Remember the ad showing a ballet dancer with the tagline: ‘Fatima’s next job could be in cyber (she just doesn’t know it yet)’? Its message - forget the arts, tech is what really matters - struck many as chilling, and it was quickly withdrawn. Yet it echoed a widespread belief: that artists are frivolous, dispensable, and the future belongs only to technology. Margaret Heffernan disagrees.

Dr Lucy Pollock grew up in Northern Ireland and studied medicine at Cambridge and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Early in her career, a wise boss gently suggested she consider becoming a geriatrician - advice she’s been grateful for ever since.

In these times of uncertainty and darkness, how do we write poems which affirm and transform, making use of what Yeats called ‘the spiritual intellect’?

Bristol has a growing number of independent bookshops, several of which have been recently celebrated in The Bookseller’s awards. In this session, you will learn about the history and customer base of three of them, and hear their owner/managers’ recommendations for Desert Island reading.

We all craft ideas we have started and now they are lurking in a draw unloved - dig them out and come and share a morning of knitting, crochet, tapestry, cross stich, rag rugs or whatever you would love to resurrect or mend!

Tai Chi with Don is starting again on Tuesday 30th September and running every week until 21st October at the new time of 10am. It restarts after half term on 4th November up until and including 2nd December.