This Is Not a Book About Charles Darwin
Emma Darwin
Part memoir, part biography, part book about creative writing and what really makes a novel, and also a brave book about failure, This Is Not a Book About Charles Darwin is a unique and compelling book. Emma Darwin wanted to take the road less travelled: there were the fascinating real lives of Erasmus Darwin and the Lunar Society; Tom Wedgwood the first photographer; Julia Wedgwood, who as a writer and intellectual was ranked with George Eliot; Ralph Vaughan Williams and his extraordinary love story; and poet and Communist John Cornford, first Briton to be killed in the Spanish Civil War. Darwin wanted to grow a novel out of the science and the art – the creativity – that runs through 250 years of her family. This Is Not a Book About Charles Darwin tells the story of those riches through the lens of Darwin’s struggle. It is a wry, witty and honest account of her journey through her family as she sought to write the novel.
Other events on the 12th October 2019
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To the Land of Long Lost Friends (new No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency) The Peppermint Tea Chronicles (new 44 Scotland Street) The Second Worst Restaurant in France (sequel to My Italian Bulldozer) The Department of Sensitive Crimes (first in a new series, The Detective Varg novels)
Alexander McCall Smith
Explore the world of Alexander McCall Smith as he discusses the latest happenings with Mma Ramotswe and the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency in Botswana, the return of the...
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Superfast Lead at Speed
Sophie Devonshire
The world is changing fast. Everyone talks about disruption. We all know that the business world is accelerating at an exponential rate. As technology drives the expectation that everything...
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Royal Yacht Squadron Tour
Join Royal Yacht Squadron Honorary Historian, Commodore David Hughes for a tour of this historic building. Founded in 1815 by a group of friends, the Royal Yacht Squadron quickly became the favourite...
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Life Changing Magic of Numbers
Bobby Seagull
Bobby Seagull, the BBC maths guru and University Challenge star, tells the story of his life through numbers and shows the incredible way maths can make sense of the...
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Oscar A Life
Matthew Sturgis
‘Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.’ Oscar Wilde’s life – like his wit – as alive with paradox. He was both an early...
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The Face Pressed Against a Window: A Memoir
Sir Tim Waterstone
Sir Tim Waterstone is one of Britain’s most successful businessmen, having built the Waterstone’s empire that started with one small bookshop in 1982. In this charming and evocative memoir,...
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Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him
Tracy Borman
Henry VIII is famous for being the king who married six times. But it was the men in his life, far more than the women, who shaped this notorious...
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Swan Song
Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott
Swan Song is the fictionalised reimagining of the later life of Truman Capote. It is a novel about the line between gossip and slander, self-creating and self preservation and...
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Beating Osteoporosis
Diana Moran
Celebrating her 80th birthday Diana Moran’s new book has been written in association with the Royal Osteoporosis Society. The book is based on the latest research from the ROS...
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Under Cover: A Poet’s Life in Publishing
Jeremy Robson
Jeremy Robson talks about his life as a successful poet and publisher that saw him work with many bestselling authors and occupy a place at the heart of the...
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Incredible Journeys
David Barrie
How do our fellow creatures – large and small – find their way around? David Barrie explores the many wonders (and outstanding mysteries) of animal navigation. What guides a...
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The Language of Birds
Jill Dawson
The Language of Birds was inspired by the Lord Lucan case and the ‘lovely young nanny’ at its centre, whose history has been largely forgotten. It’s the summer of...
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The Imperial Tea Party; Family, Politics and Betrayal: the Ill-fated British and Russian Royal Alliance
Frances Welch
The British and Russian Royal Families met three times before the Romanovs’ tragic end in 1918. Frances Welch draws back the curtain on those pivotal encounters between these two...
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Andree’s War: How One Young Woman Outwitted the Nazis
Francelle Bradford White
Francell Bradford White shares the story of her mother, Andrée Griotteray, who was 19 when the Germans invaded France. Andrée helped her younger brother Alain set up an underground...
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One Man’s Climb: A Journey of Trauma and Triumph on K2
Adrian Hayes
British record-breaking adventurer, author, speaker and leadership coach, Adrian Hayes, details the deeply moving story of the beauty and brutality of life, and death, on the world’s notorious second...
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Victoria & Albert: The Civic and the Global
Dr Tristram Hunt
Dr Tristram Hunt, Director of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, will discuss how the museum’s founding commitment to design, education and industry continues to define it today. Tracing the...
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One Stop Literary Festival
Craig Brown
Craig Brown presents his One-Stop Literary Festival, featuring parodies of Jilly Cooper, Robert Macfarlane, Richard Dawkins, Virginia Woolf and Paolo Coelho. ‘Pitch-perfect, laugh-out loud parodies from our greatest living...
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The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think
Marcus du Sautoy
In The Creativity Code, Marcus du Sautoy examines the nature of creativity, as well as providing an essential guide into how algorithms work, and the mathematical rules underpinning them....
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Our Man in New York: The British Battle to Bring America into the Second World War
Henry Hemming
A gripping, interactive 45-minute talk inspired by Henry Hemming’s new book Our Man in New York – the eye-opening story of how the British used ‘fake news’ to help...
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The Quest for Queen Mary
Hugo Vickers
Queen Mary, grandmother of the present Queen, died at Marlborough House in 1953. Two years later James Pope-Hennessy was invited to write her official biography. His first reaction was...
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Kate Adie in Conversation with Alan Titchmarsh
Kate Adie
Join Kate Adie and Alan Titchmarsh on a journey through Kate’s career. She was on the scene at the explosive end to the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980, and...
