John Vaillant & Robert Macfarlane | Fire Weather
Mon 27 May 2024 | 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction Winner 2o23, John Vaillant
For hundreds of millennia, fire has been a partner in our evolution, shaping culture and civilization. Yet in our age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in ways never before witnessed by human beings.
In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada’s oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs and drove 90,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the story of this apocalyptic conflagration, John Vaillant explores the past and the future of our ever-hotter, more flammable world.
Join award-winning writer John Vaillant for an enlightening conversation with nature writer Robert Macfarlane. They’ll tell the remarkable story of Fort McMurray, a brutal urban wildfire, and explore of our rapidly changing relationship with fire within the urgent midst of climate crisis.
Venue: Cambridge Union
Duration: 1 hour
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Author Biography
John Vaillant‘s first book, The Golden Spruce, won the Canadian Governor General’s Award for non-fiction. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Outside, National Geographic and Men’s Journal, among other publications. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and children.
Chair Biography
Robert Macfarlane is an author and academic. He regularly writes for publications including the Guardian and the Times. His writing often blurs ideas of genre and form and he regularly collaborates with artists, film-makers, photographers and musicians. His first book, Mountains of the Mind won the Guardian First Book Award and the Somerset Maugham Award. His other works include, The Old Ways, Landmarks as well as The Lost Words and The Lost Spells, children’s books of nature spells created in partnership with artist Jackie Morris. His most recent book was Underlands (2019). Robert a Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Patron of the festival.
