Daytime sessions in the Red Room 8th March
A whole day of readings, talks, presentations, discussions and opportunities to get involved with creative writing at all levels.
Tickets options are
– £30 for an all day ticket (all 5 sessions throughout the day)
– £8 per session
All tickets subject to availability. We will try not to allow changes to the programme to occur, but things happen, and your understanding in that circumstance is appreciated 🙂
In the Red Room
11:00 – 12:00
Polly Atkinson
Panel discussion: Reading Matters
Saturday’s first event invites you to a panel discussion debating matters concerning reading.
Does reading matter? In these controversial days of technology and social media, are books losing out to screen-time? Who is responsible for ensuring future generations of readers? What are the benefits of reading? What do we gain from being part of a book club? Who inspired you to read…and who have you inspired to read?
These, and other matters to do with reading, will be shared by a panel of readers. Audience views and participation are very much encouraged.
Polly is a children’s reading specialist who supports families with their children’s reading at home.
12:30 – 1:30
John Carr
Escape From The Ghetto
Escape From The Ghetto tells the story of Chaim Herszman, a 13 year old Jewish boy who escaped from the Lodz Ghetto and made his way to the UK where he first joined the Free Polish Army and then the British Army. The author is Chaim’s son. Published by Hodder, in 2023 it was shortlisted by the Royal Society of Literature for the Christopher Bland Prize. In the USA “Escape” was published by Pegasus Books and received a starred review in the Kirkus Review. “Escape” has been translated and published in Dutch, Spanish, Danish, Polish, Italian and Romanian. The UK’s Audible version of the book was narrated by Sir Simon Russell Beale.
2:00 – 3:00
Alexandra Harris
The Rising Down
When Alexandra Harris returned to her childhood landscapes around the River Arun, she realised that she barely knew the place at all.
As she probed beneath the surface, excavating layers of archival records – bringing a lifetime’s reading to bear on the hills and villages where she started – hundreds of unexpected stories and hypnotic voices emerged from the area’s past.
Who has stood here, she asks – in Arundel, Pulborough, and Storrington; what did they see? From the painter John Constable and the modernist writer Ford Madox Ford to the lost local women who left little trace, these electrifying encounters inspired her to imagine lives that seemed distant, yet were deeply connected through their shared landscape.
The book tells many stories from 17th century to after WW2 – Alexandra’s talk on this occasion will be particularly relevant to Arundel, Chichester and the sections of the Arun Valley near at hand.
3:30 – 4:30
Gabriel Weston
Alive : An Alternative Anatomy
For Gabriel Weston, there was always something missing from the anatomy she was taught at medical
school. Medicine teaches us how a body functions, but it doesn’t help us navigate the reality of living
in one. As she became a surgeon, a mother, and ultimately a patient herself, Weston found herself
grappling with the gap between scientific knowledge and unfathomable complexity of human
experience.
In this captivating exploration of the body, Weston dissolves the boundaries that usually divide
surgeon and patient, pushing beyond the limit of what science has to tell us about who we are.
Focusing on our individual organs, not just under the intense spotlight of the operating theatre, but in
the central role they play in the stories of our lives, a fuller and more human picture of our bodies
emerges: more fragile, frightening and miraculous than we could have imagined.
Intimate, penetrating and original, Alive is an anatomy like no other, about our bodies and bonds,
the richness and brevity of existence, and the thread of mortality that connect us all.
5:00 – 6:00
Helen Fields & Simon Brett
What’s Going On Here Then
Two masters of the crime writing genre come together to compare notes
See also…
Friday daytime sessions 11am – 6pm in the Red Room – click here for full details
Saturday daytime sessions 11am – 6pm in the Red Room – click here for full details
Evening concerts 7:30pm – 10pm
Thursday evening film 7:30pm in the Red Room – The Importance Of Being Earnest
Friday evening concert 7:30pm in the Red Room – click here for full details
Saturday evening concert 7:30pm in the Red Room – click here for full details
In The Studio
Rhetoric and Oratory workshop with Alan Finlayson
10:00am – 12:30pm : £20
Anyone and everyone has the capacity to write and deliver a speech about something they care about and want the rest of us to care about too. In this workshop you will learn how to do just that. Professor Alan Finlayson has been researching and teaching political rhetoric and speechmaking for decades and has taught hundreds of people to make their own speeches. You will learn the secrets of great rhetoric: how to formulate your thoughts, how to turn them into arguments and how to structure them so that people can understand and agree with them. You will finish by delivering your own powerful, persuasive and passionate speech.
Suitable for everyone
Maximum of 10 participants, please book in advance.
In The Green Room
Orientation desk explaining what’s available and when.
Ticket office taking cash and card payments.
Book stall selling signed copies of each contributor’s books. Cash and cards accepted.
Breakout area serving tea and coffee. Bring your own buns!
Volunteers
If you’d like to be involved in any way with the day as a volunteer please email events@thevictoriainstitute.com.