Talks & lectures, Literature

A quirky literary festival devoted to biography and the first modern biographer, James Boswell. Set at his former home of Auchinleck House, talks, performances and workshops by writers, actors and artists are accompanied by the opening night play, the BookandBedFest which allows campers to take part in book karaoke, and…

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…

A full day of discussions and performances based on the Sunday papers, with commentators, musicians, actors and poets bringing to life the day's news, section by section. Dress code? Smoking jackets and Sunday best, of course.

More than half the world's population lives in urban centres and the numbers are only going to grow. Leo Hollis, author of two books on London's history, argues that this is not necessarily a bad thing and that living in cities can make us fitter, richer, smarter, greener, more creative and even happier. Drawing on…

Lionel Shriver, the Orange Prize-winning author of 'We Need to Talk About Kevin', returns to Southbank Centre to discuss her new novel 'Big Brother'. This matter-of-fact, moving and masterful novel explores the arenas of our most complex relationships - food and family. Lionel Shriver appears in association with…

A series of seminars looking at how the 'voice of the people' has manifested in Scotland, from medieval times to today, presented by a variety of scholars in disciplines ranging from literature to politics. All welcome.

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…

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.

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…

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…