Author Talk

Join us to celebrate the publication of Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun: The Extraordinary Entwined Lives of Two Eighteenth-Century Painters by Franny Moyle We are delighted to welcome Franny Moyle for a talk on her fascinating new book on Angelica Kauffman and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun. In the spring of 1790 two of the most gifted artists in Europe met in Rome and became fast friends, sharing their views on art, visiting the city’s ancient sites and making trips to the opera together over several happy weeks. The Swiss history painter Angelica Kauffman and the French portraitist Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun are no longer household names in the early twenty-first century but were much-fêted celebrities in the late eighteenth. The two had much in common: both had been child prodigies; both were members of the prestigious Academies of their respective countries; both had been celebrated court painters; both had made disastrous marriages that had drained them financially and made them the subject of scandal. Franny Moyle uses their meeting in the eternal city as the point of departure for a lavishly illustrated ‘life and times’ biography of two brilliant but neglected women artists whose lives and creative careers straddled the political upheavals of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Mrs Kauffman and Madame Le Brun allows Moyle to explore an age of political, aesthetic and social revolution via a web of connections that embraces many of the most intriguing and powerful personalities of the time – to view a whole era of changing ideas and political ferment through the prism of the intertwined tales of two remarkable, rediscovered female lives. The event is free and unticketed but seats are limited so please do RSVP in advance so that we can ensure you are sitting comfortably and your glass will be full.  

Heron Books is delighted to welcome Cécile Tlili to celebrate the publication of Just a Little Dinner.

Do join us to meet Cécile, enjoy a discussion with her publisher, Richard Village of Foundry Books, and get your copies signed.

The event is free. Please RSVP to read@heronbooks.co.uk so that we know how many to expect. 

About the book:
In tired, hot Paris at the end of August, a group of friends, who’d rather still be at the sea, meet for a dinner in one couple’s apartment. Taking us behind the shutters of the Sixth Arrondissement, with a cast of characters that both delight and repel, fractured relationships, manipulation, bad behaviour and desperation are all laid bare in this very contemporary take on a Parisian huis clos story. What starts as just a little dinner ends up having monumental consequences for everyone.

We are delighted to be supporting this event at St George's: 

Professor David Olusoga OBE, BAFTA winning film-maker and author returns to St Georges due to popular demand.

In a brand-new talk for 2025 David examines some of history’s missing chapters to uncover how and why some events and some people are remembered and others forgotten. Taking examples from the world wars, the Industrial revolution and other pivotal moments in global history David uncovers history’s missing persons.

Dinosaurs, Darwin and the war between science and religion 
We are delighted to support the Bristol Humanists' Emma Martin Lecture 2025

Book here: https://wegottickets.com/event/671906/

In 1811, a twelve-year-old girl uncovered some strange-looking bones in Britain’s southern shoreline and so sparked a crisis that would engulf science and religion for the next six decades. That little girl Mary Anning, an amateur geologist, shook the establishment. By the end of the 19th century, the literal reading of the bible had been overturned, science had been liberated from religion and the secular age had begun. Impossible Monsters takes us into the lives and minds of the extraordinary men and women whose discovery of the dinosaurs revolutionised our understanding of the world, as well as those who resisted them, and those like Charles Darwin, who took great risks to construct a new account of the earth’s and mankind’s origins. It is the riveting story of a group of people who dared to think impossible things and then showed them to be true.

We are delighted to support this event organised by Penguin Random House and GAIL's Bakeries

Full details and tickets available from Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-conversation-with-rachel-joyce-tickets-1561609298449

Step into the cosy charm of GAIL’s Bakery for an inspiring afternoon with bestselling author Rachel Joyce, as part of our Great Reads Collection in association with Heron Books . Rachel will share the story behind her latest novel, The Homemade God, offering candid insights into her creative process, the joys and challenges of writing, and the imaginative world she brings to life.

Dr Malik Al Nasir will talk about his new book 'Searching for My Slave Roots: From Guyana's Sugar Plantations to Cambridge'

We are delighted to provide a book stall at this event, organised by the University of Bristol.

Author and award-winning researcher, Malik Al Nasir will be discussing, Searching for my Slave Roots: From Guyana’s Sugar Plantations to Cambridge, a powerful exploration of ancestry, enslavement, and legacy.

Set across Liverpool, Glasgow, Demerara and Berbice, the book traces Malik’s family history, revealing ancestors who were both enslaved and slaveholders, and uncovering the complex interconnections between trauma, privilege, and the institutions shaped by slavery.

The author will be in conversation with Dr Richard Stone.

Arts Complex, Lecture Theatre 2, 11 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB

Best-known for the 100-point ‘centi-grade’ temperature scale that bears his name, Anders Celsius was a scientist of astonishing breadth. From the Northern Lights to air pressure and sea levels, he unravelled the mysteries of many of nature’s greatest phenomena during his short life. His mind, methods and manners contain powerful lessons for how humans live in the 21st century and beyond – if we’re inclined and willing to listen.

Ian Hembrow's book, Celsius: a life and death by degrees, is the first full-length English language biography of this world-changing Swedish scientist. Longlisted for the 2025 Wolfson History Prize, it tracks not just Celsius’ life and times, but also the author’s journey to uncover his story.

Ian Hembrow is a Bristol-based author and Humanist celebrant, who has written widely including for The Guardian, New Statesman and the Oldie. His previous books, Making Medicines Safe & Rare Events are on global medicines safety.

We will be providing a book stall at Rosa's event with the University of Bristol. Anyone who came to her talk in the shop earlier this year will know what a fascinating book The Spirit of the Rainforest is and what brilliant research and work Rosa carries out. We can't wait to hear more. 

Dr. Rosa Vásquez Espinoza is a Peruvian Amazonian-Andean scientist, conservationist, National Geographic Explorer, and award-winning artist. She blends science with indigenous knowledge to protect biodiversity and culture.

4pm in the Life Sciences building, BS8 1TQ. More details and link to follow. 

We welcome back Bristol’s philosopher, Julian Baggini to explore the timely issue of How the World Eats.

How we live is shaped by how we eat. You can see this in the vastly different approaches to growing, preparing and eating food around the world: the hunter-gatherer Hadza in Tanzania whose sustainable lifestyle is under threat in our crowded planet is in stark contrast to “developed” societies whose food is produced in vast intensive enterprises. Most of us now rely on a complex global food web of production, distribution, consumption and disposal, which is now facing unprecedented challenges.

The need for a better understanding of how we feed ourselves has never been more urgent. Julian Baggini’s exploration takes him from cutting-edge technologies, such as new farming methods, cultured meat, GM and astronaut food, to the ethics and health of ultra processed food and aquaculture, as he takes a forensic look at the effectiveness of our food governance, the problem of food wastage and the effects of commodification.

This event is at YHA Bristol in the Conference Room. The venue is fully accessible - please check at reception for use of the lift.

Everyone is welcome. The event is FREE to members of Bristol Humanists. Others are asked for a contribution of £5/£2 (concessions)

Bristol Lido are running a supper club with the great Meera Sodha. Details of what is set to be a glorious feast are on their website and we are delighted to support the event by bringing copies of Meera Sodha's Dinner.  https://www.lidobristol.com/supper-clubs/dinner-with-meera-sodha/