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The Provost of Worcester College Jonathan Bate and his wife Paula warmly welcome you to their 18th-century home for a fireside chat by candlelight between two old friends, Booker-winning author and poet Ben Okri and journalist and writer Paul Blezard.

In the first of what is to be an annual fireside chat in the Provost’s Lodgings, Okri and Blezard will discuss life and the magical world of storytelling.

Okri is considered one of the foremost African writers of the post-modern period. At 21, he published his first novel, Flowers and Shadows, and in 1991, The Famished Road, which won the Booker Prize.  The mixture of the real and the spiritual worlds, in which he particularly draws on the myths and beliefs of his African heritage, has often led Okri to be categorised as a magical realist, although it is a categorisation he rejects. His most recent novel is The Age of Magic and his most recent volume of poetry, Wild. He has also recently written a new book, The Mystery Feast: Thoughts on Storytelling, in which he discusses the purpose and meaning of stories.