Authors ~ Storytellers ~ Poets ~ Musicians ~ Acrobats
Discussions ~ Readings ~ Talks ~ Performances
THURSDAY 8th MAY
SWINDON SEEN – through fact and fiction, past and present.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
12.30pm ~ 8th May ~ £8 (£7)
Swindon is built on a rich bedrock of culture. Its past informs its present. Its writers, then and now, have stories to tell.
Embedded in Swindon’s railway heritage is the story of Alfred Williams, an uneducated factory worker with a passion for learning and writing. In his new novel, The Palace of My Imagination, local writer John Cullimore explores the life of The Hammerman Poet and the turbulent times through which he lived.
Those times and earlier ones are more widely explored in Made in Swindon: a social history 1840s – 1940s, edited by Philip Garrahan, a collection of pieces by six experienced local historians. They capture the spirit of Swindon not only through its pivotal social institutions but also through its art and culture. It moves Swindon’s heritage beyond nostalgia to a place of critical acclaim.
From an agricultural rather than an industrial background comes another of Swindon’s celebrated sons. Nature writer Richard Jefferies, and his important messages for today, are celebrated by Mike Pringle through Our Nature, a collection of words and images by a host of nature-loving writers and artists.
SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE (Film, 2024, 1hr 38 mins, Cert 12A)
Sofa Screening
Create Studios, 10 Carriage Works, London Street SN1 5FB
7pm ~ 8th May
£8 (Under 15s £5)
Presented by Create Studios in association with the Swindon Festival of Literature.
A award-winning film based on the best-selling novel Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, in which Oscar- winner Cillian Murphy delivers a stunning performance as devoted father Bill Furlong. While working to support his family, he discovers disturbing secrets kept by the local convent, where a supposed training school for girls is a place of cruelty. This forces Bill to confront his own past and the complicit silence of a small Irish town. ‘An absorbing and committed drama.’ The Guardian.
JOANNA MONCRIEFF – on Chemically Imbalanced, the story of a medical myth.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
6.30pm ~ 8th May ~ £8 (£7)
Based on the information that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance and that antidepressants work by targeting this mechanism, millions of people have, for decades, decided to take antidepressants. But recent research reveals that this diagnosis is not supported by evidence
In her new book, Chemically Imbalanced, Professor Joanna Moncrieff tells the story of a scientific myth and its consequences. It’s a story that illustrates the power of human interests to shape what passes as scientific knowledge. It also provides people with essential information about depression and antidepressants they will not readily find elsewhere and is an invitation to better understand and advocate for our mental health.
Joanna Moncrieff is a Professor at University College London and a practising psychiatrist. She researches and writes about drug treatment in psychiatry from a critical perspective.
KATHY WILLIS – on Good Nature, and what it can do for our health!
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
8pm ~ 8th May ~ £8 (£7)
Did you know that touching wood is good, the knottier the better; and that smelling roses lessens the likelihood of experiencing road rage? Did you know about the link between the amount of green space in our lives and our better health, mood, and longevity?
Did you know about the scientific proof for all this?
In her new book Good Nature, former director of science at Kew and now Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford, Kathy Willis explains how science has proven that Nature can enhance our wellbeing in practical, real, and remarkable ways, including which way we might walk to work, where we walk on holiday, and where our children go to school.
