The historian introduces his tales of eight generations of the greatest and worst kings and queens this country has ever seen – from the White Ship to the Lionheart, bad King John to the Black Prince and John of Gaunt. This is the dynasty that invented England as we still know it today.
The Dean of Hereford pitches Ethelbert, Dubricius, Clodock against Herbert Armstrong, Roger Mortimer, Hugh Depenser and a fantastic cast of both and in-betweens.
Minhinnick and Meredith are both writers of conviction, dazzlingly accomplished authors who show us the big picture by focussing on the individual and the everyday. Minhinnick's stories in The Keys of Babylon carry the hopes and dreams of migrants across the world from Albania, to Mexico, China, Iraq, Israel, Wales and the US. Meredith stays closer to home in The Book of Idiots, his Wales-set blackly comic fourth novel.
Bards, poets, writers, actors, and musicians populate Welsh history to an extraordinary degree. So too do the icons of modern popular culture from the Manic Street Preachers to Gavin and Stacey. Why has Wales been so blessed with creative talent? And what is distinctively Welsh about our cultural heroes?
The permaculture pioneer guides us around his sustainable food centre, which has won 12 True Taste of Wales awards in 3 years including gold for sustainable development in 2011. The centre is probably the most productive acre and a half in the UK and is a blueprint model for future food security.
Join local agronomist Jonathon Harrington and vet Barney Sampson as they explore farms in the local area. Expedition parties meet at 9am at the box office on the day of their excursion, to return at around 1pm. Limited numbers of self-drive tickets are available too, please contact the box office on 01497 822 629 for more information. On the day please wear suitable footwear and waterproof clothing in case of inclement weather.
John and Helen Price open the gates to their farm, which specialises in producing top quality beef from their single suckler herd. The farm produces all its own fodder and feed crops and supplies both local and national retailers. A new enterprise involves the growing of daffodils for the production of a drug, which is used for treatment of Alzheimers. A short walk to see the herd grazing will take place if the weather permits. Beef from the farm will be served in bread rolls at the end of the visit.
With thanks to John and Helen Price of Llwynberried Farm.
Philosophy for Life - And other dangerous situations
Event 204 • •
Venue: Sky Arts Studio
An invitation to a dream school with a rowdy faculty that includes 12 of the greatest thinkers the world has ever known. Each of these ancient philosophers teaches a technique we can use to transform ourselves and live better lives.
Darwin’s Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
Event 205 • •
Venue: Big Tent
The story of Darwin’s many predecessors back to Leonardo and Aristotle, who advanced theories of evolution in times when it was exceptionally dangerous to do so.
A Death in the Family is hailed as the great masterpiece of contemporary Norwegian literature, exploring love, parental death and a teenage infatuation for rock music. The Welsh tale of Diamond Star Halo riffs on the same eternal themes.
Translators Wynne (winner of the IMPAC, Foreign Fiction Prize etc) and Harvey produce English versions of the same short story originally written in Spanish by the Mexican novelist and Bogota 39 star Álvaro Enrigue. The author and his translators discuss the nuances, divergences and creativity of their translations with the Director of the BCLT.
FREE BUT TICKETED
This event has taken place
In partnership with the British Centre for Literary Translation
Four short testimonies followed by a wide-ranging discussion about the value and opportunities offered through the insights of youth – ‘Why does it have to be like that?’
Come to the Pop Up Studio and learn how to look and to draw with the only art school dedicated to drawing from observation. Spend a morning drawing and change the way you see! Suitable for all ages and abilities. No equipment required.
Join Richard Ball, Access and Uplands Officer from the Brecon Beacons National Park and Rob Dingle, Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail Officer, on this lovely, moderate 7 mile (11km) walk to the top of Hay Bluff for stunning views of the surrounding countryside before returning to the town along a pretty section of the Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail.
It was 1501. England had been ravaged for decades by conspiracy, violence, murders, coups and counter-coups. Henry VII had clambered to the top of the heap - a fugitive with a flimsy claim to England's crown who through luck, guile and ruthlessness had managed to win the throne and stay on it for sixteen years. Although he built palaces, hosted jousts, gave out lavish presents and sent ambassadors across Europe, for many he remained a usurper, a false king.
But Henry had a crucial asset: his queen and their children, the living embodiment of his hoped-for dynasty. Now, in what would be the crowning glory of his reign, his elder son would marry a great Spanish princess. On a cold November day this girl, the sixteen-year-old Catherine of Aragon, arrived in London for a wedding upon which the fate of England would hinge...
In his remarkable debut, historian Thomas Penn recreates an England which is both familiar and very strange - a country that seems medieval yet modern, in which honour and chivalry mingle with espionage, realpolitik, high finance and corruption. It is the story of the transformation of a young, vulnerable boy, Prince Henry, into the aggressive teenager who would become Henry VIII, and of Catherine of Aragon, his future queen. And at its heart is the tragic, magnetic figure of Henry VII - controlling, paranoid, avaricious, with a Machiavellian charm and will to power.
What happens when the lonely egg sat on a wall meets the sparkling pea from under that huge pile of mattresses? Join Eggy and Peggy the pea, a rock-n-rolling raspberry and cha-cha-cha-ing carrots in this funny and original twist on The Princess And The Pea.
A team of top-notch scientists will be performing eye-catching physics tricks, using things that can be found at home, to wow all ages. Some are messy, some are noisy, but all of them are crowd pleasing and help illustrate different areas of physics. So come along and find out how to make a balloon kebab, a tame tornado and much more.
