We’re thrilled to welcome Peter Stott to Exeter Custom House to kick off the Quay Words Science season with a discussion about communicating climate science and creative writing. Peter will be joined in conversation by the award-winning novelist Virginia Baily.
Peter will be talking about his recent book Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial, as well as discussing with Virginia the ways in which writers and scientists can work together to tell stories about the climate crisis, with recent examples from Exeter such as the One Chance Left and Climate Stories projects.
Book now to reserve your in-person seat at Exeter Custom House. Alternatively, you can ‘save a seat’ here to watch the live stream of this event from home, free of charge.
Cost: £4 / £3 concessions
About the speakers
Peter Stott is a Science Fellow in Climate Attribution at the Met Office and Professor in Detection and Attribution at the University of Exeter. He has played a leading role in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and has been published in Nature and Science, among many other journals.
With his wife, artist and musician Pierrette Thomet, he co-leads the Climate Stories project in which artists, scientists and community members come together to develop new narratives about climate change and he helped bring poetry to the Science Pavilion at the COP26 climate negotiations in Glasgow in November 2021 through the One Chance Left initiative.
His recent book Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial was the subject of a lead review in the Guardian, ‘provides an invaluable record of how climate scientists have fought deep-pocketed lobby groups’ according to the New Statesman and was described as ‘illuminating’ and ‘compelling’ by the Irish Times.
Virginia Baily is an author, teacher and editor. She has written three novels: Africa Junction (which won the McKitterick prize), Early One Morning, a Sunday Times bestseller, and, most recently The Fourth Shore. She lives in Exeter, co-edits Riptide short story journal and is working on her fourth novel.
This event will be in-person at Exeter Custom House. This is an opportunity to be part of a socially distanced live audience at the Custom House, for an in-person ticket click ‘Book now’ to book your ticket. We will be following Government guidance to ensure the event is Covid-19 secure. We will be following social distancing guidance during this event, including a one metre plus rule, provision of hand sanitiser and a clearly marked one-way system. Exeter Custom House requires that face coverings are worn when inside the building.This event is going to be filmed for live broadcast on Crowdcast. You may appear on screen. Please only book if you are happy with this.
Tickets are limited and available on a first come-first served basis. Please only book if you intend to be part of the invited audience on 9th March 2022. Please provide your full name, email address and phone number when booking. We can accommodate free tickets for carers or personal assistants if needed. Please email us on customhouse@literatureworks.org.uk after booking to let us know if you would like to book one of these tickets.
Book with confidence, any changes in guidance that prevent the event from going ahead in person will result in a refund of the ticket price and the event will take place digitally.
Accessibility Statement: This event will take place at Exeter Custom House. The event will be hosted in the historic rooms on the first floor of the building. There is step-free entry to the ground floor and a lift connects the ground and first floors. If you have particular access requirements please let us know by email after booking. We have a budget for accessibility at Quay Words and will do our best to accommodate your needs. We can accommodate free tickets for carers or personal assistants if needed. Please email us on customhouse@literatureworks.org.uk after booking to let us know if you would like to book one of these tickets.
Disabled parking provision: There are five free disabled parking spaces for registered Blue Badge holders next to the Exeter Antiques Centre immediately in front of the Custom House. Maximum stay is three hours.
We will also be live streaming this event via Crowdcast, a broadcasting platform, using visual and audio. There will be a Q&A session after the event and you will be invited to use the ‘Ask a question’ button at the bottom of the screen to contribute. There is also a ‘chat’ function which you can use to introduce yourself at the beginning of the event. You can watch the event on most browsers, including Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge. Our digital events are compatible with screen readers.