Join us as Gail Simmons explores her journey in ‘The Country of Larks’ as part of our Travel Series events taking place in July.

‘In the Footsteps of Robert Louis Stevenson and the Footprint of HS2’

In the autumn of 1874 a young, unknown writer called Robert Louis Stevenson walked across the Chiltern Hills, observing the natural world at a time when England was still largely agrarian and when most people still earned their living from working the land.

Almost 150 years later travel writer, journalist and long-time Oxford resident Gail Simmons follows in Stevenson’s footsteps, tracing the changes in the landscape since he walked here, and weaving in her own recollections of growing up in the Chilterns. At heart of the narrative is the imminent arrival of HS2, the high-speed railway from London to Birmingham which will bring other changes as it tears through the Chilterns AONB.

An eloquent, evocative and timely contemplation of the changing nature of life and landscape in the English countryside, the book is both a pilgrimage in honour of Robert Louis Stevenson and an homage to the Chilterns, a land that was once so rich and diverse, so bursting with birdsong, that Stevenson named it ‘The Country of Larks’.

This event is free to attend and everyone is welcome, please register in advance. For all enquiries, please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

Quickly approaching 50, Daphna Baram believes she is having a midlife crisis, though her GP thinks that’s highly optimistic. She looks back with no regrets but some remorse, and cracks up some insightful ideas about mass and time, AKA weight and age, tossed up with some political wisdom.

Is an Israeli comedian/journalist/human rights lawyer, and spent a year in Oxford writing her book Disenchantment: The Guardian and Israel. See: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2007/jun/04/daphna.baram

* * * * * “Masterful” (Bunbury Magazine)
* * * * “Wonderful and Hilarious” (Broadway Baby)
“Poignant and illuminating” (The List)

Doors at 8:30/Show at 9pm

As part of our Travel Series Talks this July, we are delighted to welcome Jonathan Lorie to discuss his new book ‘The Travel Writer’s Way’ and share an insider’s tips on how to write travel.

‘The Travel Writer’s Way’ takes a ground-breaking approach to the craft of travel writing, with a 12-step programme of ‘creative journeys’ specially tailored to develop your writing skills. Whether you want to write for pleasure or for publication, for friends or for the wider world, you’ll find this book as inspiring as it is useful.

It also contains invaluable advice from forty of the world’s top travel-writing experts, who are some of the finest travel writers, editors and bloggers, featuring acclaimed experts such as Paul Theroux, Levison Wood and Sara Wheeler. Furthermore, there is practical information on establishing your blog, writing your book and submitting your articles to travel editors.

Jonathan Lorie has more than 20 years’ experience as travel writer, travel-magazine editor and travel-writing tutor.

This is a free event, but please do register your intent to attend. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

For this event, 12 artists from all over the country will be presenting work that they have been making as part of the Sound Diaries open call.

The presenting artists are:

Richard Bentley, Hannah Dargavel-Leafe, Aisling Davis, Atilio Doreste, Marlo De Lara, Beth Shearsby, Kathryn Tovey, Jacek Smolicki, James Green, Lucia Hinojosa, Sena Karahan, Fi.Ona

Sound Diaries expands awareness of the roles of sound and listening in daily life. The project explores the cultural and communal significance of sounds and forms a research base for projects executed both locally and Internationally, in Beijing, Brussels, Tallinn, Cumbria and rural Oxfordshire.

As part of our Let’s Discuss series, we’re proud to be welcoming international speaker, change-maker and global Sharing Economy expert, Benita Matofska and photographer with purpose Sophie Sheinwald, to Oxford for the launch of their new book ‘Generation Share: The change-makers building the Sharing Economy’. Benita and Sophie will dispel the myths surrounding the Sharing Economy, going beyond the big corporates to delve into the wider social and environmental impacts of sharing; from human milk banks saving the lives of premature and sick babies, to social enterprises crowdfunding employment for the homeless and food sharing that is taking people out of food poverty. Benita’s research for Generation Share evidences how the Sharing Economy is saving millions of lives. Expect a lively discussion about this 21st century phenomenon that is changing the way we think, live and do business.

This event is free but do please register your interest in advance, For all enquiries, please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

Blackwell’s is pleased to be hosting the launch of Lisa Cybaniak’s, Survivor to Warrior.

Synopsis
As a survivor of ten years of child abuse, Lisa gently walks you through effective strategies to help you reframe your experiences and reconnect with your Higher Self to help you rebuild your life on your own terms.

Lisa Cybaniak is a Transformational NLP Coach and Child Abuse Survivor. Survivor to Warrior is her first book and is published by Conscious Dreams Publishing.

This event is free but please do register if you plan on attending. There will be complimentary food and drink available on the evening, as well as the opportunity to network and get your book signed by the author. For more information please contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

We are delighted to be joined by writer and musician, Catrina Davies, who will be in conversation with George Monbiot on her new book, Homesick and the current housing crisis.

Aged thirty-one, Catrina Davies was renting a box-room in a house in Bristol, which she shared with four other adults and a child. Working several jobs and never knowing if she could make the rent, she felt like she was breaking apart.

Homesick for the landscape of her childhood, in the far west of Cornwall, Catrina decides to give up the box-room and face her demons. As a child, she saw her family and their security torn apart; now, she resolves to make a tiny, dilapidated shed a home of her own.

With the freedom to write, surf and make music, Catrina rebuilds the shed and, piece by piece, her own sense of self. On the border of civilisation and wilderness, between the woods and the sea, she discovers the true value of home, while trying to find her place in a fragile natural world.

This is the story of a personal housing crisis and a country-wide one, grappling with class, economics, mental health and nature. It shows how housing can trap us or set us free, and what it means to feel at home.

Catrina Davies is a writer, singer-songwriter and DJ based in Cornwall, where she lives and works in a tin shed. Her first book The Ribbons Are For Fearlessness is a memoir about busking from Norway to Portugal with her cello. Her story has been featured in Vogue, Red, Daily Express, Surfer’s Path, and numerous other publications and her songs have been played on NTS and the BBC.

This event will be chaired by author and activist, George Monbiot. Along with writing books such as How Did We Get into this Mess, and Out of the Wreckage, George is the editor of the recent independent report to the Labour Party, Land for the Many: Changing the way our fundamental asset is used, owned and governed, which aims to put land at the very heart of politcal debate and discussion.

This is a free event, but please do register if you plan on attending. This event will be held in our Philosophy Department which is only accessible by a small flight of stairs. Seating will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. For more information please contact out Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Talk followed by questions and discussion. This is the second in a three-part series of separate talks on democracy

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting a very special event at the Sheldonian Theatre with Alain de Botton on The School of Life: An Emotional Education.

We spend years in school learning facts and figures but the one thing we’re never taught is how to live a fulfilled life. That’s why we need The School of Life – a real organisation founded ten years ago by writer and philosopher Alain de Botton, an organisation which has one simple aim: to equip people with the tools to survive and thrive in the modern world. And the most important of these tools is emotional intelligence.

The School of Life is nothing short of a crash course in emotional maturity. With all the trademark wit and elegance of Alain de Botton’s other writings, and rooted in practical, achievable advice, it shows us a path to the better lives we all want and deserve.

Blackwell’s are delighted to announce that poet and author Lemn Sissay will be with us, in conversation with Derek Owusu, to discuss his new memoir, My Name is Why.

How does a government steal a child and then imprison him? How does it keep it a secret? This story is how.

At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth.

This is Lemn’s story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph.

Sissay reflects on his childhood, self-expression and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family and the meaning of home. Written with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation’s best-loved poets, this moving, frank and timely memoir is the result of a life spent asking questions, and a celebration of the redemptive power of creativity.

Lemn Sissay is a BAFTA-nominated, award-winning international writer and broadcaster. He has authored collections of poetry and plays. His Landmark poems are visible in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Addis Ababa. He has been made an Honorary Doctor by the universities of Manchester, Kent, Huddersfield and Brunel. Sissay was awarded an MBE for services to literature and in 2019 he was awarded the PEN Pinter Prize. He is Chancellor of the University of Manchester. He is British and Ethiopian.

Derek Owusu is a writer and co-host of the literary podcast, Mostly Lit. He also mentors young people at Urban Synergy, an award winning early intervention mentoring charity that helps over 1,000 young people between 11-18 years of age . Derek edited and contributed to the book Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space (2019).

Tickets for this event cost £5. Doors open at 6.45pm at which time there will be a small bar available for the purchasing of drinks. For more information please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Short Stories Aloud is back for the autumn! Listen to actors read short stories read by our guest authors. This month we are joined by Joanna Kavenna, author of Zed, and Brian Catling, the Vorrh Trilogy and Earwig . After hearing short stories (and eating some cake) there will be questions from Sarah Franklin, author of Shelter, and the audience. Join us for a wonderful evening, not to be missed.

Zed

Self-anointed guru of the Digital Age, Guy Matthias, CEO of Beetle, has become one of the world’s most powerful and influential figures. Untaxed and ungoverned, his trans-Atlantic company essentially operates beyond the control of Governments or the law.

But trouble is never far away, and for Guy a perfect storm is brewing: his wife wants to leave him, fed up with his serial infidelities; malfunctioning Beetle software has led to some unfortunate deaths which are proving hard to cover up; his longed for deal with China is proving troublingly elusive and, among other things, the mystery hacker, Gogol, is on his trail.

With the clock ticking- Guy, his aide Douglas Varley, Britain’s flailing female PM, conflicted national security agent Eloise Jayne, depressed journalist David Strachey, and Gogol, whoever that may be – the question is becoming ever more pressing, how do you live in reality when nobody knows anything, and all knowledge, all certainty, is partly or entirely fake?

Joanna Kavenna grew up in various parts of Britain, and has also lived in the USA, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Her first book The Ice Museum was about travelling in the North. Her second book, a novel called Inglorious, won the Orange Prize for New Writing. Kavenna’s writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the Guardian and Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, the International Herald Tribune, the Spectator and the Telegraph, among other publications. She has held writing fellowships at St Antony’s College, Oxford and St John’s College, Cambridge. She currently lives in the Duddon Valley, Cumbria.

Earwig

Not since Edgar Allan Poe and the Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita has there been such a masterly tale of feline evil.

Earwig got his nickname from his grandfather.

At the start of this story he is employed to look after a strange little girl in a flat in Liege. He spies on her, listens to her by holding a glass up to the wall.

But he never touches her except when, as part of his duties, he is required to is to make teeth of ice and insert them in her gums.

Earwig takes a rare day off, which he spends drinking by himself in Au Metro, a seedy bar full of drunks, dancers and eccentrics. It is St Martin’s day and in the evening as crowds parade through the street carrying lanterns through the snow, he is drawn reluctantly into a conversation with a sinister stranger called Tyre. As a result Earwig accidentally maims a waitress with a broken bottle. He understands that on some level Tyre meant this to happen.

Shortly afterwards a black cat is delivered to the flat, unasked for. The girl forms an immediate bond with it, but Earwig identifies it as the enemy.

Travelling across country by train, transporting the girl and her black cat, Earwig is increasingly caught up in a web of unfortunate and increasingly violent coincidences.

Brian Catling is an English sculptor, poet, novelist, film maker and performance artist. He was educated at North East London Polytechnic and the Royal College of Art. He now holds the post of Professor of Fine Art at The Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford and is a fellow of Linacre College. He has previously written The Vorrh trilogy and Only the Lowly, a collection of short stories.

Tickets for this event cost £5. Doors will open at 6.45pm and there will be a small bar available to purchase drinks. For more information, please contact our customer service desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting economics commentator Grace Blakeley, in conversation with Aaron Bastani, on her new book Stolen, a readable polemic on the growing dominance of the finance industry over the UK economy, and what the left can do to challenge it.

For decades, it has been easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

In the decade leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, booming banks, rising house prices and cheap consumer goods propped up living standards in the rich world. Thirty years of rocketing debt and financial wizardry had masked the deep underlying fragility of finance-led growth, and in 2008 we were forced to pay up.

The decade since has witnessed all kinds of morbid symptoms, as all around the rich world, wages and productivity are stagnant, inequality is rising, and ecological systems are collapsing.

Stolen is a history of finance-led growth and a guide as to how we might escape it. We’ve sat back as financial capitalism has stolen our economies, our environment and even the future itself. Now, we have an opportunity to change course. What happens next is up to us.

Grace Blakeley is economics commentator at the New Statesman and research fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). She has written on economic issues for, amongst others, the Independent, and Novara Media, and has appeared on BBC News, the Today Programme, ITV Granada Debate, and Newsnight.

Aaron Bastani is a Senior Editor and co-founder of Novara Media. He has a PhD in media and politics and his new book Fully Automated Luxury Communism was published by Verso earlier this year.

Tickets for this event cost £5. Doors will open at 6.45pm at which time there will be a small bar available for purchasing drinks. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of humanity first landing on the moon. To celebrate this Oliver Morton will be here at Blackwell’s, in conversation with Caspar Henderson, to discuss his new book, The Moon: A History for the Future.

Every generation has looked up from the Earth and wondered at the beauty of the Moon. 50 years ago, a few Americans became the first to do the reverse-with the whole world watching through their eyes. In this short but wide-ranging book, Oliver Morton explores the history and future of humankind’s relationship with the Moon. A counterpoint in the sky, it has shaped our understanding of the Earth from Galileo to Apollo. Its gentle light has spoken of love and loneliness; its battered surface of death and the cosmic. For some, it is a future on which humankind has turned its back. For others, an adventure yet to begin. Advanced technologies, new ambitions and old dreams mean that men, women and robots now seem certain to return to the Moon. What will they learn there about the universe, the Earth-and themselves? And, this time, will they stay?

Oliver Morton is Environment Editor of the Economist, having formerly been Chief News Editor of Nature and Editor-in-Chief of Wired. He is the author of Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World and Eating the Sun: How Light Powers the Planet and has written for many publications, including Nature, the Independent, National Geographic, the New Yorker, Newsweek, Prospect, and Wired. Asteroid 10716 Olivermorton is named for him.

Caspar Henderson is a writer and journalist. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Independent, New Scientist, the New York Review of Books, and other publications. From 2002 to 2005 he was a senior editor at OpenDemocracy. He received the Roger Deakin Award from the Society of Authors in 2009 and the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award in 2010. He is the author of ‘The Book of Barely Imagined Beings’, a bestiary for the 21st Century, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.

This is a free event, but please do register if you plan on attending. The event will take place in our Philosophy Department, which is accessible via a short flight or stairs. Seat are allocated on a first come, first served basis. For more information please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Lady Margaret Hall and Blackwell’s: Celebrating 140 years

Blackwell’s opened its doors on January 1st 1879 on Broad Street, Oxford and have been trading continuously from there ever since. Since then they have grown to become more than just one bookshop, with a chain of 40 bookshops serving not only individual customers but also a host of libraries, universities, businesses and government departments.

In October 1879 LMH opened its doors to the first nine women students under the Principalship of Elizabeth Wordsworth. Since that very moment they have been leading change in Oxford, being the first women’s College to make the decision to admit men as both students and Fellows from 1979, and in 2016 welcomed the first students of their pioneering Foundation Year to the College. The University of Oxford have recently announced Foundation Oxford, based on LMH’s model.

To celebrate this anniversary, author and LMH alumna (1964 Modern Languages) Professor Dame Marina Warner will ask “Why words matter: The life of stories in dislocated times”. Marina Warner will talk about literature as border crossing, a site of exchange, and a way of making a community of fate.

Marina Warner is a writer of fiction, criticism and history; her works include novels and short stories as well as studies of art, myths, symbols and fairytales.

Tickets for this event are free to alumni of Lady Margaret Hall. For your free ticket, please contact the LMH Almuni Engagement Officer, Emma Farrant at alumni.officer@lmh.ox.ac.uk. Tickets are available to the public at a cost of £5. The event will be followed by a short drinks reception. For more information please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

Photo credit: Carolina Mazzolari

As part of our 140th Anniversary celebrations, Blackwell’s are delighted to be joined by Mark Williams and Danny Penman to discuss Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World, a book which has been a bestseller across the company since its publication in 2011.

THE LIFE-CHANGING BESTSELLER – OVER 1.5 MILLION COPIES SOLD

Authoritative, beautifully written and much-loved by its readers, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World has become a word-of-mouth bestseller and global phenomenon. It reveals a set of simple yet powerful practices that you can incorporate into daily life to break the cycle of anxiety, stress unhappiness and exhaustion. It promotes the kind of happiness that gets into your bones and allows you to meet the worst that life throws at you with new courage.

Mindfulness is based on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Co-developed by Professor Mark Williams of Oxford University, MBCT is recommended by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and is as effective as drugs for preventing depression. But, equally, it works for the rest of us who aren’t depressed but who are struggling to keep up with the relentless demands of the modern world.

By investing just a few minutes each day, this classic guide to mindfulness will put you back in control of your life once again.

Professor Mark Williams is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He co-developed MBCT, is Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, and is co-author of the international best-seller The Mindful Way Through Depression. He is one of the premier researchers in the field of mindfulness worldwide, and has been a pioneer in its development and dissemination.

Dr Danny Penman is a qualified meditation teacher and award-winning writer and journalist. He currently writes features for the UK Daily Mail, having previously worked for the BBC, New Scientist and the Independent newspaper. He is co-author of the international bestseller Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World. He has received journalism awards from the RSPCA and the Humane Society of the United States. In 2014, he won the British Medical Association’s Best Book (Popular Medicine) Award for Mindfulness for Health: A Practical Guide to Relieving Pain, Reducing Stress and Restoring Wellbeing (co- written with Vidyamala Burch). His books have been translated into more than 25 languages.

This event will consist of a short presentation on mindfulness followed by the authors in conversation with our Sales Development Manager Zool Verjee before taking questions from the audience. It is free to attend, but please do register. The talk will be taking place in the Philosophy Department which is accessible via a short flight of stairs. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Blackwell’s are delighted to welcome to the shop Joanna Cannon who will be in conversation with Lucy Atkins on her new memoir Breaking and Mending: A junior doctor’s stories of compassion and burnout.

The unforgettable memoir from the bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and Three Things About Elsie

‘A few years ago, I found myself in A&E. I had never felt so ill. I was mentally and physically broken. So fractured, I hadn’t eaten properly or slept well, or even changed my expression for months. I sat in a cubicle, behind paper-thin curtains and I shook with the effort of not crying. I was an inch away from defeat… but I knew I had to carry on. Because I wasn’t the patient. I was the doctor.’

No sleep, skeleton support, a head full of anatomy lectures and idealism: this is life for our junior doctors in their first few years on the wards. Here, Joanna Cannon tells her own story in visceral, heart-rending snapshots. We walk with her, facing extraordinary and daunting moments and meeting her patients: from attending her first post-mortem, learning the overwhelming power of a well or badly chosen word, sitting with a young woman in her final hours, to small sustaining acts of kindness and connection.

These moments teach her that emotional care can be just as critical as restoring a heartbeat – and eventually lead her to her true home in psychiatry. Deeply moving, warm, compassionate and beautifully written, Breaking & Mending shows us why we need to better care for mental health – and for those who care for us.

Joanna Cannon worked as a psychiatrist and wrote her bestselling debut novel, The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, in NHS hospital carparks during her lunchbreaks. In 2017, she delivered the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ President’s Lecture. Though she returns to the wards as a volunteer with the NHS Arts for Health programme, Joanna is now a full-time writer and in 2018 her second novel, Three Things about Elsie, also became a bestseller and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Lucy Atkins is the award winning author of The Night Visitor, The Missing One and The Other Child. She has also written widely on health issues, including The Cancer Survivor’s Companion and How to Feel Better. Lucy is a critic and journalist and is based in Oxford.

Tickets for this event are £5. Doors will open at 6.45pm when there will be a small bar available to purchase drinks. For more information, please contact our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

This paper explores the connectivities between violence, memory, personhood, place and human substances after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It explores the practice of ‘care-taking’ at genocide memorials – the preservation and care of human remains –to reveal how survivors of the genocide re-make their worlds through working with the remnants of their dead loved ones. I argue that ‘care-taking’ is a way to rebuild selves and to retain lost relations to the dead that still interfere in the everyday lives of the living. Survivors project their emotions, sentiments and confusion about an uncertain future onto the remains. Care-taking re-verses time because it gives back dignity to those who died ‘bad deaths’ during the genocide. I further argue that the memorials are a vehicle for what I coin ‘place-bound proximity’ that enables a material space of communication between care-takers and their dead loved ones, provides a last resting place and a ‘home’ for both the living and the dead. Importantly these findings questions mainstream transitional justice approaches to social recovery demonstrating that memory cannot be deployed or harnessed and that reconciliation is better understood as rebuilding a (normal) relationship with the dead rather than as one with perpetrators. Following a ‘victims-approach’ this paper draws on extensive fieldwork conducted in Rwanda between 2011 and 2014.

Join astrophysicist Becky Smethurst on a whistle-stop tour through space, stopping off to explore everything you need to know about the universe. Guiding you through the galaxies, explaining the mysteries of black holes, dark matter and what existed before the Big Bang. She provides evidence as to whether we really are alone and highlighting what we still have to learn. If you have big questions about space or just want to expand your mind join Becky as she provides us with some answers.

Becky’s book Space: 10 things you should know will be available to buy on the night and she will be signing.

‘Bite-sized, cutting edge science delivered with enormous enthusiasm – all you need to travel the cosmos’ CHRIS LINTOTT

Dr Becky Smethurst is an astrophysicist and research fellow at the University of Oxford. Her current research is trying to answer the question ‘How do galaxies and black holes evolve together?’. Her Youtube channel Dr. Becky, where she explains unsolved mysteries, weird objects found in space and general space news each week, has 46k subscribers and counting. She also presents physics videos for YouTube channel Sixty Symbols and astronomy videos for Deep Sky Videos. She was shortlisted for the Institute of Physics Early Career Physics Communicator Award and was named Audience Winner of the UK National Final of the FameLab 2014 Competition.

Kajal Odedra has always been passionate about helping other people affect change.
She is Executive Director of Change.Org and author of ‘Do Something: Activism for Everyone’. Change.org is the world’s largest petition platform with 15 million UK users and 200 million globally.

In this book talk the Author, Carl Benedikt Frey, will discuss how the Industrial Revolution was a defining moment in history, but how few grasped its enormous consequences at the time. Now that we are in the midst of another technological revolution how can the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present?

This talk will be followed by a book sale, signing and drinks reception. All welcome.

Astrophysics is the science of the stars, and more widely the science of the Universe. During this stellar event, Prof James Binney will present extracts from his Very Short Introduction to Astrophysics (OUP). You will learn about the rapid expansion of the field in the last century, with vast quantities of data gathered by telescopes exploiting all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the great advance of computing power, which has allowed increasingly effective mathematical modelling.

Data-driven micro-targeted campaigns have become a main stable of political strategy. As personal and societal data becomes more accessible, we need to understand how it can be used and mis-used in political campaigns and whether it is relevant to regulate political candidates’ access to data.

This book talk will be followed by a drinks reception and book sale, all welcome

What happens when you excavate the image archives of the Institute of Archaeology and other departments of the University of Oxford? The answer: you find amazing pictures that tell unexpected stories. Most of the pictures are black and white and 70 or more years old. Discover Oxford through a new lens with Janice Kinory to explore the Historic Environment Image Resource Project digital image archive where the images are stored and how you can access them.

Joris Luyendijk was born in Amsterdam and studied in Kansas, Amsterdam, and Cairo. He is a writer, journalist and anthropologist. He has written about the Middle East, the banking crisis and Brexit.

Grab a pint and join us for a cabaret with a difference as six stellar acts take you out of this world with their entertaining riffs on life at the edge of existence. From outer space to the dinosaurs, we’ll be rocketing through a medley of music, comedy and creativity that’ll keep you weightless with laughter all night. If you love science, solar systems and stand up, this cabaret should be right up your Milky Way.

Featuring Chris Lintott (BBC Sky at Night), Lucy Rogers (Robot Wars) and many more.

This event is part of the IF Oxford Science and Ideas Festival 18-28 October 2019. IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation when you book.

There may be tickets available on the door – spaces may be reallocated if ticket holders are late.

IF Oxford science and ideas festival 18-28 October #IFOx2019

We are honoured to announce that Elif Shafak will give this year’s Annual Blackwell’s Lecture on Thursday 24th October 2019 at 7.30pm in the Sheldonian Theatre.

Elif Shafak will deliver this year’s Annual Blackwell’s Lecture on the subject of literature, social change and politics.

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and the most widely read female author in Turkey. She writes in both Turkish and English, and has published seventeen books, eleven of which are novels, including the bestselling ‘The Bastard of Istanbul’, ”The Forty Rules of Love’, and ‘Three Daughters of Eve’. Her latest book is ’10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.’

Her work has been translated into fifty languages, published by Penguin/Random House and represented by Curtis Brown globally. She was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2017 Elif was chosen by Politico as one of the twelve people who would make the world better.

Elif Shafak is also a political scientist and an academic. She holds a degree in International Relations, a masters’ degree in Gender and Women’s Studies and a PhD in Political Science and Political Philosophy. She has taught at various universities in Turkey, the UK and the USA, including St Anne’s College, Oxford University, where she is an honorary fellow.

Elif Shafak is a member of Weforum Global Agenda Council on Creative Economy and a founding member of ECFR (European Council on Foreign Relations). An advocate for women’s rights, LGBT rights and freedom of speech, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice a TED Global speaker, each time receiving a standing ovation.

Her writing has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, MAN Asian Prize; the Baileys Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award, and shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and RSL Ondaatje Prize. She judged numerous prestigious literary prizes.

Tickets cost just £5 are available from the Blackwell’s Eventbrite website or from Blackwell’s Bookshop, 50 Broad Street, Oxford.

Scientists need your help! As we get more information about the Universe, we risk becoming overwhelmed but – as Oxford astronomer Chris Lintott explains in his new book, you can help. Hear from Oxford scientists who have worked with volunteers to find planets, and to count penguins, and even hunt aliens.

IF Oxford is operating a Pay What You Decide (PWYD) ticketing system. This works by enabling you to pre-book events without paying for a ticket beforehand. Afterwards, you have the opportunity to pay what you decide you want to, or can afford. If you prefer, you can make a donation to IF Oxford when you book. All funds raised go towards next year’s Festival.

Blackwell’s are delighted to be hosting a celebration in honour of the launch of Matthew Rice’s beautiful new book, Oxford.

Oxford is one of the jewels of European architecture, much loved and much visited. The city offers an unparallelled collection of the best of English building through the centuries. Matthew Rice’s Oxford is a feast of delightful watercolour illustrations and an informed and witty text, explaining how the city came into being and what to look out for today.

While the focus is on architectural detail, Rice also describes how the city has been shaped by its history, most of all by generations of patrons who had the education and the resources to commission work from the greatest architects and builders of their day, an astonishing range of which still stands.

More than anywhere else in England, it is possible in Oxford to take in the history of English architecture simply by walking today’s streets, lanes, parks and meadows.

This is a free event, but please register if you would like to attend. The evening will include a short speech from Matthew Rice, followed by a chance to buy the book, get it signed and then enjoy the evening with the refreshments provided. For more information, please call our Customer Service Desk on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

Blackwell’s are delighted to be joined by astrophysicist and YouTuber, Dr Becky Smethurst on her first book, Space: 10 Things You Should Know.

Synopsis

Written by Oxford astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst and composed of ten simple essays, this title guides you swiftly through the galaxies, explaining the mysteries of black holes, dark matter and what existed before the Big Bang, presenting the evidence as to whether we really are alone, illuminating what we still don’t know, and much more besides. If you have big questions about Space, this volume will provide you with the answers in an engaging and succinct way.

Becky Smethurst is a research fellow at Christ Church College, Oxford with a special interest in how galaxies and their central supermassive black holes evolve together. She is also a science communicator through her YouTube channel, Dr. Becky, which has over 45,500 followers.

This event is free, but please do register if you plan on attending. For more information please call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk

The AfOx insaka is a gathering for sharing ideas and knowledge about Africa-focused research with speakers from diverse and varied academic disciplines. There are two events each term.

Speakers for the first AfOx insaka in the new academic year are Dr Robtel Neajai Pailey, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Oxford Department of International Development and Dr Jacob McKnight, Senior Researcher, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health.

At this AfOx talk, Robtel Neajai Pailey uses her anti-corruption children’s books to argue that equipping children with verbal tools to question the confusing ethical codes of adults can revolutionise how we talk and theorise about corruption.

Jake McKnight is a Health Systems Researcher at the Oxford Health Systems Collaboration (OHSCAR). He was originally a logistician for MSF in Angola and Somalia, before conducting his PhD research in Ethiopia. He then read for the MSc. in African Studies at Oxford, before completing his PhD at Said Business School, where he concentrated on healthcare reform in Ethiopia. Jake will talk about the failures and successes of projects he’s studied or been involved in, reflecting on the idea that ‘Africa Works’, and as researchers and implementors, it’s up to us to fit local cultures rather to try to ‘fix’ them.