NEWS FROM THE ROYAL SOCIETY

THE T.S. ELIOT MEMORIAL MEETING
STORIES AND SWEET VISIONS: THE GENIUS OF JOHN CLARE
JONATHAN BATE, ADAM FOULDS, TOM DURHAM
Chaired by Leonie Rushforth
Monday 21st September

After decades of obscurity, John Clare is today regarded as one of the great poets of the nineteenth century. Ronald Blythe describes him as ‘England’s most articulate village voice’, and many now consider his work on a par with that of Keats, Shelley and Wordsworth. Jonathan Bate’s groundbreaking biography of Clare (2003) won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Biography Award. Adam Foulds, former Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and winner of last year’s Costa Poetry Prize, is now on the shortlist list for the Man Booker Prize with The Quickening Maze, his novel about Clare’s time in an asylum in Epping Forest. The two reflect on why the ‘peasant poet’ seems to be striking a chord with an increasingly wide audience; whether it is possible to get closer to a figure from the past through biographical study or through fiction; and what is the relationship between madness and genius. Their discussion is interspersed with readings from the poetry of John Clare by Tom Durham, an actor who specializes in the work of poets, and is chaired by Leonie Rushforth, head of English at St Paul’s Girls’ School, and herself a poet.

The talk will be held, as usual, in the Kenneth Clark Lecture Theatre, at the Courtauld Institute, Somerset House, (Strand entrance), WC2. The lecture starts at 7pm, with doors open from 6pm.


FOSSILS, FACT AND FICTION
TRACY CHEVALIER IN CONVERSATION WITH DR RICHARD FORTEY
Chaired by Dr Alice Roberts
Monday 5 October 2009 at 6.30pm at The Royal Society [RS LOGO]

Mary Anning, an early nineteenth-century fossil collector, discovered the first British pre-dinosaur fossils, such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, on the rocky shores of Lyme Regis. Tracy Chevalier’s latest book, Remarkable Creatures, explores how the results of Mary Anning’s findings eventually paved the way for Darwin and his theory of evolution. Tracy Chevalier discusses her new book with Dr Richard Fortey, who is currently working on a book about organisms which have survived from deep geological time. Their conversation will be chaired by Dr Alice Roberts.

Admission free – no tickets or advance booking. Doors will open at 5.45pm. Seats allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. This event will be broadcast live at royalsociety.org/live.

The Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG
Tel: 020 7451 2683
Email: events@royalsociety.