Four talks starting at 10am

10am: Alice’s Nightmare in Wonderland: an innovative adventure gamebook with a dangerous twist from Jon Green
11am: Alice in Guinness-time: a 1960s’ advertising campaign using Lewis Carroll’s characters from Brian Sibley
1pm: Alice in Fashion-land: over a century of changing trends and designs inspired by Wonderland by Kiera Vaclavik
2pm: Timeless Alice: adventures in modernity: from the fourth dimension to climate change by Franziska Kohlt

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.

Architectural historian Professor James Stevens Curl is best known as the Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. He also has uncompromising views on modern architecture which he sets out in his latest book, Making dystopia. Tonight’s talk for Oxford Civic Society marks his return to Oxford where he was the Society’s first Chairman in 1969. His talk is part of the Society’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

St Peter’s College welcomes you to a talk about Lord Nuffield, a leading figure in St Peter’s early history.

William Morris, Lord Nuffield, probably did more than any other individual to transform Oxford in the twentieth century, physically, economically and socially. His success as an industrialist allowed him to become one of Britain’s most generous benefactors; he gave away the equivalent of £1.5 billion in today’s money, to causes including health, education and academic research. This talk looks specifically at Lord Nuffield’s vital support to various Oxford colleges, including the saving of St Peter’s from closure, andhttps://interestingtalks.in/Oxford/# the founding of the college which bears his name, Nuffield College. It also explores his complex and sometimes difficult relationship with the university.

St Peter’s College Chapel
Free to attend
All welcome

Interested in medical device regulation? Get together with experts within the University and other researchers to discuss aspects of Medical Device Regulation relevant to your innovation. You can join us online at the comfort of your own desk!

Topic: Software classification

Who should attend? People interested in bringing a medical device to the market or interested in the medical device regulation.

Joining instructions: Further instructions on how to join the Zoom webinar will be made available to you after registration of the event

Blackwell’s is delighted to be hosting an event with Philip Pullman at the Sheldonian Theatre to celebrate the launch of The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two. The event will be recorded live for the Penguin Podcast.

The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two is a timely exploration of what it is to be human, to grow up and make sense of the world around us, from one of the UK’s greatest writers. It opens seven years after readers left Lyra Silvertongue and Will Parry on a park bench in Oxford’s Botanic Gardens in The Amber Spyglass, the final book in the His Dark Materials sequence. Lyra Silvertongue is now a 20-year-old Oxford student, about to embark on an epic journey across Europe and into Asia as she seeks out an elusive town said to be haunted by dæmons. Commenting on the plot earlier this year, Pullman said: “Things have been biding their time, waiting for the right moment to reveal their consequences for Lyra Silvertongue. The Secret Commonwealth tells the continuing story of the impact on Lyra’s life of the search for, and the fear of, Dust.”

This is one of only two author events this autumn to mark publication of this highly-anticipated book, and the only one to take place in Philip Pullman – and Lyra’s – hometown. There will be signed copies of The Secret Commonwealth available to purchase at the event, or as part of a book and ticket bundle, as well as a special independents’ edition of the book, priced £20 and featuring a frontispiece illustration by Chris Wormell and bespoke endpapers.

Philip Pullman is one of the most highly respected children’s authors writing today. Winner of many prestigious awards, including the Carnegie of Carnegies and the Whitbread Award, Pullman’s epic fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials has been acclaimed as a modern classic. It has sold 17.5 million copies worldwide and been translated into 40 languages. In 2005 he was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. He lives in Oxford.

Tickets for this event are £10, or £25 for the book and ticket bundle. For more information please contact our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

The poppy as a recurring image in poetry and art, and as a symbol of wartime loss, is powerfully resonant in our culture. Dr Andrew Lack, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Biology at Oxford Brookes University, will talk about the poppy plant and its ancient and more recent historical associations.

Tenor Mark Padmore is preparing to take on the role of Aschenbach in David McVicar’s production of Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice at the Royal Opera House. Join Mark and a panel of experts, including Colin Matthews, Ray Ockenden, John Hopkins, Henry Bacon, and Philip Bullock to explore this many-faceted character through literature, film, and opera.

Marking 70 years of Nineteen Eighty-Four. An interdisciplinary symposium involving Joshua Dienstag, political scientist from UCLA; political historian Greg Claeys (RHUL); literary scholars Anna Vaninskaya (Edinburgh) and Nathan Waddell (Birmingham); novelist Joanna Kavenna; Dorian Lynskey, journalist and author of the recently published Ministry of Fear; Jean Seaton, media historian who runs the Orwell Prize among other things; and Victoria Bateman (the so-called ‘Naked Economist’) who will be talking about the politics of clothes and the uses of the naked body in political activism.

Professor Carl Heneghan will talk about his involvement in Tamiflu research that led to the discovery of 170,000 pages of clinical study reports, the subsequent development of Alltrials he was involved in and the current epidemic of publication and reporting bias that plagues much of the current research evidence.

Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, employs evidence-based methods to research diagnostic reasoning, test accuracy and communicating diagnostic results to a wider audience.

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care module which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care and the MSc in EBHC Systematic Reviews. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

We are delighted to announce a very special Philosophy in the Bookshop event to mark our fifth anniversary in the series.

Host Nigel Warburton will be joined by philosopher Philip Goff and author Sir Philip Pullman to discuss the influence that Philosophy (Consciousness and Panpsychism in particular) has had on their respective works. Philip Goff’s new book ‘Galileo’s Error’ and Sir Philip Pullman’s ‘The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth’ are both released in 2019 and will be available to purchase on the day.

This event is FREE to attend and will take place in the Philosophy department in the Norrington Room. Registration MUST be made and proof brought with you on the day to gain access to the seating/viewing area. Seating is very limited and will be available on a first come, first served basis. Please note, this area is only accessible via a small set of stairs. Please note neither of the authors will be signing after the talk.

Please call 01865 333623 if you have any enquiries.

In a talk for Oxford Civic Society, Liz Woolley, and a representative of the company, talk about the history of one of the city’s great family firms. Kingerlee has constructed many of the best known buildings in and around Oxford such as the Jam Factory.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Professor Michael Griffin OBE will present ‘Talking to cancer patients – do not promise what you cannot deliver’.

Professor Michael Griffin OBE became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2018, when he was a Consultant Oesophagogastric surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He developed the Northern Oesophagogastric Cancer Unit which is now the largest in Europe and North America. A Council member since 2009, he is Chair of the Joint Committee for Intercollegiate Examinations (JCIE) and Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His clinical and research interests have been focused on early diagnosis and radical treatment of oesophagogastric cancers. He was awarded an OBE for services to cancer health care in 2013.

Join Oxford Hospitals Charity in celebrating ten years since the Oxford Heart Centre was first opened.

You will hear from our brilliant clinicians about the difference the new Oxford Heart Centre has made, as well as future developments that will benefit heart and lung patients across Oxfordshire, only possible thanks to your generous donations.

Author Mark Haddon also joins us to tell us about his experience as patient in the John Radcliffe.

The event is free to attend and all are welcome.

Breakthroughs using gene therapy and gene editing are regularly in the news, but how close in reality are we to them to be used to treat actual patients? Professor of Molecular Therapy and Co-Director of the Gene Medicine Research Group, Steve Hyde sorts the fact from the fiction as he discusses how viruses are being re-purposed to treat rare diseases such as leukaemia, blindness and haemophilia.

This month at Short Stories Aloud you can listen to stories by Sophie Hardach (Confession With Blue Horses) and Fanny Blake (A Summer Reunion) read aloud by trained actors. The authors will then be interviewed by Sarah Franklin (Shelter) before taking questions from the audience.

Confession with Blue Horses

Tobi and Ella’s childhood in East Berlin is shrouded in mystery. Now adults living in London, their past in full of unanswered questions. Both remember their family’s daring and terrifying attempt to escape, which ended in tragedy; but the fall-out from that single event remains elusive. Where did their parents disappear to, and why? What happened to Heiko, their little brother? And was there ever a painting of three blue horses?

In contemporary Germany, Aaron works for the archive, making his way through old files, piecing together the tragic history of thousands of families. But one file in particular catches his eye; and soon unravelling the secrets at its heart becomes an obsession.

When Ella is left a stash of notebooks by her mother, and she and Tobi embark on a search that will take them back to Berlin, her fate clashes with Aaron’s, and together they piece together the details of Ella’s past… and a family destroyed.

Devastating and beautifully written, funny and life-affirming, Confession with Blue Horses explores intimate family life and its strength in the most difficult of circumstances.

Sophie Hardach worked as a correspondent for Reuters news agency in Tokyo, Paris and Milan and has written for a number of publications including the Atlantic, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph. She has previously written two critically acclaimed novels, The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages, about Kurdish refugees, and Of Love and Other Wars, about pacifists during World War Two.

A Summer Reunion

One perfect villa, four old friends, and a holiday that will change everything…

Amy, Linda, Kate and Jane were best friends at school. Now, years later, they have grown apart. When Amy discovers her husband has been stealing from her successful interiors business, and with a milestone birthday looming, she decides it is the time to reach out to her old friends once again.

So, she decides to invite the other three to her beautiful villa in Mallorca for a reunion weekend. As the four friends gather, secrets are unearthed, old scores settled and new friendships forged. Will this holiday bring them together or tear them apart? And will each of them grasp their second chance for happiness…?

Fanny Blake was a publisher for many years, editing both fiction and non-fiction before becoming a freelance journalist and writer. She has written various non-fiction titles, as well as acting as ghost writer for a number of celebrities. She was Books Editor of Woman & Home magazine has been a judge for the Costa Novel Award, the British Book Awards, the Comedy Women in Print Award among others. She has written eight novels, including An Italian Summer and A Summer Reunion.

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

For twenty years New York Review Books Classics have been devoted to two causes: discovering important, previously untranslated books from all over the world and rediscovering wonderful books in English that have fallen into undeserved obscurity. Fiction and non-fiction and books in a wide variety of genres can be found among the more than 500 NYRB Classics now in print, and it may be that what, as much as anything, unites the books in the series is that they hail from the past, however remote or recent. What does the past have to say to the present is the question that the series as a whole may be said to raise, and nowadays, when the authority of tradition is diminished and indeed suspect, it is a question of peculiar urgency. How do books haunt us? The novelist Rachel Cusk, the philosopher John Gray, the critic and writer Victoria Nelson, together with the founder and editor of NYRB Classics, Edwin Frank, will discuss.

Edwin Frank was born in Boulder, Colorado and educated at Harvard College and Columbia University. He is the founder of the New York Review Books Classics series, the author of Snake Train: Poems 1984-2013 (Shearsman Books), and the editor of The Red Thread: 20 Years of NYRB Classics (NYRB).

Victoria Nelson is a writer of fiction, criticism and memoir. Her books include Gothicka and The Secret Life of Puppets, a stude of the supernatural grotesque in Western culture that won the Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studes in 2001, and Wild California, a collection of stories. She edited NYRB’s collection of Robert Aickman stories Compulsory Games. She teaches in Goddard College’s MFA creative writing programme.

Rachel Cusk was born in 1967 and is the author of eight novels: Saving Agnes, which won the Whitbread First Novel Award, The Temporary, The Country Life, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, The Lucky Ones, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award, In the Fold, Arlington Park, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, The Bradshaw Variations and Outline. Her non-fiction books are A Life’s Work, The Last Supper and Aftermath. In 2003 she was chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young Novelists.

John Gray is an English political philosopher with interests in analytic philosophy and the history of ideas. He retired in 2008 as School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Gray contributes regularly to The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and the New Statesman, where he is the lead book reviewer.

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

Join Oxford University Press for a special science-themed “speed dating” event. Mingle with a range of topics, including reptiles, psychopathy, environmental law, synaesthesia and circadian rhythms with expert authors from the Very Short Introductions series. Make an impression and get your questions in before the bell rings!

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.

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.

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 hosting a special Hallowe’en event exploring black magic, with Thomas Waters and Lucie McKnight Hardy as they discuss their books ‘Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times’ and ‘Water Shall Refuse Them’.

‘Cursed Britain’

Historian Thomas Waters here explores the lives of cursed or bewitched people, along with the witches and witch-busters who helped and harmed them. Waters takes us on a fascinating journey from Scottish islands to the folklore-rich West Country, from the immense territories of the British Empire to metropolitan London. We learn why magic caters to deep-seated human needs but see how it can also be abused, and discover how witchcraft survives by evolving and changing. Along the way, we examine an array of remarkable beliefs and rituals, from traditional folk magic to diverse spiritualities originating in Africa and Asia.

This is a tale of cynical quacks and sincere magical healers, depressed people and furious vigilantes, innocent victims and rogues who claimed to possess evil abilities. Their spellbinding stories raise important questions about the state’s role in regulating radical spiritualities, the fragility of secularism and the true nature of magic.

Thomas Waters is lecturer in history at Imperial College London and a specialist in the modern history of witchcraft and magic.

‘Water Shall Refuse Them’

The heatwave of 1976. Following the accidental drowning of her sister, sixteen-year-old Nif and her family move to a small village on the Welsh borders to escape their grief. But rural seclusion doesn’t bring any relief. As her family unravels, Nif begins to put together her own form of witchcraft – collecting talismans from the sun-starved land. That is, until she meets Mally, a teen boy who takes a keen interest in her, and has his own secret rites to divulge.

Lucie McKnight Hardy is the debut author of ‘Water Shall Refuse Them’, an atmospheric coming-of-age novel, full of magical suspense.

Tickets cost £5. There will be a bar serving an array of magical potions from 6:45pm – 7pm. Fancy dress is welcomed. For all enquiries please email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk or call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333623.

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Mr Vincent Gnanapragasam from the University of Cambridge will discuss ‘Using research to change paradigms in diagnosing and managing early prostate cancer’.

Join prize-winning author Olivia Laing in conversation with Professor Dame Hermione Lee.

Olivia Laing is the author of To the River, The Trip to Echo Spring and The Lonely City. Her latest book, Crudo, is a real-time novel about the turbulent summer of 2017. It was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and a New York Times notable book of 2018 and was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize. In 2019 it won the 100th James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Sarah Weir OBE, Chief Executive, Design Council, will lecture on ‘Designing the Future: Who is doing it?’ She will consider the question of what design is – a mindset and skillset; critical thinking and creativity combined; much more than aesthetics.

The Lady English Lecture Series marks the College’s continuing commitment to the education and advancement of women and promotes the contributions made by women to the University and to public life more generally.

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Professor Chris Lavy from the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences will present ‘Public-private partnerships in elective surgery’.

The logic and principles behind the drive for evidence-based health care are so compelling that often the limitations of evidence go unacknowledged. Despite a strong evidence base demonstrating the health risks associated with higher body weights, and health professionals routinely instructing patients to lose weight to improve their health, the incidence of obesity is predicted to continue to rise. Calling on his research into the relationships between obesity, inequality and health, Oli Williams – a fellow of The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute – will argue that when it comes to reducing the burden on, and improving, health care a more critical approach to the way we generate, select, apply and communicate evidence is needed.

Oli Williams completed his PhD in the Department of Sociology at the University of Leicester. He was subsequently awarded the NIHR CLAHRC West Dan Hill Fellowship in Health Equity which he held at the University of Bath. He later re-joined the University of Leicester in the Department of Health Sciences working in the SAPPHIRE Group and is now based at King’s College London after being awarded a THIS Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research focuses on health inequalities, the promotion of healthy lifestyles, obesity, weight stigma, equitable intervention and co-production. He co-founded the art collective Act With Love (AWL) to promote social change. The Weight of Expectation comic is one example of their work, view others at: www.actwithlove.co.uk In recognition of his work on weight stigma the British Science Association invited Oli to deliver the Margaret Mead Award Lecture for Social Sciences at the British Science Festival 2018.

This talk is being held as part of the Qualitative Research Methods course which is part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Join Galician poet Chus Pato and Canadian translator Erín Moure for a reading from Chus Pato’s new book of poems, Un libre favor.

The event marks the completion of their residency with The Queen’s College and is followed by a drinks reception until 7.15pm.

All are welcome; sign up on through Eventbrite to let us know if you plan to come.

Join us to learn about the progress being made in biomaterials, the next generation of innovative solutions that aim to tackle current health challenges, and what it takes to start your own venture. The event will feature talks from two prominent individuals, Dr Nick Skaer (CEO of Orthox) and Dr Nick Edwards (Co-Founder of MedInnovate and Chairman of Satie8). Dr Skaer has over 25 years’ experience in life science and materials research, and 14 years as a medtech CEO, raising over £18m. Dr Edwards has over 30 years’ experience in supporting pharmaceutical companies as ex- Global Lead of Accenture’s Pharmaceutical R&D business and current Chairman of Prescient Healthcare Group. He is a Founder of MedInnovate and an investor and supporter of life-science start-ups as well as current Chairman of Satie8.

There will be a networking & drinks reception after the event.

The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today on:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-next-generation-of-medical-devices-tickets-76955848013

Biographer and critic Lucasta Miller will give this term’s lecture in memory of Harry M Weinrebe, philanthropist and founder of the Dorset Foundation.

A former visiting scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing and Beaufort visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Lucasta Miller is the author of The Brontë Myth (Jonathan Cape, 2001) and L.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon (Jonathan Cape, 2019), the Celebrated ‘Female Byron’.

The OCLW Weinrebe Lectures are an annual series named in memory of Harry Weinrebe, a philanthropist and the founder of the Dorset Foundation.A

This is an exclusive event brought to you by the SIU in partnership with the Oxford Pharmacology Society. The application of big data and genomics in healthcare is vast, with tremendous opportunities to revolutionise current methods of diagnosing and treating diseases. Although, patient specific data is a powerful tool that can accelerate the development and translation of novel drugs and therapeutics, there are limitations to overcome. This event will take a closer look at the role of industries, academics, clinicians and healthcare policy makers in encouraging the translation of ideas into real-world solutions and the challenges within each sector. To discuss this, we will be hosting Dr Jeffrey Barrett (CSO and Director of Genomics Plc), Dr Michelle van Velthoven (Sir David Cooksey Fellow in Healthcare Translation at the University of Oxford) and Dr Amitava Banerjee (Associate Professor in Clinical Data Science at University College London).
The event will be on the 20th November at 17h30pm – 19h00, in the Department of Pharmacology. There will be a free networking & drinks reception after the event.
The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pharma-and-big-data-the-healthcare-revolution-tickets-80628276345