News
Polly Toynbee will talk about An Uneasy Inheritance centred on her family – which in addition to her writer father Philip and her historian grandfather Arnold, contains everyone from the Glenconners to Jessica Mitford and with Castle Howard as a backdrop.
Polly explores the myth of mobility, the guilt of privilege, and asks for a truly honest conversation about class in Britain.
Artificial intelligence is a subject on everyone’s mind at the moment and we are delighted that Chris Stokel-Walker is coming to talk about his new book: How AI Ate the World. A fast-paced, balanced narrative on how AI is integrated into the technology that shapes, and increasingly runs, our lives – and why that matters.
Agent Zo tells the story of the only woman to join the Polish elite Special Forces. Demobbed as one of the most highly decorated women in Polish history, imprisoned by the post-war Communist regime and with a story that was forgotten.
Clare Mulley brings this heroine back to life, and transforms how we see the history of women’s agency in the Second World War.
Big Book Group 2024
We have chosen the book for the Big Book Group – the intriguingly named Confession with Blue Horses by Sophie Hardach.
Tobi and Ella’s childhood in East Berlin is shrouded in mystery. Now adults living in London, their past is full of unanswered questions. Both remember their family’s daring and terrifying attempt to escape. But what happened next? Where did their parents disappear to, and why? What happened to Heiko, their little brother? And was there ever a painting of three blue horses?
The Guardian called it ‘an absorbing slow burn of a book that not only casts light on Germany’s recent history but depicts, with careful tenderness, a family simultaneously torn apart by ideology and bound by powerful ties of love.’
Sophie Hardach is a German-born writer and journalist living in London.
Confession with Blue Horses was short-listed for the Costa prize. We hope that by announcing the title for the Big Book Group now, groups can incorporate it into their programme for the year.
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