Talks, Lectures & Screenings
Take a look below to see the cultural events coming up at The Hive
Hay Festival:
Kevin McCloud, Chris Packham and Rosie Pearson talk to Sarah Lamptey: Homes for Everyone and Nature Too
Saturday 24 May, 11:30am-12:30pm
Building homes – one and a half million of them – is at the top of the government’s agenda, and no NIMBYs, newts or bats will be allowed to get in the way. Nor will any planning rules, with the government set to rewrite them so that homes can be built on the Green Belt, which was instituted to stop urban sprawl.
But how can we solve the very real housing crisis without destroying the countryside?
Join architect, author and Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, wildlife TV presenter, conservationist, author and campaigner Chris Packham, and the founder of the Community Planning Alliance, Rosie Pearson, for a look at a common sense approach to tackling the country’s housing needs.
They talk to Sarah Lamptey, presenter, writer, DJ and founder of Showerbox, which brings free showers to enhance the lives of those facing homelessness in London.
This talk will be livestreamed from Hay Festival.
Hay Festival:
Emma Barnett and Stacey Dooley: A Love Letter to Remarkable Mothers
Saturday 24 May, 2:30pm-3:30pm
Award-winning broadcasters Emma Barnett (BBC Radio 4’s Today programme) and Stacey Dooley (Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over) take a personal, political and cultural look at motherhood and the impact it has on women. The pair’s honest and open conversation will look at the experience of becoming a mother and the physical and mental work required in motherhood, celebrating mothers of all kinds.
Barnett’s Maternity Service was written in snatched moments after the birth of her second child, and is a heartfelt and reassuring look at what it really feels like to be on maternity leave. In Dear Minnie, written after she had her first child, Dooley brings her trademark empathy and investigative skill to an entirely new ‘frontline’, exploring the varied perspectives of mothers today.
This talk will be livestreamed from Hay Festival.
Hay Festival:
Henry Marsh, Sonia Sodha and Jonathan Sumption talk to Alex Goodman on Assisted Dying
Sunday 25 May, 1pm-2pm
Dying: do we all have a right to defend ourselves against intolerable suffering? Or should the law prohibit assisted dying; revere human life for its own sake? Our panel discuss the moral, legal and practical issues arising from the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024 that is now working its way through Parliament.
Henry Marsh is a neurosurgeon, author of And Finally: Matters of Life and Death, who defends a right to euthanasia. Sonia Sodha is a journalist whose recent exploration of assisted dying for a BBC Radio documentary led her to change her mind, and now opposes it. Lord Sumption is an historian and former Supreme Court judge who decided the last ‘test’ case on assisted dying (Nicklinson). Alex Goodman KC is a barrister specialising in human rights, who briefed MPs in Westminster on the 2024 Bill.
This talk will be livestreamed from Hay Festival.
Hay Festival:
Poppy Okotcha and Kathy Slack: Gardening Wild and Rough
Thursday 29 May, 1pm-2pm
Two gardeners reveal how connecting with their gardens helped them find solace and taught them how to live more sustainably. Poppy Okotcha and Kathy Slack discuss their own gardens, and share tips for sowing and growing your own plants, flowers and vegetables.
Okotcha’s memoir A Wilder Way chronicles her relationship with an ever-changing garden in Devon. She is a trained horticulturist and regenerative grower, and advocates for those who are underrepresented and marginalised in the world of horticulture and environmentalism. A regular contributor to the Royal Horticultural Society podcast, she was the ecological expert on Channel 4’s The Great Garden Revolution.
Slack’s Rough Patch draws readers into the world of the kitchen garden, revealing how she found refuge in a vegetable patch after she was forced to quit her high-flying career in London. She is a food writer, stylist, photographer and kitchen gardener who previously worked at Daylesford Organic Farm, before becoming a full-time writer and recipe developer.
In conversation with Tamsin Westhorpe, the editor of the Horticultural Trade Association magazine and curator and gardener of Stockton Bury Gardens, Herefordshire.
This talk will be livestreamed from Hay Festival.
Hay Festival:
Kate Mosse and Jacqueline Wilson talk to Suzy Klein: Fictions: A Life of Their Own
Friday 30 May, 1pm-2pm
Join acclaimed writers and longstanding friends Kate Mosse ad Jacqueline Wilson for an intimate chat encompassing their thoughts on life, writing and creative inspiration. Both writers of strong female characters, the pair also share a sense of adventure in real life. Far from resting on their publishing laurels, Mosse recently toured a one-woman show of Labyrinth, while Wilson has just published Think Again, her first adult novel in a career spanning five decades. Similarly Mosse will also be publishing her first book for a young adult audience later this year.
They discuss revisiting characters many years after first creating them, how books can take on a life of their own, in adaptations and otherwise, and give insights into how their writing life changed following the success of their books. Mosse is founder director of the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction and Women’s Prize for Fiction, for which Wilson has been a judge.
This talk will be livestreamed from Hay Festival.
Hay Festival:
Gina Rippon in conversation with Robin Ince: The Lost Girls of Autism
Saturday 31 May, 2:30pm-3:30pm
When it comes to autism, girls and women have often been forgotten. Autistic girls are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, personality disorders, or are missed altogether, and many women only discover they have the condition when they are much older, missing decades of support and understanding.
Renowned brain scientist Gina Rippon looks at why autism has historically been focused on men and how it manifests in them, and delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored and misunderstood for so long.
Author of The Gendered Brain, Rippon is Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, Aston University, where she has used brain-imaging techniques to investigate patterns of brain activity in developmental disorders such as autism. She talks to comedian and writer Robin Ince.
This event will be livestreamed from Hay Festival.
Hay Festival:
Adam Frost: For the Love of Plants
Sunday 1 June, 1pm-2pm
Award-winning garden designer, RHS ambassador and TV presenter Adam Frost pays tribute to the plants that have shaped his life and the music that inspired his new garden’s design, and explores what gardening means to him.
Gain tips for gardens of all kinds, as Frost shares his horticultural knowledge, and learn how the gardener used the creation of a garden at his new house to help him with his mental health.
Frost has won seven gold medals at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and is a presenter for Gardeners’ World. He has written about the link between health and gardening in Gardeners’ World magazine. In conversation with the writer and editor, Kitty Corrigan.
This talk will be livestreamed from Hay Festival.
"Where England's troubles began and where they happily ended": The Skirmish at Powick and the Final Battle of Worcester with Howard Robinson
Wednesday 11 June, 6pm-7pm
This is a quotation from Hugh Peters, a chaplain to the Parliamentary army during the so-called English Civil War made the day after the final Battle of Worcester in 1651. It refers to the two conflicts which began and ended the Civil War: The skirmish at Powick on 23 September 1642 (an overwhelming victory for Prince Rupert and Royalist forces), and the second largest battle on English soil on 3 September 1651 (an overwhelming victory for Cromwell and Parliamentary forces) after which the future Charles II had to flee for his life.
Join Howard Robinson from the Battle of Worcester Society to explore the two conflicts in more depth, then check out the Battle of Worcester Society collection on Level 2 of The Hive.
Tickets are £1 each, book your place here.
Book launch: Reading Ann Rule: Landmarks in True Crime by Charlotte Barnes
Wednesday 25 June, 7pm-8pm
Reading Ann Rule: Landmarks in true crime is the first critical accompaniment for the work of legendary true crime writer, Ann Rule. At this special event, Charlotte Barnes will be launching her new monograph with several readings from the work, accompanied by an informal lecture about Rule’s writing, and the influence it holds over contemporary true crime writers. Following this, Charlotte will welcome questions from the audience about Rule, true crime, and everything in between. This is a perfect event for true crime enthusiasts, whether you pursue the topic academically or whether you are an everyday consumer of the genre.
Tickets are £1 each, book your place here.
Book launch: Recommended! The Influencers Who Changed How We Read by Dr Nicola Wilson
Wednesday 2 July, 6:30pm-8pm
Before Reese Witherspoon and Zoella’s Book Clubs, there was Oprah Winfrey and Richard and Judy. And before them, there was Hugh Walpole and the Book Society (1929-68). For nearly forty years, the Book Society sent out one book a month to their members, sharing many now-famous titles that would go on to become bestsellers (Rebecca, Brideshead Revisited, The Kon-Tiki Expedition, To Kill a Mocking Bird...) This author talk will examine the little-known story behind Britain’s first celebrity book club and the judges who changed how we read.
Dr Nicola Wilson is Associate Professor of Book and Publishing Studies at the University of Reading, co-director of the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing, and a founding director of the Modernist Archives Publishing Project. She lives in Pershore, and this is her second book.
Tickets are £1 each, book your place here.
The Hive Film Club presents: Classic black and white films from around the world
Last Thursday of every month, 2pm
Join us to watch classic films from great directors and actors in a variety of styles.
Places are FREE and booking is not required. Suitable for ages 18+
Thursday 29 May: French classic by director Jean Renoir
Thursday 26 June: Vintage British comedy with actors Margaret Rutherford and Alistair Sim
Thursday 31 July: American film noir by director Billy Wilder
Thursday 28 August: Classic German Weimar cinema directed by Josef Von Sternberg starring Marlene Dietrich
Thursday 25 September: Polish classic by director Andrzej Wajda
Thursday 30 October: British noir comedy by director Stanley Kubrick