PROGRAMME
Two days of inspiring conversations. 19-20 September 2026, Bruton, Somerset.
SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER
5x15: Can Britain Be ‘Great’ Again?
Britain is going through something of a crisis of confidence, shaped by questions about what it once was, what it is today and what it wants to become. But beyond the familiar arguments about decline…
AMERICA ON THE BRINK
Can American democracy survive the forces pulling the country apart, or is it approaching a point of no return? Two hundred and fifty years after declaring independence, the United States remains the…
CRAFTING FOR SURVIVAL
During nearly six years of detention in Iran, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe discovered that making things could be an act of resistance: a way to preserve identity, create beauty and retain some measure…
DIFFICULT WOMEN
Who gets called difficult, and why? Too outspoken, too ambitious, too angry, too unwilling to play nicely: women who challenge expectations are often judged by standards rarely applied to men. Join…
FAMILY MATTERS
How can families live with profound political and moral disagreement without allowing it to pull them apart? Prue Leith and Danny Kruger may be mother and son, but their lives and beliefs have…
MUSEUMS OF THE FUTURE
Museums are built to preserve the past, but their own place in the future is far from settled. Who are they for, who decides what they collect and display, and how should institutions often shaped by…
MUSHROOMS AND THE MIND
Once dismissed as dangerous counterculture, psychedelic drugs are now being seriously explored as treatments for trauma, depression and addiction. Psychedelic mushrooms and plant medicines such as…
POETRY BATTLE
Dominic West and Bob Geldof go head-to-head to champion the poems they believe everyone else should love. They will share old favourites, spring unexpected discoveries on one another and make the…
REACHING FOR WONDERMENT
When did the world last stop you in your tracks? Wonder can be found in music, landscape, distant places and the lives unfolding around us, but our hurried, screen-saturated lives do not always leave…
THE RETURN OF EMPIRE
What can the rise and fall of empires tell us about the world now, and about what may come next? William Dalrymple and Peter Frankopan are two of our most acclaimed and wide-ranging historians, known…
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT MIGRATION
Few subjects are more politically charged, or more easily reduced to slogans, than migration. Yet the movement of people across borders is not an aberration of the modern world. It has shaped…
SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER
SOMERSET STATE OF MIND
How does a landscape become part of our creative identity and our understanding of where we belong? Somerset’s myths, legends and particular energy have long inspired fashion designer Alice…
AI AND GLOBAL DISORDER
Artificial intelligence is acquiring the power to reshape global affairs faster than we can understand, regulate or control it. Its consequences already extend far beyond technological innovation…
AN ANARCHIST IN THE GARDEN
Every gardener knows the struggle: the desire to impose order set against nature’s determination to do as it pleases. But where should we draw the line between cultivation and control, or between…
MUSIC FROM THE FRONTLINE
Don McCullin in conversation, with a performance by the Cavatina Orchestra
For more than sixty years, Don McCullin has documented war, poverty and human suffering with unflinching honesty. In this specially created event, marking the publication of his new book on Vietnam…
LIFE LESSONS
Bob Geldof in conversation with Julia Samuel
Bob Geldof first became famous nearly fifty years ago, when the Boomtown Rats first started making their presence felt at the top of the UK Charts. Since then, he has lived much of his life in…
NEW WORLD ORDER
Wars rage unchecked, borders are violated and international law is increasingly ignored by the very powers supposed to uphold it. So who makes the rules now, and what happens when the powerful simply…
NURTURING CREATIVITY
Where does creativity come from? Is it an innate gift, something awakened by an encounter or encouragement, or a capacity that all of us can learn to develop? And why does it sometimes emerge most…
THE THIRD ACT
Prue Leith in conversation with Catherine Fairweather
What are our later years for? Should they offer a well-earned rest after the stresses and strains of a life well lived, or the freedom to begin again? Restaurateur, writer, campaigner and television…
