After 12pm, Talks & lectures, Literature

A neuroscientist and a designer describe the many ways that bees inspire them in their work and everyday lives. Richard Clarke is director of Beautiful Mind at Lottolab, a hybrid Neuroscience/design studio. Clarke has developed a model system for visual processing. He has published work on how brains create meaning…

We launch the London Literature Festival with a glorious night of readings from some of the nominees for the Man Booker International Prize 2013. The Man Booker International Prize highlights one writer's continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage. Of the ten authors in…

Rebecca Goldstein ponders the conflict between literature and moral philosophy and whether or not literature is more adept at engendering moral advances than dear old Plato might have imagined.

One of Britain's leading intellectuals, AC Grayling makes his case against Religion and for Humanism. He gives a talk which asks, what is the alternative to religion as a view of the world and a foundation for morality? Is there a world-view and a code of life for thoughtful people who wish to live with intellectual…

Audrey Niffenegger, bestselling author of 'The Time Traveller's Wife' and 'Her Fearful Symmetry', comes to Southbank Centre to discuss her life as a writer and an artist. She also introduces her latest work, 'The Raven Girl'. This dark and gripping illustrated fairy tale is now being brought to life in a ballet written…

Barbara Kingsolver's works of fiction, poetry and non-fiction include the international bestseller 'The Poisonwood Bible' and 'The Lacuna', winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction. At this event she discusses her latest novel, 'Flight Behaviour', a captivating and topical story of class, poverty and climate change.

The phenomenon of urban beekeeping is hooking city dwellers from London to New York and Melbourne. Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum's book Bees in the City - The Urban Beekepeers' Handbook introduces us to this new breed of apiarists, the places they keep bees and their motivations for having hives. Get handy tips…

Borders Writers’ Forum members look to a variety of literary sources, from poetry to prose to history, for discussion on the alluring nature of Scotland.

Talks, in French, about various aspects of French culture, hosted by the Institut Français.

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, which will be…

To round off our weekend celebrating all things London, join us for an evening in conversation with China Miéville. The multi-award-winning author of The Scar, The City & the City, Embassytown and London's Overthrow uncovers some of London's neglected visionary literary voices. These include Somerset Maugham…

'Dickensian' and 'Victorian' are two adjectives regularly attached to descriptions of 19th-century England - the former because Charles Dickens (1812-1870) covered the territory in his novels, the latter because Queen Victoria, born in 1819, reigned from 1837 to 1901. Their lives ran in parallel. Dickens married in…

Thomas Hardy is unique in being equally famous as a novelist and a poet. A physically frail country boy, he set himself on a long and effortful path to achieve success. It took him to London, which he explored thoroughly and persistently. As a result his life was divided between Dorset, where his family and his…

Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' appeared anonymously 200 years ago, made everyone laugh and was thought much too clever to be the work of a woman. In our times it has been filmed and televised so many times that we are in danger of forgetting the book, the splendour of the words on the page and the story behind the…

Claire Tomalin concludes her five-part lecture series in the week of the Women's Prize for Fiction with a study of one of the great voices of the Enlightenment - Mary Wollstonecraft. Wollstonecraft died in childbirth in 1797 at the age 38, but in her short life she fired the opening shots in the long battle for sexual…

Claire Tomalin celebrates the man who had the luck to live through Civil War, Restoration, plague, fire, Dutch wars and the revolution of 1688. Throughout his life he spent time as a student, civil servant, MP and naval administrator. He used his knowledge to make an unparalleled record of England in the 17th century…

Cornelia Parker is one of the most profound and poetic artists working in Britain today. Her wide-ranging practice, chiefly in sculpture and installation, touches on the fragility of human experience. Exploring everything from ghosts and gravity to relics and the unconscious, she transforms everyday, ordinary objects…

How do you set up a poetry website? What are the advantages and disadvantages of online publishing? Join us as we consider the digital alternative to poetry magazines in discussion with website editors Helen Ivory from 'Ink, Sweat & Tears', Caleb Klaces from 'Like Starlings' and Claire Trévien from 'Sabotage…

Three authors discuss the graphic form, which is enjoying a long-overdue renaissance. Join Mary Talbot (Costa Award-winning author of 'Dotter of Her Father's Eyes'), Glyn Dillon (author of cult bestseller 'The Nao of Brown') and Stephen Collins (cartoonist for 'The Guardian' and author of the hotly anticipated 'The…

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

Bees and other pollinators are responsible for the pollination of one third of our shopping basket. There is now an urgent need to understand how the complex interaction of the multiple pressures faced by pollinators (habitat loss, climate change, pests and diseases and environmental chemicals) currently threatens their…

The artist Gavin Turk has had a lifelong interest in the cult of personality and the construction of artistic myth. A major new book assembled under his direction showcases more than two decades of extraordinary sculptures, paintings, prints and installation pieces. Jarvis Cocker is widely regarded as one of the most…

George Saunders is commonly described as one of the world's best short-story writers. Tonight he discusses his new collection 'The Tenth of December' with fan Jon McGregor, the IMPAC Award-winning author of 'Even the Dogs' and 'If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things'. 'Few people cut as hard or deep as Saunders does.…

Take to the streets of London's historic jewellery quarter, to jewellery shops, medieval crypts, the oldest pub in London and many other intriguing sites, and explore the secret histories of the area with Rachel Lichtenstein, author of Diamond Street -The Hidden World of Hatton Garden. Rachel has also developed a…