POETRY AND is a series of poetry readings at King’s College London chaired by Professor of Poetry Ruth Padel, which highlights poetry’s power to connect across boundaries and disciplines.

This summer, we are presenting free events at King’s College London in the Edmond J. Safra Lecture Theatre, followed by a wine reception and book-signing in Chapters. King’s College, Strand WC2R 2LS.

Thursday 24 May POETRY, EUROPE AND JUSTICE

19.00 - 20.30: readings and discussion with two prize-winning authors.

Sean O'Brien is a leading poet of his generation, a multi-award-winning British poet, critic and playwright who teaches at Newcastle University. In his new collection Europa, Europe is not somewhere we can choose to leave but a shared heritage, a place where our common dreams and nightmares recur and mutate. Our future will be determined by what we understand, remember and forget of our European identity. ‘One of our finest poets just got finer still’ (Independent)

Philippe Sands QC is professor of law at UCL a barrister at Matrix Chambers, and President of English PEN. His latest book, East West Street, on the origins of ‘genocide’ and ‘crimes against humanity’, both a personal account of the Nuremberg trials and a poignant family memoir, which won the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. ‘Even when charting the complexities of law, his writing has the intrigue, verve and material density of a first-rate thriller” (Guardian).