Box Office 0870 343 1001 www.sundaytimes ... - Blackwell's

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Steve Jones 431
The Galapagos in the
Garden of England
12pm / Newman Rooms, St Aldates / £7.50
The Origin of Species is the most famous book in
science but its stature tends to obscure the genius
of Charles Darwin’s other works. Darwin wrote six
million words, in nineteen books and innumerable
letters, on topics as different as dogs, barnacles,
insect-eating plants, orchids, earthworms, apes and
human emotion. Together, they laid the foundations
of modern biology. In this fascinating talk based
on his highly acclaimed book The Galapagos in the
Garden of England, Steve Jones explores the full
range of Darwin’s achievement, and brings his work
right up to date.
Sponsored by Cox & Kings
Russell Stannard
Relativity:
A Very Short Introduction
Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie
433
1.15pm (10 minutes) / Blackwell Festival Bookshop
Meadows Marquee, Christ Church / Free
Einstein’s theory of relativity shattered the world of
physics - replacing Newtonian ideas of space and
time with bizarre and counterintuitive conclusions:
a world of slowing clocks and stretched space,
black holes and curved space-time. Join Russell
Stannard as he explores and explains the theory in
an accessible and understandable way.
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WEDNESDAY APRIL 2009
Elizabeth Jane Howard 403
Love All
2pm / Hall, Christ Church / £7.50
Author of Falling and the Cazalet Chronicles,
Elizabeth Jane Howard is one of our most popular
writers. The former wife of Kingsley Amis, she has
also known some of the most celebrated writers
of the 20th century – everyone from Laurie Lee to
Arthur Koestler, Cecil Day-Lewis, Cyril Connolly,
Ken Tynan and Olivia Manning have come into her
life at one time or another. Set in the 1960s against
the backdrop of a festival of the arts, her first
new novel for nine years offers an absorbing
portrait of family rivalry and satisfyingly complex
intertwining relationships.
The Thing Around Your Neck
2pm / Newman Rooms, St Aldate’s / £7.50
The twelve stories in this brilliant collection straddle
the cultures of Nigeria and the West. Orange
Prize- winning author of Purple Hibiscus and Half
of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie creates
characters battling with the responsibilities of
modern life, a world in which identity is too often
compromised. The title story depicts the choking
loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an
America that turns out to be nothing like the country
she expected; though falling in love brings her
desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland
forces her to re-examine them. Searing and profound,
suffused with beauty, sorrow and longing, this
collection is a resounding confirmation of Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie’s prodigious storytelling powers.
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