Andrew Robinson

Writer Andrew Robinson explains how Einstein escaped the Nazis by living in an isolated holiday hut in Britain and looks at his relationship with the country and people that first inspired his love of physics and then gave him protection.

What made Einstein go on the run in 1933 and why did he end up in a holiday hut in rural England? The scientist was made very welcome by the British people and even intended to become British, so why did he leave? Robinson answers these and many other questions and uncovers a little-known episode where Einstein hid from a Nazi threat in a temporary camp in Norfolk under the protection of a Conservative MP and former Nazi sympathiser.

Robinson is a former literary editor of the Times Higher Education Supplement and author of more than 25 books including Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity and India: A Short History.

This event is part of the festival’s programme of Jewish and Hebrew literature and culture.