Author Talk

We look forward to supporting the annual Emma Martin lecture organised by the Bristol Humanists:

The Rights of Women with Sian Norris: Where Are We Now, and Where Do We Go Next? 

Think today's anti-abortion ideas are rooted in religious prohibitions or arguments about where life begins? Wrong: today's anti-abortion movements is largely financed and planned by far-right extremists. Many of them are avowedly fascist and white supremacist, afraid of a "great replacement" of the world's white population by other races, who are working hard to reshape governments and policies across Europe, North America and around the world. Much of this far-right organizing and funding network, however, has been overlooked by today's feminist and left movements.

Sian Norris is a Bristolian author and investigative journalist, specialising in women's reproductive rights and violence against women. Her recent book Bodies Under Siege is about the international rise of the far right and its impact on women's reproductive rights. She has also visited and reported from Ukraine on the Russian invasion. Her journalism has included investigations into sexual harassment in the NHS and violence in prisons. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Times, New Statesman and The I, amongst many others, and she has reported from numerous countries, including Kenya, Romania & Bangladesh . She was the founder of the Bristol Women's Literature Festival and is Senior Investigative Reporter at OpenDemocracy.

Tickets are available here: https://wegottickets.com/f/25511/

We are very much looking forward to hosting a book stall and signing at St George's for an evening with Brian Bilston. Full details and tickets on their website.

With over 500,000 followers on social media and a host of sell-out shows across the country, Brian Bilston is one of the UK’s most popular poets.

He has published several bestselling collections of poetry, including You Took the Last Bus Home, Alexa, what is there to know about love? and Days Like These. His novel Diary of a Somebody was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, and he has also written collections of poetry for younger readers. In 2025 he released an album of his poetry set to music, Sounds Made by Humans, in collaboration with The Catenary Wires.

This autumn sees Brian return to the stage with his latest book, How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside. Get ready for an evening of comedy and laughter, as he takes us through the hows, whys and whats of reading, writing and enjoying poetry every day.

Does free speech have limits? Can and should social media platforms control what their users say?

In his new book Setting Fire to Reason, philosopher Jeffrey Howard argues that free speech is among our most important moral rights, but—like all rights—it has limits, determined by moral duties we owe to each other. Howard will be unpicking the law, morality and limits of free speech with and host Julian Baggini and political theorist Judith Squires. In the second half, the conversation will be led by your questions. Come not only to hear about free speech, but to participate in it.

Jeffrey W. Howard is professor of political philosophy and public policy at University College London, where he is director of the Digital Speech Lab. He is the author of Setting Fire to Reason: The Ethics of Free Speech and co-editor of the journal Political Philosophy.

Judith Squires was Professor of Political Theory and Dean of Social Sciences and Law at the University of Bristol before becoming its Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost. The New Politics of Gender Equality is among her many publications and commissioned reports.

Tickets from the St George's Bristol website: https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/whats-on/philosophy-salon-free-speech-under-fire/

We look forward to supporting this event organised by Bristol Humanists. 

Full details to follow. 

Dr Mark Williamson is co-founder and Director of Action for Happiness.

His book offers 23 practical ways to make life happier. It's based on evidence from the latest scientific research combined with unique insights from the author plus proven ideas that he has helped thousands of people to adopt successfully in their everyday lives. It goes much deeper than typical self-help advice, covering a wide range of themes which contribute to lifelong wellbeing.