Stephen Grosz of The Examined Life discusses Love's Labour
2025-09-01 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, York Street, Bath, BA1 1NG, United Kingdom
The Examined Life, the bestselling debut from psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, was about learning how to live; his new book, Love’s Labour, is about learning how to love.

When it comes to love, why do we find things so difficult? Drawing on over forty years of candid and surprising conversations with his patients, Stephen Grosz asks, what gets in the way of our falling in love – And what must we do to stay there?

In the intimate space of the consulting room, we meet the woman who can’t post her wedding invitations but then, decades later, can’t decide whether to get divorced; the friendship group that explodes when an adulterous affair begins; and the man whose partner’s death is almost too much to bear.As an analyst, Grosz’s unerring ability is to locate what ails the heartsick. As a writer, he elegantly shows how we can deploy the agonies of love as tools for understanding.

The labour of love is the work of a lifetime but in finally learning to see ourselves and our world clearly, we find we are truly ready to love one another.

Stephen Grosz is a practicing psychoanalyst. Born in America, he was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Oxford University, and now lives in London. His Number One Sunday Times bestseller, The Examined Life, has been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in London.

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A Guide to Sobriety: No Lost Causes Club with Lauren McQuistin
2025-09-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, York Street, Bath, BA1 1NG, United Kingdom
Become a member of the No Lost Causes Club and join Lauren McQuistin, the author behind the wildly popular Instagram account @brutalrecovery, as she takes us through her honest, compassionate, and characteristically funny guide to recovery and sobriety.

‘A stunning, seriously sick and profoundly well work. I love the intricacies of sanity, and how it can look so crazy. This book had me laughing and crying. Truly brilliant’ MARGARET CHO

‘This book is not just about sobriety or just about recovery; it is an invitation to hope’ SHON FAYE

When she was told that her life expectancy could be as low as twenty-five if she did not stop drinking, Lauren felt absolutely nothing – then the sparks of despair. How was she here? Surely, sobriety was for middle-aged divorcees who’d lost everything, not young, struggling singers who didn’t have anything to lose in the first place? Besides, when alcohol is the only medicine that makes the world feel bearable, how can you possibly stop taking it?

Six years later, Lauren has found her way to an intricate answer. Entwining practical, empathetic suggestions with intimate memoir, No Lost Causes Club is an intrinsically vulnerable and brutally honest exploration of what living a full life after you get clean looks like. From delving into the social complexities that often leave people hopelessly dependent on alcohol, to centring the struggles of those newly navigating sobriety, this book is a soothing balm for anyone wondering how to carve a beautiful life from a world that never made sense before.

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Mrs Dalloway: the centenary year - art, Modernism & war
2025-09-01 19:30 - 21:00 | BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA1 2HN, United Kingdom
This illustrated talk will place Virginia Woolf in the context of Modernism and the contemporary art and literature scene highlighting the key changes from Victorian to Modernist literature. In her writing of Mrs. Dalloway, Woolf employed the key new modernist elements: stream of consciousness, rhythm, time, multiple viewpoints, fragmentation, perspective, psychology and light and reflection within the context of war and London.

The talk will focus on the ideas of Roger Fry, Clive Bell and the Post-Impressionist Exhibitions in London of 1910 and 1912.

Sarah Latham Phillips is a member of the executive council of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain, a freelance lecturer in Art History and English Literature, has published Virginia Woolf as a Cubist Writer and has spoken widely at various conference of Woolf.

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Pint & A Laugh
2025-09-01 19:30 - 22:00 | The Jesters, 17 Alfred St, Bath, BANES, BA1 2QU, United Kingdom
Pint And A Laugh is your go-to comedy night where fresh faces and seasoned comics test out new material. The jokes might miss, but the beer never does!Doors: 7:30 PM | Show: 8:00 PM | Tickets: £5 / £3 students

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SKINT! - Bath's Cheapest Clubnight
2025-09-01 22:00 - 2025-09-02 03:00 | Labyrinth, 8 North Parade, Bath, BA1 6BY
Skint is the crowd favourite… drink price exchange, top DJs, free Skint tees, free toasties & crisps and the cheapest drinks in Bath starting from 99p.

99p tickets with FREE BOMB

EVERY MONDAY AT SKINT

99p BOMBS EVERY WEEK 99p TICKETS EVERY WEEK Skint Drinks Stock Exchange! £2 VKS / £3.50 DOUBLES ALL NIGHT! FREE Cheese Toasties FREE Skint T-Shirts FREE Skint Bottomless Crisp Station 4 Rooms / 3 Music Policies Skint Request Room – You choose, we play! 1000’s giveaways & freebies Crazy themes & takeovers Skint? WE GOT YOU! competitions OPEN UNTIL 3AM

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James Fox for Craftland: A Journey Through Britain's Lost Arts and Vanishing Trades
2025-09-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Bath Elim Church, Charlotte Street, Bath, BANES, BA1 2ND, United Kingdom
Britain has always been a craft land. For generations what we made with our hands defined our identities, built our communities and shaped our regions. Craftland chronicles the vanishing skills and traditions that once governed every aspect of life on these shores.

Travelling the length of Britain, from the Scilly Isles to the Scottish Highlands, James Fox seeks out the country’s last remaining master craftspeople. Stepping inside the workshops of blacksmiths and wheelwrights, cutlers and coopers, bell-founders and watchmakers, we glimpse not only our past but another way of life – one that is not yet lost and whose wisdom could shape our future.

For as long as there are humans, there will be craft. It is all around us, hiding in plain sight, enriching even the most modest things. And in this increasingly digital age, it is perhaps more valuable than ever. Craftland is a celebration of that deeply necessary connection between our creative instincts and the material world we inhabit, revealing a richer and more connected way of living.

James Fox is an academic and multi-award-winning, BAFTA-nominated broadcaster, known for his many acclaimed BBC documentaries. He is Director of Studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Creative Director of the Hugo Burge Foundation, a charity dedicated to supporting the arts and crafts across Britain. He is also the author of the celebrated The World According to Colour: A Cultural History.

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Arifa Akbar for Wolf Moon: A Woman's Journey into the Night
2025-09-02 19:00 - 21:00 | Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, York Street, Bath, BA1 1NG, United Kingdom
‘Had me entranced from start to finish . . . an absolute joy’ – Lucy Atkins, author of Windmill Hill

‘A deft, rich and intimate exploration of darkness in all its varied guises’ – Annabel Abbs, author of Sleepless

‘Truthful, lyrical and unforgettable’ – Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

The night is a time of darkness and nightmares, fear and vulnerability, especially for women. And, yet, it is another world, full of beauty and possibility, too.

After the sun goes down, insomnia and sleep paralysis do threaten. But some have always walked the nocturnal landscapes, with more or less confidence. Others have worked, night shifts and hidden night work: nurses, security guards, sex workers. And some have found solace in the darkness, from queer rave culture to religious pre-dawn traditions.

From dusk through to day, Arifa Akbar elegantly explores how the night shapes our bodies, minds and cultures. A personal and artistic journey from fear and into hope, Wolf Moon embraces the dark before bringing us, once more, into the light.

Arifa Akbar is chief theatre critic for the Guardian. She has previously been literary editor at the Independent, as well as a news reporter and arts correspondent. She has served as a trustee on the boards of the Orwell Foundation and English PEN. She is currently a fellow of the London Centre for the Humanities. Her first book, Consumed: In Search of my Sister, was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, PEN Ackerley Prize and Jhalak Prize, and it was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. Wolf Moon is her second book.

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Shamanism in the Ancient World
2025-09-02 19:30 - 21:00 | BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA1 2HN, United Kingdom
Shamanism has long been a popular theme among anthropologists. Now, with the growth of cognitive archaeology in recent decades, a new conversation has begun connecting past and present in Neolithic societies. When this extends into the Palaeolithic, evolutionary psychology and genetics can also join this conversation about the advent and distribution of shamanism. The road less travelled, however, is to extend these enquiries forward in time, through Neolithic cultures into Bronze Age and Axial Age civilisations.

This talk will reconsider evidence from more familiar cultures and their key texts, attempting to connect these with the conversations about shamanism. Classic texts from Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic Greece, contemporary texts from India and China, and some from the Bronze Age civilisations will be examined in the light of these investigations. In what sense could all ancient cultures be described as shamanistic?

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An Evening with Professor Alice Roberts at The Forum
2025-09-02 19:30 - 23:00 | The Forum Bath, 1A Forum Buildings, Bath, Somerset, BA1 1UG, United Kingdom
Join Professor Alice Roberts as she takes us on an investigative journey to establish who spread Christianity, how and why; the story of the fall of an Empire – and the rise of another.

Celebrating the publication of her new book, Domination, the narrative will lead audiences from a secluded valley in South Wales to the shores of Brittany; from the heart of the Roman Empire in a time of political turmoil to the ancient city of Corinth in the footsteps of the apostle Paul; from Alexandria in the fourth century to Constantinople.

As the Roman Empire crumbled in Western Europe, a shadow of power remained, almost perfectly mapping onto its disappearing territories. And then, it continued to spread. Unearthing the archaeological clues and challenging long-established histories, Professor Roberts tells a remarkable story about the relationship between the Roman Empire and Christianity.

Lifting the veil on secrets that have been hidden in plain sight, this story is nothing short of astonishing.

Domination is a page-turning exploration of power and its survival, and now you have the opportunity to hear more from the author in this exciting evening with Professor Alice Roberts.

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Big Read: The Aspern Papers by Henry James
2025-09-03 11:00 - 12:30 | BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA1 2HN, United Kingdom
The Aspern Papers by Henry James is the story of an obsessed admirer of a deceased romantic poet and the desperate lengths he will go to in order to procure papers allegedly held by the poet’s former lover.

Set against the background of 19th century Venice, it asks the questions of whether the literary historian has a right, indeed a duty, to uncover the past and at what cost.

Things to think about while you’re reading:

The rise of the cult of the celebrity grew in the Victorian period and ‘fandom’ became more intrusive. How does James comment on this in The Aspern Papers?

Is the unnamed narrator a ‘publishing scoundrel’ or an ethical and sincere literary historian?

Would the poet have wanted his papers to be made public and is Miss Bordereau, therefore, guarding what Aspern may not have wanted to be guarded?

What are the literary historian’s moral responsibilities and do they transgress boundaries when they delve into a subject’s private and personal lives?

Does the narrator cross the threshold into a place of intimacy or do the romantic poets encourage this intimacy through the nature of their poetry?

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Botanical Watercolours
2025-09-03 18:00 - 20:00 | No.1 Royal Crescent, 1 Royal Crescent, Bath, BA1 2LR
Learn to create beautiful flower paintings inspired by the collection at No.1 Royal Crescent. Artist Holly Foskett-Barnes will provide step-by-step instructions on how to paint flowers that would have been used in Georgian fashions, allowing you to relax into the process of watercolour painting. You will leave with your own botanical watercolour illustration.

This will be a very relaxed workshop, suitable for all abilities, and the final painting will be suited to your painting level.

Duration of workshop: 2 hours.

All materials will be provided but if you would prefer to bring your own materials then please do. A glass of prosecco or non-alcoholic alternative is included in the price. Tea and coffee will be available.

Suitable for 16 years old and above.

Note: The workshop space is accessible via lift. If you have any access needs please let us know so we can support you in any way possible.

About the artist

Holly is a visual artist living and working in Bristol. She works predominantly in watercolours to create illustrations and paintings that invite others to connect with nature and seasonal living. Holly is deeply influenced by the natural world, particularly her allotment, plants and local landscapes. Through her art and workshops, Holly aims to provide others with creative tools to support their personal practices and wellness.

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Mariella Frostrup & Belles Berry for Menolicious
2025-09-03 18:30 - 21:00 | Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, York Street, Bath, BA1 1NG, United Kingdom
Menopause awareness campaigner and respected broadcaster and columnist, Mariella Frostrup teams up with daughter of Mary Berry, chef Belles Berry to provide you with a menopause survival toolkit of quick, easy, and supremely delicious recipes to ease key symptoms of the menopause.

“Midlife nutrition made easy!” Professor Tim Spector

“Magnificent menus for midlife and beyond” Davina McCall

Menolicious is the essential cookbook for anyone navigating the challenges and changes of midlife; co-authored by two women passionate about food and feeling your best through perimenopause, menopause, and beyond.

Discover over easy and nutritious recipes designed to help balance hormones, boost energy levels, improve weight management, and help you embrace the freedom of a new stage of life.

Here you’ll find recipes for:Anti-inflammatory breakfasts: Kale pancakes with tahini butterFibre-packed salads: Ras el hanout rice salad with orange and cumin dressingAnti-bloat lunches: Poached salmon with pak choi and mushroomsMetabolism-boosting dinners: Coconut chicken and black bean stew

Designed with nutrition and ease in mind, ninety percent of recipes are prepared in 30 minutes or less and are developed with an industry-leading nutritionist to ensure they are packed full of essential nutrients, a diverse variety of plants, and tasty, satisfying alternatives to less-healthy sugar and starch-heavy dishes.

This is not just a recipe book, it’s the timeless gift of good food and straightforward nutrition to help you re-calibrate and eat your way to a better menopause.

“Delicious, fast, and fortifying recipes to power you through midlife.” Cate Blanchett

Mariella Frostrup is one of the UK’s most respected broadcasters and columnists. Her ground-breaking documentary in 2018 on menopause helped start a national discourse. A force for menopause activism in the UK, Mariella was recently named one of Vogue‘s 25 most influential women in the UK. She is co-founder and chair of campaign group Menopause Mandate and has spoken and written widely about the importance of menopause education, equality, and informed choice around the subject. In 2024 she was appointed as the UK’s Government Menopause Employment Ambassador.

Belles Berry is Dame Mary Berry’s only daughter. Belles has been submerged in food all her life and worked in the food industry for over 30 years. She is the founder of The Great Taste Company.

Hala El-Shafie is a Registered Dietitian with over 20 years of clinical experience in women’s health, eating disorders, and mental health. She is the founder of Nutrition Rocks a nutritional-advice platform that aims to offer people easy and practical advice for living a healthy lifestyle.

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Live Jazz, Funk, Soul and Swing at Green Park Brasserie
2025-09-03 18:30 - 22:00, 2025-09-04 18:30 - 22:00 | Green Park Brasserie, 6 Green Park Rd, Bath, BA1 1JB, United Kingdom
Soak up the buzzing atmosphere at Green Park Brasserie with live music four nights a week – every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, 6.30pm – 10pm.

Based in the historic old Green Park railway station, this is one of Bath’s best bars and restaurants. Enjoy cocktails,craft and beer and award winning food from their Brasserie and Bath Pizza Co kitchens – available 7 days a week.Enjoy the sunny terraces throughout the summer months or cosy up with live music and candlelit tables through the cooler seasons.

For up to date timings and booking for live music tables, click below

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Richard Armitage
2025-09-03 19:00 - 20:00 | Christ Church, Julian Road, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA1 2RH, United Kingdom
RICHARD ARMITAGE has done it again!

After the runaway success of his debut novel Geneva comes the chilling and atmospheric thriller The Cut.

Join The Bath Festival to hear this exciting new voice in crime fiction talk about his new book.

They say the camera never lies, but how long can you hide the truth?

Thirty years ago, one of Ben Knott’s schoolfriends was murdered. Another went to prison. The story ended and the village of Barton Mallett moved on. But as the murderer is finally released, the village is chosen as the unlikely location for a Hollywood film, with Ben’s son Nathan cast in the leading role. The film takes shape, and Ben begins to recognise the storyline from his own past. As Nathan becomes increasingly immersed in a tale of bullying and retribution, things turn dangerous, and an uncomfortable truth begins to emerge. Ben must choose between the safety of his children and reopening the wounds of the past.

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Myra DuBois: Cosmic Empath
2025-09-03 19:30 - 21:00, 2025-09-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Komedia Bath, 22-23 Westgate St, Bath, BA1 1EP, United Kingdom
After a barnstorming 2024 which saw Myra sell-out venues across the UK and Ireland with her critically acclaimed show Be Well, registered empath Myra Dubois returns to the stage with a brand-new show, Cosmic Empath.

The empath strikes back! Boldly caring where compassion has never cared before. An adventure giving you time (and space) to heal.

When questioned on her upcoming tour, Ms DuBois stated: “Most people would spend some time idling on the shores of some far off semi-private island after enduring the workload 2024 dumped on my plate, but not me! How could I desert my public, right as I need them most? I’ve consulted my own wellness guide, the very Reverend Dr Guru Malcolm, and he tells me that right now every star of the cosmos is looking at me with expectation. I don’t think my new show, Cosmic Empath, shall let them down!”

Cosmic Empath sees Myra DuBois questioning where her great gift for compassion comes from. Her up-bringing? Her ancestors? The cosmos? Who can say? All we know is that with Myra’s trademark killer wit and a singing voice that’s truly like no-one else’s, it’s going to be out of this world!

“Acid tongued, funny to the bone” – TimeOut London

“This queen is hard to beat, she has a sassy line about everything” – Chortle

“With her at her sharpest and most devilishly acerbic. It leaves an impression that Myra DuBois is only just getting started…, Utterly brilliant in every way.” – Attitude Magazine

Directed by John-Luke Robert

Also, making her UK tour debut in ‘Cosmic Empath’, ROSE LAVENDER will be taking to the stage alongside her sister Myra DuBois. Rose’s husband, “comedian” and last remaining straight man in show-biz FRANK LAVENDER completes this cast as Myra DuBois warm-up man.

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The Sack of Bath - and after
2025-09-03 19:30 - 21:00 | BRLSI, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA1 2HN, United Kingdom
In the 1960s, Bath City Council set about replacing lesser Georgian buildings with modern developments. Most were out of harmony, out of proportion and, even worse, out of place. By the end of the decade, the demolition had really taken hold. Only Grade 1 buildings were safe.

As the wider world realised what was going on, through articles such as those written for The Times by Adam Fergusson, national opposition intensified. The Council, though, seemed determined. How was the demolition eventually halted, what was saved that could so easily have been lost, and what’s happened since?

Alex Sherman is the Chief Executive of Bath Preservation Trust. He has enjoyed a varied career which has included community development, landscape restoration in Somerset, supporting cultural heritage, museums and the built environment and providing grants to local groups. He has previously been a trustee for a community transport charity and vice-Chair of a youth work charity.

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Newbie Night (Open Mic)
2025-09-03 19:30 - 22:00 | The Jesters, 17 Alfred St, Bath, BANES, BA1 2QU, United Kingdom
Every Wednesday, The Jesters opens the stage to 12 brand-new or developing acts, each with 5 minutes to make some noise, test some material, and maybe even bring the house down. No need to be ‘in the scene’ just turn up, sign up, and give it a go. Sign-up runs from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the club. Names are drawn at 7:30pm sharp, with the show starting shortly after. Come to perform, or come to support comedy’s newest fools—all for just £1. In partnership with Big Squash Comedy at The Saracen’s Head, performers can double up and do two open mics in one night meaning more stage time, more fun, more jester energy.Doors: 7:30 PM | Show: 8:00 PM | Tickets: £1

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Big Squash Comedy
2025-09-03 20:00 - 22:00 | Saracen’s Head, 42 Broad Street, Bath, BANES, BA1 5LP, United Kingdom
A weekly new material comedy night located in Bath’s oldest pub. Free of charge with a new lineup of excellent acts each week

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Endgame
2025-09-04 00:00 - 2025-10-04 23:59 | Ustinov Studio, 1 Saw Close, Bath, BANES, BA1 1EY, United Kingdom
Award-winning actor, director and writer Douglas Hodge and acclaimed film and television actor Clive Francis join the previously announced Mathew Horne and Selina Cadell in Samuel Beckett’s macabre comedy.

In a bare room, Hamm, an old, blind tyrant is locked in a stalemate with his servant Clov. Interrupted by the nostalgic musings of Hamm’s ancient, dustbin-dwelling parents, Hamm and Clov do their best to ignore the older pair, and cling stubbornly to their comic routine of casual savagery and mutual dependence.

Douglas Hodge plays Hamm. His extensive television credits include Black Mirror, Catastrophe, The Night Manager and Hulu’s critically acclaimed The Great. On the big screen, he starred as Alfred in Todd Phillips’s Academy Award-nominated Joker. An accomplished stage performer, he was nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance in The Caretaker and won the Olivier Award for his performance in La Cage Aux Follies in the West End. He was Associate Director at the Donmar Theatre and has directed many shows on Broadway and in the West End. He also wrote the music and lyrics for 101 Dalmatians The Musical, which has just finished a tour of Britain and Ireland and opens in London this summer.

Mathew Horne, who plays Clov, is best known for his portrayal of Gavin in the beloved Gavin and Stacey. Further television credits include Dad’s Army, Agatha Raisin, Worried About The Boy, Chekhov: Comedy Shorts, Catherine Tate’s Nan and Bad Education (BBC Three). Recent theatre credits include: The Lover/The Collection, Noises Off, The Homecoming, Rain Man, The Miser, The Pride and Charley’s Aunt.

Clive Francis’s (Nagg) stellar career has spanned more than six decades on stage, radio, TV and film, from Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange to The Crown and Bridgerton. On stage he has numerous credits with the National Theatre, RSC and in the West End, and for more than 20 years has toured the world with his one-man adaptation of A Christmas Carol. A successful caricaturist, illustrator and playwright, Clive has adapted Our Man in Havana, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Three Men in a Boat, Thark, The Small Handand Alice the Musical for the stage.

Selina Cadell (Nell) is currently starring in the West End transfer of the Ustinov’s highly acclaimed The Deep Blue Sea, opposite Tamsin Greig. Her extensive screen career includes roles in much-loved series including Doc Martin, Upstairs Downstairs, Spooks, As Time Goes By and films including The Madness of King George, The Lady in the Van and Nativity.

Widely recognised as one of the most important writers of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett’s plays, novels and poetry are regarded as the pinnacle of black comedy and tragicomic life.

Director Lindsay Posner, one of the UK’s most sought after directors, returns to the Ustinov Studio fresh from the West End transfers of Noises Off, A View From The Bridge and The Deep Blue Sea.

“Beckett’s signature dark comedy” The Stage“Beckett’s bleakly brilliant classic” The Times“A magnificent theatrical experience” London Times

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Her Sphere - Kate Cross, MBE & Katherine Lazare
2025-09-04 17:30 - 19:00 | Rengen House, 4 Argyle Street, Bathwick, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA2 4BA, United Kingdom
MAKING IT HAPPEN: WHAT DOES A THEATRE PRODUCER ACTUALLY DO?

Kate Cross, MBE is the Director and founding force of The Egg children’s theatre in Bath. She is passionate about making profound and exciting work of quality for young audiences. Her work as a theatre maker writer, director and producer has travelled the world, winning awards and fans in equal measure.

Katherine Lazare, is Head of Community Engagement at Theatre Royal Bath. Katherine started out as a theatre workshop participant at The Ustinov. Since then, Katherine has spent more than two decades as a producer, first of youth theatre and then ultimately making work for Theatre Royal Bath Productions at home and in the West End. She has now come full circle to lead a community play with National Theatre director Sally Cookson, and Theatre Royal Bath’s new venue for local theatre makers – Venue 4.

Kate and Katherine are both talented, big thinkers and they are mates. Come and listen to Katherine tell her story, with Kate’s needle-sharp questions interrupting throughout.

They intend to mull over:

and, WTAF a theatre producer actually does, anyway!!

why most producers are female, but so few women have the jobs at the top;

why some people still think most of the work in theatre is the acting bit at the end;

how theatre is anything but ‘airy fairy’;

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Ethicurean Life's Matthew Pennington & Nicola Cradock
2025-09-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, York Street, Bath, BA1 1NG, United Kingdom
Somerset-based Matthew Pennington is co-author of The Ethicurean Cookbook and co-founder of The Ethicurean restaurant, renowned for its commitment to sustainable practices and innovative approach. Over its decade-long reign, it was featured BBC Gardeners World, Countryfile and Channel 4’s Hidden Restaurants with Michel Roux Jr and dubbed ‘The UK’s answer to NOMA’ by Fiona Beckett.

Together with his partner Nicola Cradock, he now runs Ethicurean Life, an online platform and community exploring regenerative food, microbiome health and the art of wholesome living. They also teach classes on fermentation, foraging, cooking, and making wild drinks.

Know your kimchi from your sauerkraut? Your kefir from your kvass?

In Do Ferment, Matthew and Nicola demystify the process of food fermentation.

Drawing on years of experimenting, tasting and refining at the Ethicurean, they show you how to transform everyday ingredients into vibrant foods and nutritious drinks.

From beetroot and caraway sauerkraut to pea’ckles, elderflower water kefir and classic kimchi, you’ll learn the basic techniques to ferment almost anything.

Discover:

The remarkable power of lactobacillus.

Why fermented foods are essential for gut health.

How to build a weekly rotation of ferments in your kitchen.

With beautiful photography, Do Ferment provides easy-to-follow techniques that will make fizzy ferments part of your everyday. Just grab some salt, a few jars and get started.

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William Boyd for The Predicament
2025-09-04 19:00 - 21:00 | St Swithin’s Church, 37 The Paragon, Bath, BA1 5LY, United Kingdom
Gabriel Dax, travel writer and accidental spy, is back in the shadows. Unable to resist the allure of his MI6 handler, Faith Green, he has returned to a life of secrets and subterfuge. Dax is sent to Guatemala under the guise of covering a tinderbox presidential election, where the ruthless decisions of the Mafia provoke pitch-black warfare in collusion with the CIA.

As political turmoil erupts, Gabriel’s reluctant involvement deepens. His escape plan leads him to West Berlin, where he uncovers a chilling realization: there is a plot to assassinate magnetic young President John F. Kennedy. In a race against time, Gabriel must navigate deceit and danger, knowing that the stakes have never been higher.

The Predicament, the second novel in the bestselling espionage trilogy starring Gabriel Dax, William Boyd weaves a masterful tale of suspense, loyalty, love and the dark temptations of spy craft.

William Boyd was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the author of sixteen highly acclaimed, bestselling novels and five collections of stories. Any Human Heart was longlisted for the Booker Prize and adapted into a TV series with Channel 4. In 2005, Boyd was awarded the CBE. He is married and divides his time between London and south-west France.

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Alex Riley for Super Natural: How Life Thrives in Impossible Places
2025-09-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Topping & Company Booksellers of Bath, York Street, Bath, BA1 1NG, United Kingdom
‘A thrilling and original way to explore nature – the science is fascinating.’ Tristan Gooley, Sunday Times bestselling author of How to Read a Tree.

From scorching deserts to frozen seabeds, from the highest peaks of the Himalaya to the hadal depths of the oceans, there are habitats on this Earth that appear inimical to life – yet in which it flourishes nevertheless. During the midday heat of the Sahara, silvery ants sprint from their nests to feed. In North American forests, wood frogs awaken each spring from solid blocks of ice. At the site of the Chernobyl disaster, fungi harness radiation to thrive.

Transporting readers to far-flung environments we could never call home, Super Natural paints an awe-inspiring portrait of life’s resilience and ingenuity under the harshest circumstances. We meet creatures exquisitely adapted to endure unimaginable deprivations: of water, oxygen, food, sunlight. Alex Riley shows how, at nature’s extremes, the rules of life as we know them are rewritten – and how, here, we can find hope for the future of life on Earth, and beyond.

Alex Riley is an award-winning science writer focusing on long-form features in evolutionary biology, conservation and health. His work has appeared in Aeon, Nautilus, New Scientist, BBC Earth and BBC Future. His first book, A Cure for Darkness, was published by Ebury in 2021.

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The Irregulars
2025-09-04 19:30 - 22:00 | The Jesters, 17 Alfred St, Bath, BANES, BA1 2QU, United Kingdom
These aren’t your average open micers. These are the comics who’ve been grafting on the circuit for years, sharpening their sets in pubs, clubs, basements and backrooms – and they’re just starting to break into the mainstream. You’ll see TV-ready talent before they hit the panel shows, right here in The Jesters’ underground comedy club.Doors: 7:30 PM | Show: 8:00 PM | Tickets: £8 / £5 Students

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Phil Beer
2025-09-04 20:00 - 21:30 | Chapel Arts, Basement, St James Memorial Hall, 9 Lower Borough Walls, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA1 1QR, United Kingdom
Phil Beer is the multi-instrumental half of the west country’s award-winning acoustic duo, Show of Hands. With a professional career of over 36 years, Phil has a great deal of material to draw on for his solo appearances, which are an eclectic mix of traditional tunes, covers of Springsteen or The Hollies, together with his own compositions and songs from his contemporaries.

All are songs and music of memory and significance sung in the subtle and melodic Phil Beer style and interjected with musings and amusings to an almost personal audience. It is a treat of past and current favourites from one of the most popular musicians on the acoustic circuit.

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All the World's a Stage
2025-09-05 12:00 - 14:30 | Theatre Royal, Sawclose, Bath, Bath & North East Somerset, BA1 1ET, United Kingdom
Legendary Shakespearean actor, Dame Harriet Walter recently published She Speaks! What Shakespeare’s Women Might Have Said, a collection of speeches for Shakespeare’s famous female characters. These supplementary passages, written by Harriet mostly in verse, offer alternative insights and female perspectives into some of the most famous characters in literature.

In a unique event for the Ralph Fiennes / Theatre Royal Bath Season, Harriet Walter and the female cast of As You Like It – Gloria Obianyo, Amber Grappy, Amber James, Hannah Azuonye and Imogen Elliott – will read and perform some of these speeches and verses, shining a fascinating new light on Katherine, Gertrude, Hermione, Olivia and many other Shakespearean heroines.

Following the performance, Jane Tapley will host a Q&A with the cast, an opportunity to ask questions about Shakespeare’s women, gaining an insight into how they were represented then and today.

‘Bold and original . . . Anyone who cares about Shakespeare will want to own and share this book’ James Shapiro

‘With her gravitas, empathy, intellect and absolute belly laugh wit, the unheard voices soar. A real celebration of her life and art’ Phyllida Lloyd

Book here

Southgate Sorcerers
2025-09-05 16:00 - 18:00 | Bath City Centre Youth Space, 28 Southgate St, Bath, BA1 1TP, United Kingdom
Some new groups in the City Centre have recently started that young people can come along to if they would like. All of these are open to all young people 11-19 (yr7+ and up to 25 if additional needs).

Southgate Sorcerers is run with DM Alex where young people will tell their own stories about slaying monsters and moving mountains.

Widcombe Friday Waterside Nights – Free Live Music Every Friday
2025-09-05 17:30 - 20:30 | Widcombe Social Club, Widcombe Hill, Bath, BA2 6AA
Wonderful Widcombe nights at Widcombe Social Club very near to Bath city centre.
Free live music from 7-9 pm every Friday in a relaxed setting.
Affordable freshly cooked Pizza including vegan and gf options.
Great for all ages and dog friendly.
