7.30 pm Friday March 14th 2025

John is one of the country's great comedy producers and writers, with his television work including Not The Nine O'Clock News, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Spitting Image, Blackadder and QI

At the start of his legendary career, John worked as a radio producer at the BBC, creating The News Quiz, The News Huddlines and Quote....Unquote (with Nigel Rees). He co-wrote the fifth and sixth episodes of the first radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas Adams (who wrote all the previous and subsequent episodes solo, as well as the television adaptation).

John then moved into television as a comedy producer at both the BBC and ITV. As well as being associate producer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he created Not the Nine O'Clock News (co-produced with Sean Hardie) and produced Spitting Image - as well as all four series of the peerless Blackadder

The first series of QI, which John created with Stephen Fry in the chair, began in September 2003, with Sandi Toksvig taking over in 2016 - and the shows are still pulling in huge audiences. Back on Radio 4, John has presented several series of The Museum of Curiosity, which he co-created with producers Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber and former co-host Bill Bailey

John's book 1,411 Quite Interesting Facts to Knock You Sideways (one of a series of QI books) is a collaboration with John Mitchinson, who lives in Great Tew, and James Harkin, and contains gems such as - orchids can get jet-lag. Lizards can't walk and breathe at the same time. There are 177,147 ways to tie a tie. Traffic lights existed before cars. Sir Bruce Forsyth was four months older than sliced bread. The soil in your garden is 2 million years old.

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us

(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

7.30 pm Friday May 9th 2025

Kit is an academic, the author of two best-selling books and a broadcaster specialising in the role of mathematics in everyday life - and is renowned for explaining scientific material in layman's language with both wit and wisdom

Kit is Professor of Mathematical Biology and Public Engagement at the University of Bath and Director of the Centre for Mathematical Biology there. His research demonstrates that mathematics can be used to describe all sorts of real-world phenomena - from embryo formation to locust swarming, and from sleeping sickness to egg-shell patterning.

He is a prominent commentator on the role of mathematics/science in society and writes regularly for The Guardian and The Independent and a range of other media outlets. He regularly features on the radio shows like the BBC’s More or Less, and Inside Science as well as on TV news shows and documentaries.

He is particularly interested in randomness in biology and his research into mathematical biology has been covered by the BBC, The Telegraph, the Daily Mail, RTE, Scientific American and Reuters. He was one of the core scientists that forms Independent SAGE, providing independent scientific advice to policy makers and the public on covid throughout the pandemic.

Kit, who lives in Oxford, is the author of two books, The Maths of Life and Death (a Sunday Times Science Book of the Year and translated into 25 languages) and How to Expect the Unexpected. For this book, Kit writes: "Ever since the dawn of human civilisation, we have been trying to make predictions about what’s in store for us. We do this on a personal level, so that we can get on with our lives efficiently (should I hang my laundry out to dry, or will it rain?). But we also have to predict on a much larger scale, often for the good of our broader society (how can we spot economic downturns or prevent terrorist attacks?).

"For just as long, we have been getting it wrong. From religious oracles to weather forecasters, and from politicians to economists, we are subjected to poor predictions all the time. Our job is to separate the good from the bad. Unfortunately, the foibles of our own biology – the biases that ultimately make us human – can let us down when it comes to making rational inferences about the world around us. And that can have disastrous consequences:

Prof Alice Roberts: “Fascinating and fun. From the everyday to global challenges, Kit Yates shows us how to peer into the crystal ball of mathematics and predict the future. He explores how changing your mind – so often thought to be a weakness – is the best life skill we can all acquire. A brilliant book"

Marcus Du Sautoy (Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford and Author of The Creativity Code): "Yates's writing is a beacon of clarity sorely needed in a complicated and confusing world.’

Jim Al Khalili (Author of The Joy of Science ): ‘A vivid, wide-ranging and delightful guide to the light and the dark side of prediction.’

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us

(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

7.30 pm Friday June 6th 2025

Simon, one of the great cyclist-adventurers, makes a much-anticipated return after first appearing to talk about his book, Riding Out, in which chronicled his mammoth journey round Britain. On this occasion, Simon will be expanding on his latest book, A Ride Across America - in which he chronicles his 4,300-mile journey across the United States

Simon's impetus was his frustration at the shallow headlines focusing only on Donald Trump, guns and divisions - and he decided that to better understand the USA he would have to travel across it, slowly. He wondered - did the America of his teenage dreams really exist? And was it really as fractured as the headlines suggested?

On his journey of discovery, Simon cycled through eleven states and numerous extreme weather events, via mountains and prairie lands, forests and freeways. Along the way he visited homes, schools, churches and rodeos, meeting hundreds of extraordinary Americans to discover a nation whose portrayal has become vastly oversimplified. In the lead-up to the 2024 US Presidential Election – arguably the most divisive in the country’s history – Simon met hundreds of ordinary Americans - the "Middle Americans" often overlooked by the media.

Some suggest it would be easy to mistake Simon as belonging to that peloton of travel writers for whom clocking up maximum miles is all that matters - but there is so much more to his skills. Riding Out charted his 3,427 mile cycle ride around Britain in 2020, while - for a BBC World Service radio documentary about human endurance - he sailed and cycled half-way around the world, covering 15,000 miles from China to London. His website testifies to numerous other intrepid and often physically gruelling adventures that have taken him to 120 countries over the past decade alone.

Simon says he's not remotely interested in bicycles except as a way of helping his writing. On a previous adventure in America in 2016, he realised that having a bicycle, heavily loaded with bags, was an incredible icebreaker for developing conversations with complete strangers. "When you’re cycling along and you haven’t showered for three days, and you’ve got a British accent, people naturally start talking to you.”

The BBC's Justin Webb wrote about A Ride Across America: "From overheated bras to over doctored coffee, America's charming oddness summed up in a blast of entertainment and information. A wonderful companion to America - thoughtful, fun and always willing to be surprised by a nation of dizzying complexity". The Guardian's reviewer said: "Parker magnificently chronicles the America he encounters - a divided, disfranchised collection of states he fears for - but comes to love for their generosity, community spirit and sense of hope"

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us

(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

7.30 pm Friday July 4th 2025

Tom is one of the country's leading environmental writers and broadcasters - often featuring on BBC One's Countryfile, specialising in investigations; Radio 4's Costing the Earth, as well as the anchor on The Climate Show on Sky News. He has also worked on the Today programme and presented editions of Panorama covering food, energy and the environment

Tom is also the presenter of Radio 4's new Rare Earth series and was the creator and presenter of BBC Radio's flagship climate-change podcast, 39 Ways to Save the Planet

Tom was the first Rural Affairs Correspondent for BBC News and reported for the BBC live from the Khumbu Icefall on Mount Everest with the broadcasting team covering the 50th anniversary of the summitting of the mountain. After making early contributions to Countryfile, he took over the investigative-reporter role on the programme from John Craven

For his appearance in Wootton, Tom will be talking about his latest book, Land Smart - in which he discusses how we require land for so many of our expanding needs, such as food, renewable energy, carbon storage and housing. Traditionally, says Tom, we've stolen it from Nature, but this has led to a mounting toll of extinction and pollution that is now punishing us. So, as there's no land left to take, Tom asks - how do we get more from the same space?

For Land Smart, Tom toured the British countryside meeting the farmers, scientists, conservationists and even warehouse managers who are solving the most pressing challenges facing our countryside and the world. Tom claims that if we use land cleverly it can give both humanity and Nature the space to thrive on the same planet. If not, we're in trouble.

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us

(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation