Bristol Festival of Ideas - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bristol Festival of Ideas is a project established in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, which aims to "to stimulate people’s minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate". It was first set up in 2005, as part of the city's ultimately unsuccessful bid to become the European Capital of Culture

European Capital of Culture

The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by theEuropean Union for a period of one calendar year during which it organises a series of cultural events with a strong European dimension....

for 2008, and continues to maintain a programme of debates and other events, including an annual festival each May.

The Festival also awards an annual book prize, worth £7,500, to a book which "presents new, important and challenging ideas, which is rigorously argued, and which is engaging and accessible". It is one of the largest book prizes in the UK.

The Festival takes place in a range of venues across the city, including the Arnolfini

Arnolfini

The Arnolfini is an arts centre and gallery in Bristol, England. It has a programme of contemporary art exhibitions, live art, music and dance events, poetry and book readings, talks, lectures and cinema. There is also a specialist art bookshop and a café bar. Educational activities are undertaken...

, the Watershed Media Centre

Watershed Media Centre

Watershed opened in June 1982 as the United Kingdom's first dedicated media centre. Based in former warehouses on the harbourside at Bristol, it hosts three cinemas, a café/bar, events/conferencing spaces, and office spaces for administrative and creative staff. It occupies the former V and W sheds...

, St. George's

St George's Church, Brandon Hill

St George's is a church in the Clifton area of Bristol, England.It was built between 1821 and 1823 by Sir Robert Smirke in a Greek Revival style...

, At-Bristol

At-Bristol

At-Bristol is a public science and technology "exploration" and education centre and charity in Bristol, England.As a visitor attraction, At-Bristol has hundreds of hands-on exhibits, and a Planetarium with seasonal shows for the over fives, and a 'Little Stars' show for children aged five and under...

, the Council House

Council House, Bristol

The Council House has been the seat of local government in Bristol, England since 1956. It is situated on College Green, opposite the Cathedral and at the foot of Park Street in Bristol city centre . Throughout its history it has been home to Bristol city council.It was designed in the 1930s but...

, the Tobacco Factory

Tobacco Factory

The Tobacco Factory is the last remaining part of the old Wills Tobacco site on Raleigh Road, Southville, Bristol. It was saved from demolition by the architect George Ferguson and through his vision has become a model of urban regeneration...

, and the Victoria Rooms

Victoria Rooms (Bristol)

The Victoria Rooms, also known as the Vic Rooms, houses the University of Bristol's music department in Clifton, Bristol, England, on a prominent site at the junction of Queens Road and Whiteladies Road...

. It is organised by Bristol Creative Projects (BCP - formerly the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership), Arts Council England

Arts Council England

Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...

, Bristol City Council, and GWE BusinessWest, a private sector organisation promoting economic development

Economic development

Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...

in the area, and also works closely with universities in the area and other agencies. The Director of the Festival is Andrew Kelly, who was appointed Director of the Bristol Cultural Development Partnership in 1993.

2005

The first festival, held 16-21 May 2005, included speakers Paul Ormerod

Paul Ormerod

Paul Ormerod is a Lancastrian economist who is currently researching complexity, complex systems, nonlinear feedback, the boom and bust cycle of business and economic competition...

, A. C. Grayling

A. C. Grayling

Anthony Clifford Grayling is a British philosopher. In 2011 he founded and became the first Master of New College of the Humanities, a private undergraduate college in London. Until June 2011, he was Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, where he taught from 1991...

, Julia Neuberger, Joanna Bourke

Joanna Bourke

Joanna Bourke is an historian and professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London.-Biography:Born to Christian missionary parents, Bourke was brought up in Zambia, Solomon Islands and Haiti. After home education with her siblings she attended Auckland University, gaining a BA and masters in...

, John N. Gray, Colin Tudge

Colin Tudge

Colin Tudge is a British science writer and broadcaster. A biologist by training, he is the author of numerous works on food, agriculture, genetics, and species diversity....

, Marek Kohn

Marek Kohn

Marek Kohn is a British science writer on evolution, biology and society. His first two books were on drugs, their cultural history, and their politics. He is the author of seven books and hundreds of articles. He holds an undergraduate degree in neurobiology from the University of Sussex, and a...

, Jack Cohen

Jack Cohen (scientist)

Jack Cohen, FIBiol is a British reproductive biologist also known for his popular science books and involvement with science fiction.-Life:...

, Ian Stewart

Ian Stewart (mathematician)

Ian Nicholas Stewart FRS is a professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick, England, and a widely known popular-science and science-fiction writer. He is the first recipient of the , awarded jointly by the LMS and the IMA for his work on promoting mathematics.-Biography:Stewart was born...

, John Carey

John Carey (critic)

John Carey is a British literary critic, and emeritus Merton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. He was born in Barnes, London, and educated at Richmond and East Sheen Boys’ Grammar School, winning an Open Scholarship to St John's College, Oxford. He served in the East...

, John Mortimer

John Mortimer

Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...

, Francis Spufford

Francis Spufford

-Early life:He studied English Literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, gaining a BA in 1985.-Career:He was Chief Publisher's Reader from 1987-90 for Chatto & Windus....

, Deyan Sudjic

Deyan Sudjic

Deyan Sudjic is director of the Design Museum, London, England.Before moving to his post at the Design Museum, he contributed to Schoolkids OZ, was the design and architecture critic for The Observer, the Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Kingston University and Co-Chair of the...

, Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...

, Julian Baggini

Julian Baggini

Julian Baggini is the author of several books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is the author of The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments and is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Philosophers' Magazine...

, Claudia Hammond

Claudia Hammond

Claudia Hammond is an author, occasional TV presenter, and frequent radio presenter with the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4.-Education:...

, Dick King-Smith

Dick King-Smith

Ronald Gordon King-Smith OBE, Hon.M.Ed. , better known by his pen name Dick King-Smith, was a prolific English children's author, best known for writing The Sheep-Pig, retitled in the United States as Babe the Gallant Pig, on which the movie Babe was based...

, Roger McGough

Roger McGough

Roger Joseph McGough CBE is a well-known English performance poet. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please and records voice-overs for commercials, as well as performing his own poetry regularly...

, Brian Patten

Brian Patten

-Background:Born near Liverpool's docks, he attended Sefton Park School in the Smithdown Road area of Liverpool, where he was noted for his essays and greatly encouraged in his work by Harry Sutcliffe his form teacher. He left school at fifteen and began work for The Bootle Times writing a column...

, David Crystal

David Crystal

David Crystal OBE FLSW FBA is a linguist, academic and author.-Background and career:Crystal was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. He grew up in Holyhead, North Wales, and Liverpool, England where he attended St Mary's College from 1951....

, Ben Crystal

Ben Crystal

Ben Crystal is a British actor, author, and producer, best known for his work on making William Shakespeare more accessible. He has been referred to as "the Jamie Oliver of Shakespeare" by BBC Radio 5 for trying to make the plays accessible to all....

, and Pat Kane

Pat Kane

Pat Kane is a Scottish musician, and half of the pop duo Hue and Cry with his younger brother Greg.Independently of Hue & Cry, lead singer Kane writes on politics and culture...

Kane - formerly a musician in the band Hue and Cry

Hue and Cry

Hue and Cry is a pop duo formed in 1983 in Coatbridge, Scotland by the brothers Pat Kane and Greg Kane . They had a number of modest hits in the UK Singles Chart in the late 1980s, and early 1990s, and have released sixteen albums from 1987 to date.-Career:Their first single "Here Comes...

- was appointed as the UK's first "thinker in residence", with a remit to be "a 'constructive heckler' - identifying broad themes that emerge from the discussions, making connections between realms of knowledge ... being a 'contrarian catalyst'".

2006

The festival, from 9-25 May, was themed around the bicentenary of Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

. It looked at "Brunellian themes of creativity and progress and apply[ing] these to issues of contemporary concern and opportunity." Speakers included Richard Dowden

Richard Dowden

Richard Dowden is a British journalist who has specialised in African issues. Since 1975, he has worked for several British media and for the past eight years he has been the Executive Director of the Royal African Society...

, Ekow Eshun

Ekow Eshun

Ekow Eshun is a British writer, journalist, and broadcaster. Until November 2010 he was the artistic director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, leaving before the end of his six month notice period. He is a contributor to BBC2's Friday night arts programme Newsnight Review and a...

, A. C. Grayling, Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...

, Andrew Roberts, Lola Young, Jeremy Isaacs

Jeremy Isaacs

Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...

, Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer is a British author and novelist. He is also a journalist who writes about a wide range of topics. His published work includes four novels and several books of non-fiction, which have won a number of literary awards...

, Jonathan Kaplan

Jonathan Kaplan

Jonathan Kaplan is an American film producer and director.Kaplan was born in Paris, France. He is the son of film composer Sol Kaplan and actress Frances Heflin; the nephew of actor Van Heflin. He is the brother of actresses Nora Heflin and Mady Kaplan...

, Andrea Levy

Andrea Levy

Andrea Levy is a British author, born in London to Jamaican parents who sailed to England on the Empire Windrush in 1948.-Identity and writings:...

, Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan

Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss academic, poet and writer. He is also a Professor of Contemporary Islamic Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University...

, Tariq Modood

Tariq Modood

Tariq Modood is Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy at the University of Bristol . Modood is the founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship and one of the leading authorities on ethnic minorities in Britain...

, Julia Hobsbawm, Bryan Appleyard

Bryan Appleyard

Bryan Appleyard is a British journalist and author.- Career :Appleyard was educated at Bolton School and King’s College, Cambridge and after graduating with a degree in English, he became Financial News Editor and Deputy Arts Editor from 1976 to 1984 at The Times. Subsequently he became a...

, Joan Bakewell, Tim Harford

Tim Harford

Tim Harford is an English economist and journalist, residing in London. He is the author of four economics books, presenter of BBC television series Trust Me, I'm an Economist, and writer of a humorous weekly column called "Dear Economist" for The Financial Times, in which he uses economic theory...

, Lewis Wolpert

Lewis Wolpert

Lewis Wolpert CBE FRS FRSL is a developmental biologist, author, and broadcaster.-Career:Wolpert was educated at the University of Witwatersrand , at Imperial College London, and at King's College London...

, Geoff Mulgan

Geoff Mulgan

Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts and Visiting Professor at University College, London, the London School of Economics and the University of Melbourne...

, Philip Ball

Philip Ball

Philip Ball is an English science writer. He holds a degree in chemistry from Oxford and a doctorate in physics from Bristol University. He was an editor for the journal Nature for over 10 years. He now writes a regular column in Chemistry World...

, Carmen Callil

Carmen Callil

Carmen Thérèse Callil is a publisher, writer and critic. She founded Virago Press in 1973.-Life:Callil was born in Melbourne Australia, but has lived in London since 1960. Her mother Lorraine Clare Allen, widowed in her early forties, raised four children of whom Carmen was the third...

, Lesley Chamberlain

Lesley Chamberlain

Lesley Chamberlain is a British journalist, travel writer and historian of Russian and German culture and has published short stories and novels and written about food.She studied German and Russian at Exeter and Oxford Universities....

, Geoff Mulgan

Geoff Mulgan

, Chris Smith

Chris Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury

Christopher "Chris" Robert Smith, Baron Smith of Finsbury PC is a British Labour Party politician, and a former Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister...

, Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes

Eric Sykes, CBE is an English radio, television and film writer, actor and director whose performing career has spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and/or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter...

, Roy Hattersley

Roy Hattersley

Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley is a British Labour politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.-Early life:...

, James Lovelock

James Lovelock

James Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...

, Charles Handy

Charles Handy

Charles Handy is an Irish author/philosopher specialising in organisational behaviour and management. Among the ideas he has advanced are the "portfolio worker" and the "Shamrock Organization" .He has been rated among the Thinkers 50, a private...

, Pankaj Mishra

Pankaj Mishra

Pankaj Mishra born 1969 in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh , is an Indian essayist and novelist. He is particularly notable for his book Butter Chicken in Ludhiana, a sociological study of small-town India, and his writing for the New York Review of Books.He graduated with a bachelor's degree in commerce...

, Paul Rusesabagina

Paul Rusesabagina

Paul Rusesabagina is a Rwandan humanitarian who has been internationally honored for saving 1,268 refugees during the Rwandan Genocide. He was the assistant manager of the Sabena Hôtel des Mille Collines before he became the manager of the Hôtel des Diplomates, both in Kigali, Rwanda...

, Sebastian Junger

Sebastian Junger

Sebastian Junger is an American author, journalist and documentarian, most famous for the best-selling book The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea, his award-winning chronicle of the war in Afghanistan in the 2010 movie Restrepo, and his 2010 book War.-Background:Junger was born...

, and Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

2007

The 2007 festival, held 9-30 May, sought to explore "questions on the arts, Englishness, happiness and affluence, Africa, big business, spirituality, crime and justice, science and peace." Speakers included Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka

Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence", and became the first African in Africa and...

, Steve Fuller, Clive Stafford Smith

Clive Stafford Smith

Clive Adrian Stafford Smith OBE is a British [see talk] lawyer who specialises in the areas of civil rights and the death penalty in the United States of America....

, Steve Bell

Steve Bell (cartoonist)

Steve Bell is an English political cartoonist, whose work appears in The Guardian and other publications. He is known for his left-wing views and distinctive caricatures.-Early life:...

, John Tusa

John Tusa

Sir John Tusa is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. From 1980 to 1986 he was a main presenter of BBC 2's Newsnight programme. From 1995 until 2007 he was managing director of the City of London's Barbican Arts Centre...

, Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg

Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...

, Graham Swift

Graham Swift

Graham Colin Swift FRSL is a British author. He was born in London, England and educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. He was a friend of Ted Hughes...

, Oliver James

Oliver James

Oliver James is a clinical psychologist, journalist, bestselling book author, and television documentary producer. and presenter He also frequently broadcasts on radio and acts as a pundit on television...

, William Dalrymple, Paddy Ashdown

Paddy Ashdown

Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC , usually known as Paddy Ashdown, is a British politician and diplomat....

, Nick Cohen

Nick Cohen

Nick Cohen is a British journalist, author and political commentator. He is currently a columnist for The Observer, a blogger for The Spectator and TV critic for Standpoint magazine. He formerly wrote for the London Evening Standard and the New Statesman...

, Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde is a British novelist. Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001. Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and begun two more independent series: The Last Dragonslayer...

, Ziauddin Sardar

Ziauddin Sardar

Ziauddin Sardar is a London-based scholar, writer and cultural-critic who specialises in Muslim thought, the future of Islam, futures studies and science and cultural relations...

, David Edgerton

David Edgerton (historian)

Professor David Edgerton was educated at St John's College, Oxford and Imperial College London. After teaching the economics of science and technology and the history of science and technology at the University of Manchester, he became the founding director of the Centre for the History of...

, and Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai

Kiran Desai is an Indian author who is a citizen of India and a permanent resident of the United States. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award...

. The Festival also ran a short autumn season of lectures, with Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker

Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...

, A. C. Grayling, and Martin Bell

Martin Bell

Martin Bell, OBE, is a British UNICEF Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician...

. The Festival cancelled an appearance by Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

-winning scientist James Watson

James D. Watson

James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...

after controversy about his statements on race.

2008

The 2008 spring festival, 3-29 May, aimed to address "many issues including schisms in the Christian Church, the impact of globalisation, science today... fair trade and transition to a greener society, changing America, the media and truth, and what the world would be like without human beings." Speakers included John Cornwell

John Cornwell (writer)

John Cornwell is an English journalist and author, and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. He is best known for various books on the papacy, most notably Hitler's Pope; investigative journalism; memoir; and the public understanding of science and philosophy. More recently he has been concerned...

, Julian Baggini, Alan Sokal

Alan Sokal

Alan David Sokal is a professor of mathematics at University College London and professor of physics at New York University. He works in statistical mechanics and combinatorics. To the general public he is best known for his criticism of postmodernism, resulting in the Sokal affair in...

, Harriet Lamb

Harriet Lamb

Harriet Lamb is a leading campaigner for fair trade and has been Executive Director of the United Kingdom Fairtrade Foundation since 2001. She was born in England, lived in India as a child and then grew up and was educated in the UK, taking a first degree in political science at Cambridge...

, Astrid Proll

Astrid Proll

Astrid Huberta Isolde Marie Luise Hildegard Proll was an early member of the Baader-Meinhof Gang.-As a Baader-Meinhof member:...

, Andrew Anthony

Andrew Anthony

Andrew Anthony is a journalist who has written for The Guardian since 1990, and The Observer.He is also the author of On Penalties and The Fall-Out .-Published works:*On Penalties...

, Sheila Rowbotham

Sheila Rowbotham

Sheila Rowbotham is a British socialist feminist theorist and writer.-Early life:Rowbotham was born in Leeds, the daughter of a salesman for an engineering company and an office clerk From an early age, she was deeply interested in history...

, Dominic Sandbrook

Dominic Sandbrook

Dominic Sandbrook http://dominicsandbrook.com/wordpress/about/ is a British historian. Born in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, he was educated at Malvern College...

, Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell

Peter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British political campaigner best known for his work with LGBT social movements...

, Raymond Tallis

Raymond Tallis

Raymond Tallis F.Med.Sci., F.R.C.P., F.R.S.A. is a British philosopher, humanist, poet, novelist, cultural critic and retired medical doctor.-Medical career:...

, Charles Leadbeater

Charles Leadbeater

Charles Leadbeater is a British author and former advisor to Tony Blair.He first came to widespread notice in the 1980s as a regular contributor to the magazine Marxism Today. Later he was Industrial Editor and Tokyo Bureau Chief at the Financial Times...

, George Ferguson

George Ferguson (architect)

George Robin Paget Ferguson, CBE, PPRIBA, RWA is a British architect, who has made a significant contribution to architecture, town planning and design in the South West of England and Europe....

, Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson is a Welsh journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author, whose works include The Men Who Stare At Goats. His journalism and columns have appeared in British publications including The Guardian newspaper, City Life and Time Out magazine...

, Jean Moorcroft Wilson

Jean Moorcroft Wilson

Dr Jean Moorcroft Wilson is a British academic and writer, best known as a biographer and critic of First World War poets and poetry....

, Adrian Tinniswood

Adrian Tinniswood

Adrian Tinniswood is an English writer and historian.-Life:He studied English and Philosophy at Southampton University and was awarded an MPhil at Leicester University...

, Andrew Mawson, Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre is a British author, historian, and columnist writing for The Times newspaper. His columns range from current affairs to historical controversies.- Author :...

, Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....

, Susan Greenfield

Susan Greenfield

Susan Adele Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, CBE is a British scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords. Greenfield, whose specialty is the physiology of the brain, has worked to research and bring attention to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.Greenfield is...

, Nick Davies

Nick Davies

Nick Davies is a British investigative journalist, writer and documentary maker.Davies has written extensively as a freelancer, as well as for The Guardian and The Observer, and been named Reporter of the Year Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards...

, Simon Singh

Simon Singh

Simon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner....

, Edzard Ernst

Edzard Ernst

Edzard Ernst is the first Professor of Complementary Medicine in the world, at the University of Exeter, England....

, Patrick Cockburn

Patrick Cockburn

Patrick Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent since 1979 for the Financial Times and, presently, The Independent....

, Philippe Sands

Philippe Sands

Philippe Sands, QC is a British lawyer at Matrix Chambers, and is Professor of International law at University College London. Sands is notable for writing a book, Lawless World, in which he accused US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of conspiring to invade Iraq in violation...

, Matt Frei

Matt Frei

Matthias Frei better known as Matt Frei is a German-born British television news journalist and writer, presently the Washington, D.C. correspondent for Channel 4 News.-Personal life:...

, Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...

, Alan Weisman

Alan Weisman

Alan H. Weisman is an American author, professor, and journalist.- Education and career :Weisman holds both a bachelor's and master's degree in literature from Northwestern University...

, Kate Mosse

Kate Mosse

Kate Mosse is an English author and broadcaster. She is best known for her 2005 novel Labyrinth, which has been translated into more than 37 languages.- Private life :...

, Gary Marcus

Gary Marcus

Gary F. Marcus is a research psychologist whose work focuses on language, biology, and the mind. Dr. Marcus is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at New York University and Director of the NYU Infant Language Center...

, and John Bolton

John R. Bolton

John Robert Bolton is an American lawyer and diplomat who has served in several Republican presidential administrations. He served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2005 until December 2006 on a recess appointment...

.

A series of special events were held in autumn 2008, featuring Alaa Al Aswany

Alaa Al Aswany

Alaa al-Aswany is an Egyptian writer, and a founding member of the political movement Kefaya.-Biography:Alaa Al Aswany studied to be a dentist, first in Egypt, and then later Chicago....

, Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...

, Deyan Sudjic, Richard Evans

Richard J. Evans

Richard John Evans is a British academic and historian, prominently known for his history of Germany.-Life:Evans was born in London, of Welsh parentage, and is now Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and President of Wolfson College...

, Kate Adie

Kate Adie

Kathryn "Kate" Adie , OBE , is a British journalist. Her most high-profile role was that of chief news correspondent for BBC News, during which time she became well known for reporting from war zones around the world...

, Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson

Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson is a British historian. His specialty is financial and economic history, particularly hyperinflation and the bond markets, as well as the history of colonialism.....

, Chris Patten

Chris Patten

Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC , is the last Governor of British Hong Kong, a former British Conservative politician, and the current chairman of the BBC Trust....

, Colin Blakemore

Colin Blakemore

Professor Colin Blakemore, Ph.D., FRS, FMedSci, HonFSB, HonFRCP, is a British neurobiologist who is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and University of Warwick specialising in vision and the development of the brain. He was formerly Chief Executive of the British Medical...

, Jonathan Miller

Jonathan Miller

Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE is a British theatre and opera director, author, physician, television presenter, humorist and sculptor. Trained as a physician in the late 1950s, he first came to prominence in the 1960s with his role in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe with fellow writers and...

, Richard Gregory

Richard Gregory

Richard Langton Gregory, CBE, MA, D.Sc., FRSE, FRS was a British psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol.-Life and career:...

, Robert Winston

Robert Winston

Robert Maurice Lipson Winston, Baron Winston is a British professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician.-Early life and education :...

, A. S. Byatt

A. S. Byatt

Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...

, Semir Zeki

Semir Zeki

Semir Zeki is a professor of neuroesthetics at University College London. His main interest is the organization of the primate visual brain. He published his first scientific paper in 1967...

, Richard Wentworth and Paul Nurse

Paul Nurse

Sir Paul Maxime Nurse, PRS is a British geneticist and cell biologist. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Leland H. Hartwell and R...

. Other speakers during the year included John Prescott

John Prescott

John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...

, Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus

Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen received the Nobel Peace Prize...

, and Tony Benn

Tony Benn

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...

2009

The 2009 festival focused on three themes – Thirty years of Thatcherism

Thatcherism

Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...

; Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

and Darwinism

Darwinism

Darwinism is a set of movements and concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or of evolution, including some ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin....

; and Arts and Science, fifty years after scientist C. P. Snow

C. P. Snow

Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of the City of Leicester CBE was an English physicist and novelist who also served in several important positions with the UK government...

's influential lecture, The Two Cultures
The Two Cultures
The Two Cultures is the title of an influential 1959 Rede Lecture by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow. Its thesis was that "the intellectual life of the whole of western society" was split into the titular two cultures—namely the sciences and the humanities—and that this was a major...

. Events during the main Festival featured speakers Aravind Adiga

Aravind Adiga

Aravind Adiga is an Indian writer and journalist. His debut novel, The White Tiger, won the 2008 Man Booker Prize.-Early life and education:...

, Tariq Modood, Peter Singer

Peter Singer

Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...

, James Lovelock

James Lovelock

, A. C. Grayling, Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell is an American journalist and senior editor at The Weekly Standard, as well as a regular contributor to the Financial Times and Slate. His writing also frequently appears in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, where he is a contributing editor to the paper's magazine,...

, John Gray, Richard Holmes

Richard Holmes (biographer)

Richard Holmes, OBE, FRSL, FBA is a British author and academic best known for his biographical studies of major figures of British and French Romanticism.-Biography:...

, Paddy Ashdown, Nick Cohen, Wayne Hemingway

Wayne Hemingway

Wayne Andrew Hemingway, MBE is an English fashion designer and co-founder of Red or Dead. He is also chairman of the South Coast Design Forum, and chair of Building For Life .Hemingway is the son of Canadian Mohawk chief and former wrestler Billy Two Rivers...

, Susan Blackmore

Susan Blackmore

Susan Jane Blackmore is an English freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on psychology and the paranormal, perhaps best known for her book The Meme Machine.-Career:...

, Christopher Brookmyre

Christopher Brookmyre

Christopher Brookmyre is a Scottish novelist whose novels mix comedy, politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan Noir author...

, James Harkin, Tariq Ramadan, David Aaronovitch

David Aaronovitch

David Aaronovitch is a British author, broadcaster, and journalist. He is a regular columnist for The Times, and author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country and Voodoo Histories: the role of Conspiracy Theory in Modern History...

, Bruce Hood

Bruce Hood

Bruce Hood was born in Campbellville, Ontario, Canada. He has been an author, businessman, politician, and a professional ice hockey referee in the National Hockey League .-Officiating record:...

, Geoff Dyer, Tristram Hunt

Tristram Hunt

Tristram Julian William Hunt, FRHistS MP is a British politician, historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, who is currently the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central. He also teaches and lectures on Modern British History at Queen Mary, University of London in Mile End, East London...

, Marcus du Sautoy

Marcus du Sautoy

Marcus Peter Francis du Sautoy OBE is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, and Wadham College, he is now a Fellow of New College...

, Ben Goldacre

Ben Goldacre

Ben Michael Goldacre born 1974 is a British science writer, doctor and psychiatrist. He is the author of The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column and a book of the same title, published by Fourth Estate in September 2008....

, Ruth Padel

Ruth Padel

Ruth Sophia Padel is a British poet, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Zoological Society of London. She also writes non-fiction and more recently fiction, broadcasts on wildlife, poetry and literature for BBC Radio 3 and 4, and is Writer in Residence at The Environment Institute,...

, Richard Fortey

Richard Fortey

Richard A. Fortey FRS is a British palaeontologist and writer.-Career:Richard Fortey studied geology at the University of Cambridge and had a long career as a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. Prof. Fortey’s research interests include, above all, trilobites...

, and Gillian Beer

Gillian Beer

Dame Gillian Beer, DBE , King Edward VII Professor of English Literature and President, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, is a British literary critic and academic.-Career:...

. A programme of events was also held throughout the rest of year. Speakers included Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky

Clay Shirky is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He has a joint appointment at New York University as a Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and Assistant Arts Professor in the New...

, Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer

Michael Brant Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members...

, Ken Robinson, Leonard Susskind

Leonard Susskind

Leonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University. His research interests include string theory, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology...

, Steve Jones

Steve Jones (biologist)

John Stephen Jones is a Welsh geneticist and from 1995 to 1999 and 2008 to June 2010 was Head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. His studies are conducted in the Galton Laboratory. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on...

, Misha Glenny

Misha Glenny

Misha Glenny is a British journalist who specializes in southeastern Europe and global organized crime.-Biography:Glenny is the son of the late Russian studies academic Michael Glenny...

, Daniel Dennett

Daniel Dennett

Daniel Clement Dennett is an American philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is currently the Co-director of...

, John Armstrong

John Armstrong (British writer/philosopher)

John Armstrong is a British writer and philosopher living in Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Glasgow and educated at Oxford and London, later directing the philosophy program at the University of London's School of Advanced Study...

, Chris Anderson, Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono is a physician, author, inventor, and consultant. He originated the term lateral thinking, wrote a best selling book Six Thinking Hats and is a proponent of the deliberate teaching of thinking as a subject in schools.- Biography :Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono was born to...

, Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong FRSL , is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith...

, Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...

, Margaret Atwood, Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins

Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...

, Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant

Sarah Dunant is the author of many international bestsellers, most recently Sacred Hearts, the completion of her Italian historical trilogy....

, John Kampfner

John Kampfner

John Paul Kampfner is a British journalist who was editor of the weekly political magazine the New Statesman between 2005 and 2008...

, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a British celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer and "real food" campaigner, known for his back-to-basics philosophy...

, Simon Schama

Simon Schama

Simon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...

, Tristram Stuart

Tristram Stuart

Tristram Stuart is an English author and historian.Stuart read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating in 1999 and winning the Betha Wolferstan Rylands prize and the Graham Storey prize; his directors of studies were Peter Holland and John Lennard...

, Rose George

Rose George

Rose George is a British journalist and author. She began writing in 1994, as an intern at The Nation magazine in New York. Later, she became senior editor and writer at COLORS magazine, the bilingual "global magazine about local cultures" published in eighty countries and based first in Rome, then...

, Zac Goldsmith

Zac Goldsmith

Frank Zacharias Robin "Zac" Goldsmith, MP is an English environmental journalist, entrepreneur and Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Richmond Park since winning the seat at the 2010 general election.Goldsmith is the middle child of the late financier Sir...

, Gillian Tett

Gillian Tett

Gillian Tett is a British author and award-winning journalist at the Financial Times, where she is the US managing editor She has written about the financial instruments that were part of the cause of the financial crisis that started in the fourth quarter of 2007, such as CDOs, credit default...

, Neal Lawson

Neal Lawson

Neal Lawson is a political commentator in the United Kingdom.He was born on the 21st March 1963 in Lewisham and brought up in 1960s/70s in Bexleyheath . He got into politics through his father who was a printer in Fleet Street and joined the Labour Party at 16...

, Michael Mansfield

Michael Mansfield

Michael Mansfield QC is an English barrister. A republican, vegetarian, socialist, and self-described "radical lawyer", he has participated in prominent and controversial court cases and inquests involving accused IRA bombers, the Bloody Sunday incident, and the deaths of Jean Charles de Menezes...

, Vic Reeves

Vic Reeves

James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....

, Shappi Khorsandi, Alan Davies

Alan Davies

Alan Davies is an English comedian, writer and actor best known for starring in the TV mystery series Jonathan Creek and as the permanent panellist on the TV panel show QI.- Early life :...

, Bruce Hood

Bruce Hood (psychologist)

Bruce Hood is a Canadian-born experimental psychologist who specialises in developmental cognitive neuroscience and is Director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, based at Bristol University....

, John Micklethwait

John Micklethwait

John Micklethwait is the editor-in-chief of The Economist.-Biography:Micklethwait was born in 1962 and educated at the independent school Ampleforth College and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied history. He worked for Chase Manhattan Bank for two years and joined The Economist in 1987...

, Madeleine Bunting

Madeleine Bunting

Madeleine Bunting is an English journalist and writer who is an Associate Editor and columnist on The Guardian.Born in Oswaldkirk, North Yorkshire, Bunting was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where she read History, and won a Knox postgraduate fellowship to study Politics and teach...

, David Attenborough

David Attenborough

Sir David Frederick Attenborough OM, CH, CVO, CBE, FRS, FZS, FSA is a British broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has endured for more than 50 years...

, David Puttnam

David Puttnam

David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, FRSA is a British film producer. He sits on the Labour benches in the House of Lords, although he is not principally a politician.-Early life:...

, William Waldegrave

William Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill

William Arthur Waldegrave, Baron Waldegrave of North Hill, PC , is an English Conservative politician who served in the Cabinet from 1990 until 1997 and is a Life Member of the Tory Reform Group. He is now a life peer. Lord Waldegrave is also the Chairman of the Rhodes Trust and the Chairman of...

, Raj Patel

Raj Patel

Raj Patel is a British-born American academic, journalist, activist and writer who has lived and worked in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the United States for extended periods. He is best known for his 2008 book, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System...

, Vince Cable, Virginia Ironside

Virginia Ironside

Virginia Ironside is a British journalist and author. She is the daughter of painter and coin designer Christopher Ironside and fashion designer and professor of fashion design at the Royal College of Art Janey Acheson. Ironside writes a column, "Dilemmas", for The Independent and a monthly column...

, and Suzanne Moore

Suzanne Moore

Suzanne Moore is a British journalist.The daughter of an American father and a working class Tory mother, who split up during her childhood, Moore was lined up by her headmistress to apply to enter Cambridge University, but left school at 16...

.

In January 2009, the Festival commissioned an artwork to depict people and products that made Bristol famous, as an updated version of a 1930 painting by Ernest Board (1877-1934), Some Who Have Made Bristol Famous, displayed in the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery

The Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England. It is run by the city council with no entrance fee. It holds designated museum status, granted by the national government to protect outstanding museums...

. The commission was won by Simon Gurr, and a final list of subjects to appear in the updated version was agreed in 2010. They include Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit are the main characters in a series consisting of four British animated short films and a feature-length film by Nick Park of Aardman Animations...

; a special Festival event was held in December 2009, chaired by Christopher Frayling

Christopher Frayling

Sir Christopher John Frayling is a British educationalist and writer, known for his study of popular culture.-Biography:Frayling read history at Churchill College, Cambridge and gained a PhD in the study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau...

, to mark the 20th anniversary of the creation of the characters by Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, or simply as Aardman, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particularly those featuring Plasticine characters Wallace and Gromit...

, based in Bristol.

2010

In 2010, special themes included paranoia, inequality, and animal rights

Animal rights

Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...

, together with "The Bristol Phenomenon", looking at creativity in Bristol through time. Speakers included Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich

-Early life:Ehrenreich was born Barbara Alexander to Isabelle Oxley and Ben Howes Alexander in Butte, Montana, which she describes as then being "a bustling, brawling, blue collar mining town."...

, Stewart Brand

Stewart Brand

Stewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation...

, Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

, Albie Sachs

Albie Sachs

Albie Sachs was a judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He was appointed to the court by Nelson Mandela in 1994 and retired in October 2009...

, Rebecca Goldstein

Rebecca Goldstein

Rebecca Goldstein is an American novelist and professor of philosophy. She has written five novels, a number of short stories and essays, and biographical studies of mathematician Kurt Gödel and philosopher Baruch Spinoza....

, Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker

Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...

, Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....

, Paul Davies

Paul Davies

Paul Charles William Davies, AM is an English physicist, writer and broadcaster, currently a professor at Arizona State University as well as the Director of BEYOND: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science...

, Phillip Blond

Phillip Blond

Phillip Blond is an English political thinker, Anglican and theologian, and director of the think tank ResPublica.He gained prominence from a cover story in Prospect magazine in the February 2009 edition with his essay on Red Toryism, which proposed a radical communitarian traditionalist...

, Peter Singer, Christopher Frayling, John Boorman

John Boorman

John Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...

, Will Hutton

Will Hutton

William Nicolas Hutton is an English writer, weekly columnist and former editor-in-chief for The Observer. He is currently Principal of Hertford College, Oxford and Chair of the Big Innovation Centre , an initiative from The Work Foundation , having been Chief Executive of The Work Foundation from...

, Richard Wilkinson, Paul Collier

Paul Collier

Paul Collier, CBE is a Professor of Economics, Director for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at The University of Oxford and Fellow of St Antony's College. From 1998 – 2003 he was the director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank.-Life:Collier is a specialist in...

, Norman Stone

Norman Stone

Norman Stone is a British academic, historian, author and is currently a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara...

, Wendy Grossman, Simon Hoggart

Simon Hoggart

Simon David Hoggart is an English journalist and broadcaster. He writes on politics for The Guardian, and on wine for The Spectator. Until 2006 he presented The News Quiz on Radio 4...

, Peter Hitchens

Peter Hitchens

Peter Jonathan Hitchens is an award-winning British columnist and author, noted for his traditionalist conservative stance. He has published five books, including The Abolition of Britain, A Brief History of Crime, The Broken Compass and most recently The Rage Against God. Hitchens writes for...

, Ben Shephard

Ben Shephard

Benjamin Peter "Ben" Shephard, also known as "Sheps" is an English television presenter who currently works for Sky Sports, as well as ITV.-Personal life:...

, Ben Goldacre

Ben Goldacre

, Francis Wheen

Francis Wheen

Francis James Baird Wheen is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster.-Early life and education:Wheen was born into an army family and educated at two independent schools: Copthorne Preparatory School near Crawley, West Sussex and Harrow School in north west London.-Life and career:Running...

, Richard Holloway

Richard Holloway

Richard F. Holloway is a Scottish writer and broadcaster and was formerly Bishop of Edinburgh in the Scottish Episcopal Church....

, Andrea Levy, Mike Hodges

Mike Hodges

Mike Hodges is an English screenwriter, film director, playwright and novelist. His films as writer/director include Get Carter, Pulp, The Terminal Man and Black Rainbow; as director his films include Flash Gordon, Croupier and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead...

, Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg

Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...

, Dorothy Rowe

Dorothy Rowe

Dr. Dorothy Rowe is an Australian psychologist and author, whose area of interest is depression. Dr. Rowe currently resides in the United Kingdom....

, David Eagleman

David Eagleman

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, where he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action and the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. He is best known for his work on time perception, synesthesia, and neurolaw...

, Anthony Julius

Anthony Julius

Anthony Julius is a prominent British lawyer and academic, best known for his actions on behalf of Diana, Princess of Wales, Deborah Lipstadt and more recently Heather Mills...

, John O'Farrell

John O'Farrell

John O'Farrell is a British author, broadcaster and comedy scriptwriter.-Early life:O’Farrell grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire the youngest of three children, attending Courthouse Primary School and then Desborough Comprehensive...

, Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser

Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...

, Brooke Magnanti, Gary Younge

Gary Younge

Gary Younge is a British journalist, author and broadcaster, born to immigrant parents from Barbados....

, Christopher Hitchens, Annie Leonard

Annie Leonard

Annie Leonard is an American proponent of sustainability and critic of excessive consumerism. She is most known for her controversial animated film The Story of Stuff about the life-cycle of material goods.-Biography:...

, Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich

-Early life:Ehrenreich was born Barbara Alexander to Isabelle Oxley and Ben Howes Alexander in Butte, Montana, which she describes as then being "a bustling, brawling, blue collar mining town."...

, Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink is a German jurist and writer. He was born in Bethel, Germany, to a German father and a Swiss mother, the youngest of four children. Both his parents were theology students, although his father lost his job as a Professor of Theology due to the Nazis, and had to settle on being a...

, and Will Self

Will Self

William Woodard "Will" Self is an English novelist and short story writer. His fictional style is known for being satirical, grotesque, and fantastical. He is a prolific commentator on contemporary British life, with regular appearances on Newsnight and Question Time...

2011

Programmed speakers in the first part of the year included Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....

and Evgeny Morozov

Evgeny Morozov

Evgeny Morozov, born 1984 in Soligorsk, Belarus, is a writer and researcher who studies political and social implications of technology.-Life:...

. The main Festival of Ideas took place 13-22 May 2011.

Winners of the Bristol Festival of Ideas Book Prize

2009: Flat Earth News, by Nick Davies
Nick Davies
Nick Davies is a British investigative journalist, writer and documentary maker.Davies has written extensively as a freelancer, as well as for The Guardian and The Observer, and been named Reporter of the Year Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards...
2010: The Spirit Level
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better is a book by Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, published in 2009 by Allen Lane. The book is published in the US by Bloomsbury Press with the new sub-title: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger...

, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
2011: The Return of the Public, Dan Hind

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