recent example – Gone With the Wind nonetheless continues to delight and inspire audiences.
In Scarlett’s Women: Gone With the Wind and its Female Fans, Helen Taylor set out to analyse what was so special about the film and why it is adored and revered by women. In this special event she discusses Gone With the Wind‘s impact and importance with Keith Lodwick, Curator of Theatre and Performance at the Victoria and Albert Museum, co-curator of ‘Hollywood Costume’ and of the Vivien Leigh Archive. Their discussion is followed, after a break, by the screening of the film, with an introduction by Helen Taylor.
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Dinaw Mengestu (Guardian First Book Award winner for Children of the Revolution) draws on his Ethiopian heritage as well as his journalism to create fiction about the human condition, exile, poverty and violence. He talks about his writing and his latest book, a political novel, which switches between Africa and America, exploring identity and the intersection of cultures.
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How do you define success? In the current model that we have come to accept, success is equated with overwork, burnout, sleep deprivation, never seeing your family, being connected through email 24 hours a day and exhaustion – put simply it isn’t working. It’s not working for women. It’s not working for men. It’s not working for companies, for any societies in which its dominant or for the planet. In her new book Thrive (WH Allen), Arianna Huffington (of Huffington Post) argues that a successful life is made up of more than just money and status and must also include what she calls ‘The Third Metric’: personal care, health, and fulfilment. In a rare visit, Arianna Huffington talks about thriving today for women and men.
Miss Kleiman
Miss Kleiman