| When: Wednesday 18th Sep 2024 @ 2.30pm |
| Where: Electric Palace |
-
Of all the ancient art that captures the imagination, none is more appealing than the Cycladic figurine. An air of mystery swirls around these statuettes from the Bronze Age and they are highly sought after by collectors – and looters – alike. In her new novel Victoria Hislop shines a light on the questionable acquisition of cultural treasures and the price people, and countries, will pay to cling on to them. She says: ‘I have been down a long and exciting path to write The Figurine. I admired the beauty of the Cycladic figurine for many years and began to understand what a huge influence they had on 20th century art. I also began to realise that their beauty has an irresistible and seductive power and wanted to write about the crime that such beauty and antiquity can drive people to. My story is set during the period of the Junta, an army dictatorship that committed many crimes, effectively robbing people of their lives and driving others into exile. To me there seemed to be a striking parallel. I hope readers will be pulled into this period of history, and the question of where something, or someone, really belongs.’ Victoria Hislop in conversation with Sally Laverack Copies of The Figurine can be purchased in paperback with a 10% discount prior to the event, from The Bookshop, South Street, Bridport. Become a friend. -
Will Hutton - This Time No Mistakes - How to Remake Britain
In what has been a year of upheaval and challenge, with a General Election and new British Government, journalist and academic Will Hutton sets out a clear analysis of where both the left and the right have gone wrong over the course of the last century and how we can now rebuild a new, better Britain. Hutton discusses the consequences of past failures and a future based on change. Obligations to a wider society are all taken into account by making capitalism work and ensuring that environment is supported by research and education.
in conversation with Howard Davies Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Sunday 3rd November 2024 @ 12 noon Where: Electric Palace Sponsor: Buffy Sacher -
Giles Milton - The Stalin Affair - The Impossible Alliance that Won the War
In the summer of 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, shattering what Stalin had considered an ironclad partnership with the Fuhrer. The Allied reaction was twofold: delight that there was now a second front, and fear the Red Army would be defeated. In the wake of the Nazi invasion, writer and historian, Giles Milton, explores how a select team of British and Americans, by befriending Stalin, could keep the fraught Allied alliance on track and forge a path to victory.
in conversation with Barney White-Spunner Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Sunday 3rd November 2024 @ 2.00pm Where: Electric Palace Sponsor: Tim and Sara Clarke -
Dame Harriet Walter - She Speaks - Shakespeare’s Women
Dame Harriet Walter is celebrated as a stage and film actress as well as more recently for her television portrayals in Succession and Killing Eve. Having played most of Shakespeare’s female characters, in her new book She Speaks, Harriet audaciously reads between the lines and lets these female characters speak their minds. Sometimes playfully and sometimes searchingly, and with brilliant insight, she imagines what Lady Macbeth, Gertrude, Cleopatra, Juliet and Ophelia were really thinking and reveals that Shakespeare is very much a man for all times as well as his time. in conversation with Sophy Roberts Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Sunday 3rd November 2024 @ 6.00 pm Where: Electric Palace Sponsored by: Robert and Diana Clarke | Symonds & Sampson Estate Agents -
Roland Philipps - Broken Archangel - The Tempestuous Lives of Roger Casement
Pioneering, human rights campaigner, patriot, traitor, romantic and martyr, Roger Casement was one of the twentieth century’s most complex figures. In 1904, he became internationally celebrated for unearthing the violence of the Belgian Congo and soon after won even greater renown for his humanitarian work in the Amazon jungle. However, his internal fault lines ran deep. Casement was vulnerable to his own unexamined emotions. Roland Philipps reveals all.
in conversation with John Dean Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Monday 4th November 2024 @ 12 noon Where: The Bull Ballroom Sponsored by: Flora Hood -
Jo Willett - Sarah Siddons - The First Celebrity Actress
Sarah Siddons grew up as a member of a family troupe of travelling actors, always poor and often hungry. She rose from abject poverty to superstardom before she was 30 and became one of the country’s most celebrated and revered tragic actresses, electrifying audiences with her performances. Jo Willett has written this first biography of the legendary actress who was not only adored and celebrated by everyone but who also had to manage her reputation in an eighteenth-century world of gossip and satire.
an illustrated talk Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Monday 4th November 2024 @ 4.00 pm Where: Bridport Arts Centre Sponsored by: Felicity Fairbairn -
SOLD OUT - Derek Gow - Hunt for the Shadow Wolf - The Lost History of Wolves in Britain and the Myths and Stories that Surround Them
Wolves were endemic to Britain around the time of the last Ice Age 10-12,000 years ago. Sightings in this country have long been restricted to cages at zoos and at wildlife parks. After raising two cubs in his home, Derek Gow became fascinated with the wolf. With bitingly funny and tender stories, Hunt for the Shadow Wolf is his quest to reveal the true nature of this magnificent creature and, as a maverick re-wilder, his hope that we will see the return of the wolf in Britain.
in conversation with Sam Rose Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Monday 4th November 2024 @ 6.00 pm Where: The Bull Ballroom Sponsored by: West Dorset Wilding -
Henry Hemming - Four Shots in the Night - A True Story of Espionage, Murder and Justice in Northern IrelandBest selling author of seven non-fiction books about the thrilling world of espionage, Henry Hemming’s latest story is a blend of scrupulous investigative journalism and true crime narrative. In Four Shots in the Night, he delivers a jaw-dropping narrative of double agents and unsolved murders set in the parallel worlds of the IRA and British Intelligence in a timely and urgent exploration of the ramifications of The Troubles.
an illustrated talk Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Tuesday 5th November 2024 @ 10.30 am Where: The Bull Ballroom -
SOLD OUT - Rick Stroud - I Am Not Afraid of Looking into Rifles - Women Secret Agents of the First World War
This is the untold story of the women in the Resistance in Belgium and occupied France during that conflict. Relating their heroism and their inevitable tragedies, Rick Stroud tells an enthralling narrative and reveals the inspirational work of eight exceptionally brave women who affected the course of war. They included Gabrielle Petit, an ordinary working class girl, Edith Cavell, a member of the bourgeoisie and the Princess de Croy from the upper echelons of society. in conversation with Rene Wyndham Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Tuesday 5th November 2024 @ 2.00 pm Where: The Bull Ballroom Sponsored by: Prue and Howard Davies -
SOLD OUT - Sue Prideaux - Wild Thing - A Life of Paul Gauguin
Paul Gauguin is chiefly known as the giant of postimpressionist painting whose bold colours and compositions rocked the Western art world. Less known, he was a stockbroker in Paris and after the 1882 financial crash, struggled to sustain his artistry. As a journalist he exposed the injustices of French colonial rule in Tahiti. Award winning biographer, Sue Prideaux, re-examines the artist’s adventurous and complicated life, illuminating the people, places and ideas that shaped his vision.
an illustrated talk Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Tuesday 5th November 2024 @ 6.00 pm Where: The Bull Ballroom -
SOLD OUT - Michael Sheridan - The Red Emperor - Xi Jinping and the New China
Xi Jinping rules over 1.4 billion people and the second biggest economy on earth. He commands huge armed forces and runs a technology programme which claims to dominate the globe. His ambition is to take the place of the United States and to change the world order. Xi’s life is full of drama: plots, purges, power struggles and a pandemic. Michael Sheridan charts the rise of the isolated China of the 1950s to the modern economic and military juggernaut of today.
in conversation with Paul Lashmar
Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Wednesday 6th November 2024 @ 12 noon Where: The Bull Ballroom -
SOLD OUT - Lucy Hughes-Hallett - The Scapegoat - The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
Award winning biographer, Lucy Hughes-Hallett, charts the meteoric rise and fall of James I’s favourite, the Duke of Buckingham. She transports us, with a novelist’s touch, into a courtly world of masques and dancing, gorgeous clothes, the art of Rubens and Van Dyck, genderfluidity, sex and appallingly rudimentary medicine. Lucy explores the beginnings of the Enlightenment, print media and public opinion as a political force and charts the vivid personalities of Buckingham, canny James I and doomed Charles I.
an illustrated talk
Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Wednesday 6th November 2024 @ 2.00 pm Where: The Bull Ballroom Sponsored by: Sue Robinson -
Daisy Dunn - The Missing Thread - A New History of the Ancient World Through the Women Who Shaped It
For centuries, men have been writing histories of antiquity filled with warlords, emperors and kings. But when it comes to incorporating women, aside from Cleopatra and Boudica, writers have been more comfortable describing mythical heroines than real ones. Spanning 3,000 years, from the birth of Minoan Crete to the death of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome, award winning classicist, Daisy Dunn, explores the stories of dozens of women in The Missing Thread that puts them at the centre of the narrative.
an illustrated talk Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Thursday 7th November 2024 @ 2.00 pm Where: Sir John Colfox School -
SOLD OUT - Barnaby Rogerson - The House Divided - Sunni, Shia and the Making of the Middle East
At the heart of the Middle East, with its regional conflicts and proxy wars, is a 1400 year old schism between Sunni and Shia. To understand this divide and its modern resonances, Barnaby Rogerson revisits its origins. The House Divided follows the narratives through the first caliphates and empires forged by Arabs, Persians and Turks to the contemporary Middle East and explains how in 1979 this already complex world was jolted by the seismic shift of three revolutions – in Iran, Mecca and Afghanistan and why it is again at the centre of global crises.
in conversation with Jeremy Seal
Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Thursday 7th November 2024 @ 4.30 pm Where: The Bridport Arts Centre Sponsored by: Felicity Fairbairn -
Sonia Purnell - Kingmaker - The George Millar Literary Dinner
We are delighted to welcome biographer and journalist, Sonia Purnell, to this year’s dinner. Her biography of Virginia Hall: A Woman of No Importance – WWII’s Most Dangerous Spy and her biography of First Lady: The Life and Wars of Clementine Churchill and her first book: Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition have all been bestsellers. Her latest sensational biography of Pamela Churchill Harriman – one of the most important and influential woman of 20th century politics, is undoubtedly her most engaging and Thursday 7th Nov revealing. Born Pamela Digby, a British socialite, Sonia reclaims in Kingmaker her legacy which has mostly been dismissed as secondary to the men that she was involved with. A life of intrigue, scandal, glamour and involvement with some of the biggest names in the second half of the twentieth century has now exposed her as one of the most powerful confidantes in international politics.
Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Thursday 7th November 2024 @ 7.00 pm Where: Tithe Barn, Symondsbury Sponsored by: Richard and Emily Cave | Furleigh Estate | Symondsbury Estate -
Damien Lewis - SAS Daggers Drawn - The Mavericks Who Made the SAS
In the summer of 1944, the SAS were charged with the most crucial D-Day missions, taking on the might of the Nazi Reich deep behind the enemy lines. Facing Hitler’s armoured legions with little more than raw courage, it would take maverick thinking and unconventional warfare to survive and overcome. Theirs was to become a bitter struggle to topple the dark power wielded from Berlin. SAS Daggers Drawn is the latest in WWII historian, Damien Lewis’s series covering the wartime exploits of the SAS and his powerful celebration of the daring-do of these renegade soldiers.
Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Friday 8th November 2024 @ 10.00 am Where: Electric Palace Sponsored by: Nick Pearson -
Lindsey Hilsum - I Brought the War With Me - Stories and Poetry from the Front Line
Lindsey Hilsum, Award Winning Channel 4 News International Editor, has put together a unique and remarkable collection of memories of 40 years of reporting from war zones, together with poems she has set aside from all over the world. In nearly four decades as a journalist covering conflict from Palestine to Kosovo to Rwanda, Lindsey has always carried a book of poetry with her. It helps her make sense of the senseless as the world around her rages and remember those she has met in the darkest of times. in conversation with Prue Keely Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Friday 8th November 2024 @ 4.00 pm Where: Electric Palace Sponsored by: Carol Hammick and Adam Tindall -
SOLD OUT - Bettany Hughes - The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The names still echo down the ages: The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Temple of Artemis, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, The Mausoleum of Halikarnassos, The Colossus at Rhodes, The Lighthouse of Alexandria – The Seven Wonders of the World were staggeringly audacious and brilliant impositions on our planet. Award winning historian, author and broadcaster, Bettany Hughes gives us a thrilling narrative enriched with the latest archaeological discoveries and takes us on a journey through the landscapes of both ancient and modern time to explore traces of the Wonders themselves. an illustrated talk Priority booking - Become a Friend - Contact TIC Bridport to book tickets - 01308 424901When: Saturday 9th November 2024 @ 4.00 pm Where: Electric Palace Sponsored by: Alastair and Susanne Cooper Francesca Radcliffe