Talks take place on Thursday afternoons, starting at 2pm, and usually take place in the Lecture Hall, Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA. These are free for Oxford u3a members but you are welcome to attend as a guest for a donation of £5 (£2 for members of all other U3As).
Most talks are recorded on Zoom for the benefit of those Oxford u3a members who are unable to attend Rewley House.
In the event of adverse weather conditions, please telephone Rewley House (01865 270360), to enquire whether the talk has been cancelled.
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Professor Emma Smith – Portable Magic: 2000 Years of the Book
18th January 2024 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford. She is occasionally to be heard on BBC radio and is an Associate Scholar with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She curated the Bodleian Library’s Sensational Books exhibition in 2022. She is lead advisor to the BBC documentary series on Shakespeare broadcast in autumn 2023, and has worked on film scripts including Mary Queen of Scots and Hamlet. Her book This Is Shakespeare was a Sunday Times bestseller.
This talk will draw on her book Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers. It discusses how book technology became so dominant and the ways books have become part of our lives. From book burning to the rise of the paperback, and from Gutenberg to Kindle, books have shaped history – and been shaped by it in return.