Author Talk

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/  

Otherlands is an epic, exhilarating journey into deep time, showing us the Earth as it used to exist, and the worlds that were here before ours. Travelling back in time to the dawn of complex life, and across all seven continents, award-winning palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday gives us a mesmerising up-close encounter with eras that are normally unimaginably distant.

Dr Thomas Halliday is a paleobiologist, specialising in mammal evolution and phylogenetics (the science of working out how organisms are related). He has been a researcher and a graduate student at the University of Bristol and at University College London, and as a postdoctoral researcher at University College London and the University of Birmingham. He was an Honorary Fellow at the University of Birmingham and is an Associate with the Natural History Museum. He is also an international croquet player.

Darwin Day has been celebrated since the 1930's, marking the birthday (Feb 12th) of arguably the world's greatest ever scientist, Charles Darwin, the father of evolution by natural selection. Bristol Humanists has held a Darwin Day annual lecture by a noted scientist for the last 10 years. Significant previous Darwin Day lecturers have included Adam Rutherford, Angel Saini, Nichola Raihani & Anil Seth

Tickets can be booked at: https://wegottickets.com/event/685110/

We are very much looking forward to supporting this event organised by the Friends of the Clifton Library celebrating The Artful Anna Harris by Tracy Maton.

About the book:
When the vivacious Sofia Carstairs arrives in her sleepy country village, Anna knows her life will never be the same again. Her new best friend is carefree, elegant and intoxicating. Her life doesn't revolve around church flower arrangements or Sunday lunches with the in-laws. Sofia reminds Anna of the person she used to be, before she worked so hard to fit in that she practically disappeared. But is it enough to just be Sofia's friend? Anna wonders what it would be like to be Sofia, if only for a little while.
But once Anna starts pretending, she finds it easy to pretend the rules don't apply to her. How far will Anna go to get what she wants? And what will she do to those who stand in her way?

Tracy will discuss her love of the morally ambiguous character and why she decided to write her own. An award-winning children’s writer, The Artful Anna Harris is her first thriller for adults.

Book your tickets through the Clifton Library: https://public.foccal.com/event/515

We are delighted to support this conversation event between writers, Marianne Power and Jan Day at the Alma Tavern Theatre Full details and booking through the Alma Tavern's website: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/almatheatrecompany/2044804