Authors ~ Storytellers ~ Poets ~ Musicians ~ Acrobats
Discussions ~ Readings ~ Talks ~ Performances
#90B47E
FRIDAY 10th MAY
MARCUS DU SAUTOY – with an illustrated show on Around the World in 80 Games.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
12.30pm ~ 5th May ~ £8 (£7)
For as long as there have been people, there have been games. And for nearly as long, through games, there has been an exploration and enjoyment of mathematics. Games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world.
Yes. Games and maths have a long, meaningful, and even gleeful relationship.
Professor of Maths at the University of Oxford, author of books, playwright, features writer, presenter of programmes on BBC radio and television, Marcus du Sautoy OBE has now written Around the World in 80 Games, which explains not just how games are won, but how they, and the maths behind them, shape who we are.
PATERSON (Film, 2016, 1hr 58 mins, Cert 15)
Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Starring Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani.
Presented by Create Studios in association with the Swindon Festival of Literature & Poetry Swindon
Sofa Screening, Create Studios, 10 Carriage Works, London Street SN1 5FB
9pm ~ 10th May ~ Doors open 8pm ~ Refreshments available
Under 25s £5 Over 25s £8
Book via: createstudios.org.uk/events
A hardworking city bus driver follows the same routine every day. While picking up and dropping off his passengers, he watches life and listens to fragments of conversations. When his shift is over, he writes poems in a notebook, walks his dog and, drinks a beer in a bar. Waiting for him at home is his beloved wife Laura, who champions his gift for writing.
The film is full of the triumphs and disappointments of daily life, along with the subtle observations of Paterson’s poetry.
Paterson is a film that champions ‘the conviction that if you can live at least part of your life breathing poetry, you can make your life more worthwhile.’
HILARY BRADT – on travel, worldwide, and Taking the Risk.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
6.30pm ~ 10th May ~ £8 (£7)
Why do we travel? What does travel do to the mind? Where have you been? Are you intrepid? Let’s go!
Trailblazer, pioneer, and co-founder of the brilliant Bradt Guides to worldwide travel, Hilary Bradt is the author of Taking the Risk, a memoir in which she relives the rigours of travel before the days of the internet, what to do when lost in a jungle, how to travel through hostile territory, or what to do when being arrested. Hilary also shares her delight at the abundance of wildlife she encountered, from mountain gorillas in Rwanda to blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos and from tree frogs in Ecuador to rockhopper penguins in the Falkland Islands. She’s been everywhere man!
FELICE HARDY – on a story of resilience, survival, and success.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
8pm ~ 10th May ~ £8 (£7)
At the age of twenty-seven, Liesl Herbst was the Austrian National Tennis Champion, a celebrity in Vienna in the 1930s. But then, she and her family had to escape the Nazis. They came to Britain, where, though initially rendered stateless aliens, Liesl was able to qualify for Wimbledon, on the way defeating Tim Henman’s grandmother. In due course, she and her daughter Dorli went on to play in the grass court championships and remain the only mother and daughter ever to have played doubles together at Wimbledon.
Here is an illustrated and moving story of escape, survival, and success, which does not forget the fate of those left behind.
Felice Hardy, raised in an emotionally-ravaged family suffering from survivors’ guilt, is a journalist who has worked at Vogue, written for The Guardian, and The Telegraph, is co-author of numerous travel guidebooks, and has now written The Tennis Champion Who Escaped the Nazis.
