Authors ~ Storytellers ~ Poets ~ Musicians ~ Acrobats
Discussions ~ Readings ~ Talks ~ Performances
WEDNESDAY 7th MAY
POP-UP POETRY, IN THE PARK – with Strawberry Green Productions, Poetry Swindon, and YOU!
Town Gardens, Quarry Road SN1 4EN
Tel 01793 771080
11am - 1pm ~ 7th May ~ FREE!
Got a poem you’d like to share, in the fresh air, with good friends?
Here is a chance to meet other poets, make new friends, and recite a favourite poem or two, written by you or a famous poet too.
A kindly crew, including MC Swindon Community Poet Tony Hillier, will be there to support you as you take centre stage and step up to recite your poem on the famous Town Gardens Bandstand.
And what’s more, your recitation will be filmed and recorded by the poetry-loving Strawberry Green film crew, Andrew Brewerton, Liz Murphy, and team, so that it can be enjoyed by other people, townwide, Wiltshire-wide, or even worldwide, poetry lovers everywhere, who could not get to Swindon’s Town Gardens to hear us say: we love pop-up poetry, today!
HARRIET HITCHEN – on Swindon Mountain.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
12.30pm ~ 7th May ~ £8 (£7)
Overlooking Swindon, a mountain appears, unexpectedly, without fuss or earthquake. It arrives quietly but looks as if it has always been there.
But it hasn’t. In fact, no one knows where it has come from. A multi-agency team is sent to find out. But public pressure grows and the truth is lost in the stampede for the summit of Swindon Mountain.
Fiction merges with archaeology in this sublime exploration of mystery, landscape, and personal rediscovery.
Harriet Hitchen, an erstwhile accredited archaeological illustrator, loves to unpick the emotional stories behind the facts of great artworks and heritage locations. Her first novel nude reimagines the secret life of a forgotten Pre-Raphaelite artist. Swindon Mountain combines her passion for archaeology and fiction.
RICHARD DAWKINS – on the untapped potential of DNA, and other matters evolutionary.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
6.30pm ~ 7th May ~ £10 (£9)
Why do we, and all living animal species, do what we do? How might the body, the behaviour, and the genes of every living creature be read as a book – as an archive of the worlds of its ancestors?
Evolutionary biologist, zoologist, and multi-bestselling author Professor Richard Dawkins discusses his latest book The Genetic Book of the Dead, a ground-breaking exploration of the untapped potential of DNA to transform our understanding and celebrate the wonders of evolution.
Internationally renowned as one of the world's most eminent writers and thinkers, Richard Dawkins is the award-winning author of, among others, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The God Delusion. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Literature, for good reason. He makes Science Literature, and begins his book like this: 'You are a book, an unfinished work of literature . . .'
ROMAN KRZNARIC and TIM COULSON – on learning about ourselves and our future, from our past.
Arts Centre, Devizes Road SN1 4BJ
Tel 01793 535534
8pm ~ 7th May ~ £8 (£7)
Do you ever find yourself wondering how we came to exist? Or how humans came to call planet Earth home? And do you wonder what we can learn from human history and whether it’s a good idea to look backwards in order to move forwards?
Writer, broadcaster, social philosopher, ecological campaigner, and serious real tennis player, whose books have been published in more than twenty-five languages, Roman Krznaric is author of newly-published History for Tomorrow, which provides fascinating insights and inspiration from the last 1000 years of world history that could help us confront the most pressing concerns of the twenty-first century.
Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford, Tim Coulson is the author of The Universal History of Us, which answers innumerable questions about who we are, where we came from, and whether the existence of the human race was inevitable or if, in the end, we are all just incredibly lucky to be here.
GEORGE SZIRTES and KATE POTTS – with their poems and poetry chat. Presented in association with Poetry Swindon.
Lower Shaw Farm, Old Shaw Lane, West Swindon SN5 5PJ
Tel 01793 535534
6.30pm ~ 7th May ~ £8 (£7)
King’s Gold Medal for Poetry winner in 2024 and award-winning Bloodaxe poet George Szirtes will read from his collection Fresh Out of the Sky, a book of songs, dreams, laments, narratives, and comedies about major life-changes involving country, identity, and belonging. It is about perpetually standing at the edge of change, anticipating it, reflecting on it and dreaming about it. He may also read from his many other collections and is happy to answer questions.
In Pretenders, her third book of poetry, editor, and teacher at the Poetry School Kate Potts asks: what is it like, as a daily, lived experience, to feel like a fraud or a fake? And what can ‘the imposter phenomenon’ tell us about who we are and how we relate to one another?
