Previous events
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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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MAR 12
Anthony Seldon at Words by the Water
Theresa May had the clearest, yet toughest, agenda of any Prime Minister since the Second World War: delivering Brexit. What followed defies belief or historical precedent. Drawing on a comprehensive series of interviews with May’s closest aides and allies Downing Street’s official historian, Anthony Seldon, decodes the enigma of the Prime Minister’s...
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MAR 05
Kenny MacAskill with Topping Books
The Political Martyrs memorial in Edinburgh looms large on the city’s skyline but its history is relatively unknown – and that is not by accident. As Edinburgh’s New Town was constructed, a narrative of kilts and loyalty was created for Scotland, with its radical history deliberately excluded. The French Revolution lit a spark in Scotland, inspiring radicals...
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MAR 04
Jewish Book Week with Geoffrey Robertson
For millennia, conquerors and oppressors have plundered precious art and artefacts from their creators and owners, from the Parthenon Marbles of Greece; to the treasures looted from the Old Summer Palace during the British Opium Wars with China. For centuries they have been admired in national museums worldwide, away from their cultural home. This...
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MAR 03
Naked Ambition: Kaya Mar Live Painting and Signing Session
Attentive observers of the past ten years of British politics may not have heard of Kaya Mar, but chances are they will have seen one of his pictures – at a rally, or in an agency photograph syndicated around the world, or via a viral tweet. His paintings in oils are unlikely pearls of surreal satire, gleaming in the murky political waters in which...
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MAR 02
What's Next For Iran?
In 1979, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was overthrown. His replacement, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared the birth of the Islamic republic of Iran. Today, ordinary Iranians live with an economy exhausted by sanctions and corruption, the media strictly controlled, and a hardline regime seeking to maintain its power by demonising outsiders. 40 years...
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FEB 26
Book Launch: 'Peter Shore: Labour's Forgotten Patriot' by Kevin Hickson, Jasper Miles and Harry Taylor
Peter Shore was one of the Labour Party's most important and original thinkers, working under Hugh Gaitskell, and serving in successive Cabinets for Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. He rose to become shadow Chancellor in a tumultuous period of Labour's history. During his long career in the upper echelons of the party, he stood twice for the leadership...
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FEB 23
Jon Henderson at Faversham Literary Festival
Can you recall when football’s greatest players shared a bond of borderline poverty with the fans they entertained? Shortlisted for The Telegraph Sports Book Awards 2019, 'When Footballers Were Skint: A Journey in Search of the Soul of Football' is an important historical record and immensely entertaining, based on the first-hand accounts of players from...
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FEB 20
Jack Straw In Conversation
In 2001 Jack Straw became the first senior British Foreign Secretary to visit Iran since the 1979 revolution and has developed a growing interest in the country ever since. His book sheds new light on Britain’s difficult relationship with Iran and explores the culture, psychology and history of this fascinating country. He will discuss the consequences...
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FEB 05
In Conversation with Asa Bennett
Join us for a morning of insight from Asa Bennett, one of Westminster’s leading political commentators, as he discusses his experiences, including the highs-and-lows, of working through the recent General Election; his viewpoint on the new Government, how it will govern, what restrictions it is under, and how its policies could be stymied by a buoyed...
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