Talks & lectures, Literature

A unique education festival developed and promoted by the sector agency College Development Network, aimed at challenging, provoking and generating ideas about how education could be. Launched this year by Mel Young, President of The Homeless World Cup, there will be virtual games, philosophy cafés, a night of dangerous…

The omnipresent guitarist Earl Slick, whose most recent project was David Bowie's The Next Day, discusses his new book.

Terry Jones (of writing, directing and Monty Python fame) talks about the possible reasons behind censorship in the Ellesmere manuscript, an early 15th century illuminated manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

SUNDAY 27 OCTOBER Weekend events from 10am The Pill. Rebellion. Experimentation. Protest. Civil Rights. This weekend we look at the Vietnam protests, pop art, social change, the anti-nuclear movement, civil rights, the Profumo affair, Skiffle, the Beatles and maverick composers including Frank Zappa, Stockhausen…

SATURDAY 26 – SUNDAY 27 OCTOBER Weekend events from 10am The Pill. Rebellion. Experimentation. Protest. Civil Rights. This weekend we look at the Vietnam protests, pop art, social change, the anti-nuclear movement, civil rights, the Profumo affair, Skiffle, the Beatles and maverick composers including Frank…

SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER Weekend events from 10am In the fraught atmosphere of the Cold War, Benjamin Britten’s pacifism, socialist leanings and homosexuality cast him as an outsider. Likewise, his tonal, communicative music was viewed as suspicious by his avant-garde contemporaries. We look at his remarkable work in…

SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER Weekend events from 10am In the fraught atmosphere of the Cold War, Benjamin Britten’s pacifism, socialist leanings and homosexuality cast him as an outsider. Likewise, his tonal, communicative music was viewed as suspicious by his avant-garde contemporaries. We look at his remarkable work in the…

SATURDAY 28 – SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER Weekend events from 10am In the fraught atmosphere of the Cold War, Benjamin Britten’s pacifism, socialist leanings and homosexuality cast him as an outsider. Likewise, his tonal, communicative music was viewed as suspicious by his avant-garde contemporaries. We look at his…

The prestigious Caine Prize, described as Africa's leading literary award, is awarded annually for African creative writing. The £10,000 Prize is awarded for a short story by an African writer published in English, whether in Africa or elsewhere. Join us for an evening of readings from the shortlist: Elnathan John…

A panel of artists, researchers and government policy makers explore the philosophical and critical questions that surround creative work, and the various viewpoints that influence it. Presented by CCA Creative Lab Residency and Centre for Modern Thought, Aberdeen.

The first of three shared readings in which the audience join in. At this intimate event all audience members share in the reading aloud of part of WH Auden and Christopher Isherwood's The Dog Beneath the Skin. Join us as we celebrate the range of poetry in the Poetry Library's collection as part of the library's…

The bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love discusses her first novel for 12 years. The Signature of All Things is a big novel about a big century, soaring across the globe from London, to Peru, to Philadelphia, to Tahiti, to Amsterdam. At its centre is Alma Whittaker, a woman of the Enlightened Age who stands defiantly…

Marina Warner talks about representations of witches and sorceresses in fairy tales and myths. Booking is essential.

For the first time, see the Forward Prizes awarded to poets live on stage. The annual Forward Prizes are regarded by poets internationally as the highest of accolades. Past winners include Thom Gunn, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Carol Ann Duffy. As a prelude to National Poetry Day and for the first time in the…

All audience members share in the reading aloud of Ken Smith's Fox Running. This is the second of three intimate shared readings which celebrate the range of poetry in the Poetry Library's collection as part of the library's 60th-birthday celebrations. Saison Poetry Library at Royal Festival Hall

The Great Books lectures are organised by the Institute of Ideas as part of an attempt to popularise and also enlarge the traditional canon of great books and open up debates about their interpretation and significance.

The author and founder of Wild Women Writing Workshops talks about finding your voice, the mysteries of creativity and writing poetry and young adult fiction.

Norwegian pianist, composer, author and ECM recording artist Ketil Bjornstadt celebrates the life of fellow Norwegian painter Edvard Munch. Born in Oslo in 1952, Ketil Bjørnstad is a unique figure in the arts in Norway. He is recognised not only as an unusually well-rounded musician (interpreter, improvisor, composer…

A chance to help shape literature events programming in Edinburgh, with a number of people working in the field leading the discussion. Email to RSVP.

New poems to make you question your relationship with the capital - whether you're a lifelong Londoner or one who's just here for the day. Wordsworth's famous sonnet, 'Composed upon Westminster Bridge', contemplates London's mighty heart asleep in the silence of a 19th-century dawn. This summer at Southbank Centre…

Margaret Atwood discusses the hugely-anticipated final novel in her dystopian trilogy. A man-made plague has swept the earth but a small group survives, along with the green-eyed Crakers - a gentle species bio-engineered to replace humans. Told with wit, dizzying imagination and dark humour, Booker Prize-winning…

Join us for a celebratory afternoon of readings, performances, installations and poetry films. With water as this year's theme, be carried along on a wave of words as the Poetry Society and Southbank Centre celebrate National Poetry Day. The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall Free

SUNDAY 8 DECEMBER Weekend events from 10am 'We live in a time not of mainstreams but of many streams', said composer John Cage. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, old certainties were cast aside and globalisation made a truly worldwide musical scene. During this December weekend we ask: what next? View the full…