Please be aware that this article references death by suicide.
Durham’s annual book festival returned in October, welcoming a host of writers from across the world.
Started in 1990, Durham Book Festival is one of the country’s oldest literary festivals and this year, events took place around the city at Gala Durham, Clayport Library and Collected Books.
It was another celebration of books and poetry, covering topics including history’s hidden women, writing in conflict zones and the publishing industry itself.
Members of our Durham community were among the global names in attendance, including Helen Fielding, Terry Deary and Jodi Picoult, who took to the stage to talk about their latest works.
Revd Professor David Wilkinson and Professor Edith Hall talked about their books, gave personal reflections and looked at Durham’s history.
Dialogue Magazine spoke to David and Edith about the festival.
Uncovering the mysteries of the Universe with science and religion
Revd Professor David Wilkinson celebrated 100 years of science at Durham University with a talk telling the story of Temple Chevallier, who was one of the founders of the University Observatory.
Astronomer, theology professor, mathematics professor, reader in Hebrew and vicar of Esh Parish Church near Durham, Chevallier blended his religious beliefs with scientific investigation, something David has done himself.
It was a theme which ran through David’s talk, discussing how the often-perceived historical conflict between the science and religion is overhyped and applied retrospectively.
The talk was linked to ‘God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse’, a book David wrote with Dave Hutchings as an update to his previous work, ‘God, The Big Bang and Stephen Hawking’. It explores the legacy of Stephen Hawking and whether our universe is one among many – and what that would mean both for science and for theological arguments about God.
David said:
There are many theories of the multiverse, and it reminds us that there are many questions that we still don’t understand, that we’re still looking at in terms of science and theology – and Chevallier was also open to these questions in the 19th century.
Also important to Chevallier was the communication of science with the public – so it was fitting that David continued that tradition at the Durham Book Festival.
David added: “It’s something I feel privileged to have picked up from my time as an undergraduate and a postgraduate in Durham’s Physics Department, just how important it is to communicate science to a wider audience.
“That includes my own interest in science and religion, as there are many religious people who are fascinated by the big questions.”
Facing Down the Furies
Professor Edith Hall discussed her latest book ‘Facing Down the Furies’, which mixes memoir, Greek tragedy and philosophy as she looks at the topic of suicide.
In the book, she reflects on how suicide has affected her own family, beginning with when she received a box of items and photographs belonging to her grandmother, who took her own life.
Edith recounts a trip to Scotland to visit where her relatives lived before ending their lives. The visit allowed her to better understand how her grandmother’s death had affected her mother, and in turn how that affected her relationship with Edith.
Drawing on her background as a classicist, in the book Edith examines attitudes towards the topic throughout history, including its representation in Ancient Greek tragedies as a way of showing their cultural responses to it.
From there, she charts the differing Roman and early Christian attitudes, and continues to the present day, making an argument against suicide around the multigenerational impact it can have.
That impact, and the grief, is something more often explored in Greek tragedy than more modern media, Edith explains.
Since publication, Edith has received many messages from people who have read the book and wanted to share their own experiences with suicidal feelings or being bereaved by suicide.
Edith said:
The response has been fairly overwhelming that there isn’t enough written about suicide. Like many private stories, it can have a much more general application.
“I’ve got a bit of a missionary zeal about it. The book makes a very strong philosophical, secular argument against suicide, which I think needs to be made.”