Lent Term 2026 Encounters

All Encounters take place in Warwick School Science Lecture Theatre from 4.15pm - 5.30pm.  All welcome!

Thursday, 22 January
Sir John Curtice
An Online Encounter with the UK’s Polling Expert  

Sir John Curtice is the UK’s most widely known and widely followed polling expert. He is a frequent guest on television and radio and is one of the pioneers of the exit poll as a means of predicting General Election outcomes. With Reform hoping to make an electoral breakthrough in the Welsh and Scottish parliament elections this year, Sir John will be discussing the extent to which the UK really is entering uncharted political waters.    

 

Friday, 30 January
Iain Pears OW
An Encounter with a Novelist 

Iain Pears was educated at Warwick School.  Pears came to international prominence with his bestselling book An Instance of the Fingerpost (1997) and is well  known for experimenting with innovatory narrative structures and for his “stylish and slick prose”. His most recent book is Parallel Lives: A Love Story from a Lost Continent (2024).

 

Friday, 6 February
Chris Howe MBE
An Encounter with the Falklands War and the sinking of HMS Coventry  

Please note this will take place in King's High Hall.

Chris Howe’s highly personal account will start from 2 April 1982 when the Falklands were invaded by Argentina and will present a personal story of life and events in HMS Coventry during the Falklands Conflict up until she was lost in action on the evening of 25 May 1982.  The story will recount the sinking of Coventry and how Chris survived the loss with 27% burns.    

 

Friday, 27 February
Neil Titley OW
An Encounter with Oscar Wilde 

Neil Titley is a world authority on Oscar Wilde and has spent 50 years presenting his acclaimed one man show on Oscar Wilde. He also published a book on Wilde called ‘The Oscar Wilde World of Gossip’, and his play on GB Shaw ‘Shaw’s Corner’ was televised in over 20 countries. Neil was a pupil at Warwick School from 1957-64 and this will be his first return to the school in 61 years.   

 

Friday, 6 March
Bill Reed
An Encounter with Murder

In 1942, in the sleepy Wiltshire town of Malmesbury, a farm labourer, Harry Neal was brutally bludgeoned to death.  The crime not only shocked and scarred the community but raised issues of neurodiversity and criminal intent and accountability which still resonate today. Join local historian, Bill Reed, for a fascinating speculation on a gruesome murder.     

  

Friday, 13 March
Professor Subir Sarkar
An Encounter with the Edge of the Universe

Subir Sarkar is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at Oxford University. He will discuss the ancient question of how far the universe extends – whether it is finite or infinite? This remains an open problem in cosmology but can now be addressed through measurements, rather than just philosophical speculation. He will trace the evolution of ideas concerning this question, in particular the Olbers’ "dark sky" paradox for an infinite universe (and its correct resolution), and conclude with contemporary studies of the cosmic microwave background – the afterglow of the Big Bang – which marks the ‘edge of the universe’ we see today.

 

Friday, 20 March
Gareth Russell
An Encounter with Queen James

James Stuart was the first King of Britain and the first who was known to be openly bisexual.  Married to Anne of Denmark, he had six long term gay relationships. Gareth Russell’s Waterstones Book of the Year “places James – genius, liar, spendthrift, idealist, witch-hunter – and the men he loved at the centre of one of the most dramatic stories in British royal history”.

This Encounter will include a book sale and signing of “Queen James”

 

Tuesday, 24 March
Theo Cooper
An Encounter with the Climate Crisis - Scottish Wildfire

Last summer, in Scotland, an unusually dry and hot spell promoted several wildfires. Theo Cooper will be talking on the efforts trying to contain these fires, minimise damage and safeguard against further fires, especially as the climate becomes warmer. He was directly involved, supporting teams on the ground and will be describing his experiences.