The Limits of Genius - CANCELLED Katie Spalding

Event details

The more you delve into the stories behind history’s greatest names, the more you realise they have something in common: a mystifying lack of common sense.

Take Marie Curie, famous for both discovering radioactivity and having absolutely zero lab safety protocols. Or Lord Byron, who literally took a bear with him to university. Or James Glaisher, a hot-air balloon pioneer who nearly ended up as the world’s first human satellite.

Join science writer Katie Spalding to hear the hilarious stories of these and other celebrated historical figures that demonstrate the fine line between ‘genius’ and ‘extremely lucky idiot’.

From Nikola Tesla falling in love with a pigeon to non-swimmer Albert Einstein’s near-fatal love of sailing holidays, hear all about the so-called brightest and best of humanity doing some really dumb stuff.

These are the stories that deserve to be told but never are: the hilarious, regrettable and downright baffling lesser-known achievements of the ‘geniuses’ who somehow managed to bungle their way into our history books.

This event will take place live on Zoom Webinar. You will receive a link to join a couple of days before the event and a reminder an hour before. During the event, you can ask questions via a Q&A function, but audience cameras and microphones will remain muted throughout.

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You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too. 

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