Previous events
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JUL 09
Colin Yeo at Ways With Words
How would we treat Paddington Bear if he came to the UK today? Perhaps he would be a casualty of extortionate visa application fees; or maybe he would experience a cruel term of imprisonment in a detention centre. Now he faces the possibility of being shipped off to a different country. Immigration barrister Colin Yeo exposes the iniquities of an immigration...
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JUN 10
Andrew Mitchell at Hexham Book Festival
Veering from the hilarious to the tragic, Andrew Mitchell’s tales from the parliamentary jungle make for one of the most entertaining political memoirs in years. Andrew Mitchell brilliantly lifts the lid on the dark arts of the government Whips’ Office (‘Whipping, like stripping, is best done in private’) and reveals how he accidentally started Boris...
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MAY 21
Kathleen Wyatt at Aye Write!
In a time of deep fakes, alternative truths and leaked secrets, it would be easy to think that we are surrounded by lies. How do we do this extraordinary thing – often under the most ordinary of circumstances? How do we convince each other to suspend disbelief? Do we really tell more lies today? And considering her own lies, can she even be trusted...
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MAY 19
Alison Colwell at Aye Write
No Excuses charts an extraordinary principal’s journey in diary form from the moment she took over at a failing secondary school in a deprived area of the country, where less than a quarter of children attained five or more A*–C GCSEs, and how she set about the gruelling task of transforming its reputation using her zero-tolerance, tough-love approach...
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MAY 09
In Conversation with Geoffrey Robertson
World-renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson discusses his two books, Who Owns History? and Rather His Own Man, at the Chipping Camden Literary Festival.
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MAR 28
Kenny MacAskill MP and Maggie Craig at Aye Write!- CANCELLED
The French Revolution lit a spark in Scotland, inspiring radicals and working people, uniting them in opposition to the King. Leading radicals like Thomas Muir were transported to Botany Bay. But the radicals fought back and formed the United Scotsmen, seeking widespread political reform. MP Kenny MacAskill’s Radical Scotland meticulously details this...
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MAR 22
Asa Bennett at The Lewes Festival
Despite the last days of Rome being around 1,500 years ago, the shadow of its empire - and what those who lived in it had to say - still looms large over modern politics. Indeed, we would not think of politics as it is without our Classical ancestors. The word comes directly from the ancient Greek word polis, which refers to a city or state. Someone...
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MAR 21
Jack Straw at The Lewes Festival- CANCELLED
Amongst British diplomats, there's a poignant joke that Iran is the only country in the world which still regards the United Kingdom as a superpower. For many Iranians, it's not a joke at all. The past two centuries are littered with examples of Britain reshaping Iran to suit its own ends, from dominating its oil, tobacco and banking industries to removing...
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MAR 21
Norman Baker at The Lewes Festival
The royal family is the original Coronation Street - a long-running soap opera with the occasional real coronation thrown in. Its members have become celebrities, like upmarket versions of film stars and footballers. But they have also become a byword for arrogance, entitlement, hypocrisy and indifference to the gigantic amount of public money wasted...
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MAR 12
40 Years of Yes Minister! Jonathan Lynn with Ayesha Hazarika
On both sides of the Atlantic, the political environment has taken an us into unchartered territory. On one side, reality star turned political leader Donald Trump presides over a turbulent Twitter presidency. Meanwhile at home, the UK remains deeply embroiled in a polarising and uncertain Brexit process. With reality looking stranger than fiction...
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