Wivenhoe Bookshop Magazine & Newsletter | Thursday 25 April 2024

Robin Ince – The Importance of Being Interested

Event Details

One-off event
Date: 23/10/2021 | Venue: Wivenhoe Bookshop Shed
Time: 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm



Robin Ince

‘The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity’

St Mary’s Annexe, High St, Wivenhoe

1pm Saturday 23rd October

Talk & Book-signing

Tickets £5.00 with tea & biscuit or £20.99 for event and special signed copy of Robin’s amazing book

Bookings are now full for this event.

To celebrate the publication of Robin’s new book, ‘The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity’ the award winning comedian is joining us on his tour of 100 independent bookshops around the UK.

About the Book

Robin’s book journeys through science, explaining why it should be for everyone – including enthusiastic amateurs.

Comedian Robin Ince

He quickly abandoned science at school, bored by a fog of dull lessons and intimidated by the barrage of equations. But, twenty years later, he fell in love and he now presents one of the world’s most popular science podcasts. Every year he meets hundreds of the world’s greatest thinkers.

In this erudite and witty book, Robin reveals why scientific wonder isn’t just for the professionals. Filled with interviews featuring astronauts, comedians, teachers, quantum physicists, neuroscientists and more – as well as charting Robin’s own journey with science -The Importance of Being Interested explores why many wrongly think of the discipline as distant and difficult.

From the glorious appeal of the stars above to why scientific curiosity can encourage much needed intellectual humility, this optimistic and profound book will leave you filled with a thirst for intellectual adventure.

About Robin Ince

Robin Ince is the co-creator and presenter of the BBC Radio 4 show The Infinite Monkey Cage, which has won multiple awards include the Sony Gold and Rose d’Or. In 2019 he played to over a quarter of a million people with Brian Cox on their world tour which has put them in the Guinness Book of Records for the most tickets sold for a science show.

He is author of I’m a Joke and So Are You and also won Celebrity Mastermind but forgot that calcium was the dominant element of chalk. He is currently trying to invent an effective satnav for people who believe the world is flat.

Reviews

‘A delightful and scintillating hymn to science. Resolutely a non-scientist, Robin Ince discovers with awe that when science addresses the “big problems” and destroys familiar beliefs, it does not leave us in a cold, meaningless and de-humanized world, but in a one which is colourful, human, full of intensity and wonder.’ – Professor Carlo Rovelli, bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

‘Wonderful! A beautifully written elegy to science, combining wonder, mystery and humour. Curiosity dances across the pages. Robin’s take on science is human, funny but also deeply enthralling.’ – Professor Alice Roberts, TV presenter, academic and bestselling author of Ancestors

‘With razor-sharp wit and insight, Robin slices into the biggest questions of our time. The Importance of Being Interested left me smiling and thinking more deeply.’ – Commander Chris Hadfield, astronaut and bestselling author

‘Robin is the most engaging of science communicators. As someone who also struggled with science as a child, still finds physics an impossible foreign tongue, and came late to the fulfilment of a curious mind, I found this book by turns challenging, entertaining and moving.’ – Steve Backshall, BAFTA-winning British explorer, naturalist, presenter and writer