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A pop-up bookshop from FOLDE Dorset will be available during the talk times of the event, situated in the Grosvenor Arms. It will include titles from the authors speaking, as well as other related books.

Friday 11 March, 2022

18:00-18:30
18:30-19:30

Welcome and introduction
Dave Goulson: Silent Earth: averting the insect apocalypse.

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Introduced by Stephen Boyce

Insects are fascinating, beautiful, and vitally important; without them ecosystems would grind to a halt. Dave Goulson will explain why insects are declining, and the consequences if we allow this to continue. He will then consider the many ways that we can all get involved in saving our insects, from making our gardens more insect-friendly to supporting systems of farming that are truly sustainable.

Sponsored by Shaftesbury Hedgehogs 

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

Saturday 12 March, 2022

09:15-09:30
09:30-10:30

Welcome
Philip Marsden: The Summer Isles; A Voyage of the Imagination

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Introduced by James Crowden

Of all landscape features – lakes and mountains, plains and deserts - none has the imaginative potency of islands. Sailing single-handed up the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, Philip Marsden explores the islands that litter that wild and dangerous coastline. Some have several hundred residents, some just a few, many are deserted, some don’t exist at all. But each of them – real or imaginary – illustrates how the smallest and most peripheral of physical places can reveal the fullest extent of the human spirit. A beautiful and at times perilous sea journey.

Sponsored by The Grosvenor Arms

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

10:00-10:45

Tim Laycock: The Wonderful Crocodile and other Tall Tales

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The session is aimed at children aged 5-11, accompanied by an adult.

Tim Laycock reads, tells and sings stories from his recent collection of local stories Dorset Folk Tales for Children. Prepare to encounter Giant Grumble, fly off with Jack in the Magic Boat, and enter the jaws of the Biggest Crocodile in Dorset! An adult must accompany the child/ren they book in and all tickets for both child and adult must be booked ahead of the event.

11:15-12:00

Tim Laycock: The Wonderful Crocodile and other Tall Tales

Tim-Laycock-at-Hardy's-Cottage-media02-Tony-Gill_edited.jpg

The session is aimed at children aged 5-11, accompanied by an adult.

Tim Laycock reads, tells and sings stories from his recent collection of local stories Dorset Folk Tales for Children. Prepare to encounter Giant Grumble, fly off with Jack in the Magic Boat, and enter the jaws of the Biggest Crocodile in Dorset! An adult must accompany the child/ren they book in and all tickets for both child and adult must be booked ahead of the event.

11:30-12:30

Christopher Nicholson: Uncertainty and survival: summer snow in Scotland

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Introduced by Richard Kerridge

Christopher Nicholson is the author of several acclaimed books, among them ‘Winter’, a novel about Thomas Hardy in old age, and ‘Among the Summer Snows’, a meditation on loss and hope set in the Scottish Highlands. Extraordinary as it may seem, every summer a few beds of snow can be found in the clefts and gullies of Scotland's mountains, but their survival is always in doubt. In his talk Nicholson will be discussing emotion and the land, looking particularly at the importance of surprise and uncertainty in our responses to the natural world. 

Sponsored by Wessex Internet

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

14:30-15:30

Stephen Moss: Skylarks with Rosie: from local to global, and back again

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Introduced by James Crowden

Two years ago, the world changed. Lockdown confined us to familiar surroundings, which for author and naturalist Stephen Moss meant re-exploring the area within a one-mile radius of his Somerset home. The resulting book, Skylarks with Rosie, is a diary of that strange and unique time, which examines the nature of the local, its relationship with the global, along with family life and politics. Stephen looks back on that extraordinary spring, and reflects on how it changed our way of relating to nature. 

Sponsored by Coconut & Cotton

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

14:30-15:15

Yuval Zommer: How to draw bugs

CANCELLED
Yuval Zommer_edited.jpg

For children aged 3-12 (Children under 10 will need to be accompanied by an adult)
This art and craft session will be based on Yuval's book entitled The Big Book of Bugs. Paper, pencils and coloured markers will be provided. Each session will last approximately 45 minutes, with an opportunity for questions at the end.

Yuval is the author and illustrator of the series Big Book of......
The latest in the series is called The Big Book of Belonging. 

*Cancelled* Unfortunately due to family illness, Yuval has had to cancel.

16:30-17:30

Keggie Carew: BEASTLY: Close encounters across the species divide

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Introduced by Richard Kerridge

The whole nation of Croatia awaits the return a single stork. An Austrian zoologist watches a tropical freshwater fish make a decision. A man who cannot speak finds his voice in an encounter with a jaguar. An American ecologist hurls starfish out to sea and discovers how nature functions. A Japanese Yakuza gang has a shoot-out on the high seas over a cargo of sea cucumbers.

 

Keggie Carew will take us on an expedition into our most revealing encounters with the animal world. From the smallest creatures to the loftiest minds; true stories that teach us about our past, the world we live in, the home we could have, and ourselves. Her emissaries are scientists, explorers, poets, pigeon fanciers and a throng of creatures who will illuminate the beastly wonders of life, and the contrary animals we are instead of the gods we told ourselves we could become.

Sponsored by Farnfields

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

Sunday 13 March, 2022

10:00-11:00

Ben Hoare: Nature’s Treasures: Getting hands-on with the natural world

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Introduced by Brigit Strawbridge-Howard

Nature has phenomenal powers to help children develop and heal, both mentally and physically. Yet many of our children still lack adequate access to green or blue space. Naturalist and bestselling children’s author Ben Hoare has seen the healing powers of nature at first hand, as he and his wife adopted two girls and gave them a new life in rural Somerset. They had never seen a rainbow, stepped in the sea, played in snow, hugged a tree, picked a flower or watched a tadpole.

 

In this illustrated talk, Ben reflects on the moving experience of seeing these girls explore the natural world for the first time, and regain their strength and humanity. It changed how Ben sees the natural world and inspired his latest children’s book, Nature’s Treasures, which includes 100 tactile stories about the stuff of nature and nature of stuff, from shells to feathers, nests and seeds.

Sponsored by FOLDE Dorset

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

10:30-11:15

Yuval Zommer: How to draw bugs

CANCELLED
Yuval Zommer_edited.jpg

For children aged 3-12 (Children under 10 will need to be accompanied by an adult)
This art and craft session will be based on Yuval's book entitled The Big Book of Bugs. Paper, pencils and coloured markers will be provided. Each session will last approximately 45 minutes, with an opportunity for questions at the end.

Yuval is the author and illustrator of the series Big Book of......
The latest in the series is called The Big Book of Belonging. There will be space for 35 children, seated at tables. 

*Cancelled* Unfortunately due to family illness, Yuval has had to cancel.

11:30-12:30

Mary Colwell: Predators, People and Land - It’s Complicated!

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Introduced by Richard Kerridge

A deep yearning for a more authentic relationship with the natural world is spreading throughout the UK in response to the biodiversity and climate crises and Covid. Terms like rewilding, connection and relationship are commonplace in our environmental discourse. Yet to live with nature, especially alongside our larger predators, means facing up to hard realities. Predators have never been and still aren't easy neighbours. A return to nature will come with demands and compromises that will only be borne if we are honest from the start about what it all means.

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

14:30-15:30

Brigit Strawbridge-Howard
Where the woods meet the stream: finding solace in an ever changing world

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In conversation with Mary Colwell

Our world is ever-changing; presenting us with multiple (sometimes overwhelming) challenges, as we try to swim with the tide and keep our heads above water.  Surrounded by uncertainties, and in unchartered territory, it is perhaps not surprising that so many of us are turning to the natural world for solace.

In this conversation with Mary Colwell, Brigit talks about her new ‘nearby wild’, the sense of place and purpose she has found through an unexpected encounter with a river bird - and how it has never been more important for us to recognise, honour, and reciprocate, the gifts we receive from nature.

Sponsored by Kensons Organic Farm

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

16:30-17:30
17:30-18:00

Robin Walter: Living With Trees
followed by closing remarks

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Introduced by Jon Woolcott

This illustrated talk of Robin's book 'Living With Trees' considers the epic history of trees in Britain, noting what we have lost, celebrating what remains, and imagining a future with more trees in our lives. Why do we have so much less forest than continental Europe? Why does this matter? Why is everyone suddenly so keen to plant trees? How should we go about this? All these issues are illuminated and Robin goes on to imagine how the British landscape might be transformed with trees.

Sponsored by Shaftesbury Tree Group

Location: Assembly Rooms, first floor, Grosvenor Arms Hotel

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