Accompany Ian McEwan and George Monbiot for an exploration of humanity’s remarkable resilience and an expedition through a climate-torn tomorrow where hope endures against the odds.

From his meteoric ascent to literary prominence for his incisive, uncompromising tales of passion and longing, to his recent explorations of climate catastrophe and artificial intelligence, Ian McEwan’s remarkable body of work maintains one constant thread: his surgical ability to examine both the complexities of human nature and the challenges defining our era.

In the year 2119, Britain exists as a scattered collection of islands, its former lowlands lost beneath the relentless advance of climate-driven seas. Against this transformed landscape, the story centres on Tom Metcalfe, a scholar working at the University of the South Downs.

Whilst conducting research deep within the university’s archives, Tom unearths an intriguing fragment of evidence pointing towards a vanished piece of poetry, a work performed just once in 2014 before disappearing from human memory entirely. This remarkable discovery sets in motion a chain of revelations that exposes a web of complex romantic entanglements and a devastating transgression, ultimately shattering Tom’s understanding of those closest to him and forcing him to confront uncomfortable truths about the people he believed he truly understood.

George Monbiot meets Ian McEwan to unveil What We Can Know.

All tickets to this event include a copy of Ian McEwan’s new novel What We Can Know (RRP £22).

There will be a post-event book signing in the main foyer.