Debates around arts and culture are key themes in the Battle of Ideas, an annual festival organised in London by the Institute of Ideas, which takes place this weekend – Saturday, 30^th and Sunday, 31^st October, at the Royal College of Art.

Over the course of the weekend more than 2,000 speakers will take part in over 75 different sessions involving hundreds of incisive and thought provoking speakers.

On Sunday, 31^st October, there will be a series of debates looking directly at key questions in the arts today – the evergreen popularity of Gothic horror in ‘Vampire literature: The crisis of being human’; investigating the publishing dominance of Swedish author Stieg Larsson and society’s relationship with its fictional detectives in ‘An Inspector Calls; why are crime novels so popular’; and examining the challenges posed to poets, critics and teachers alike with ‘Poetry and the tyranny of relevance’.

There are many other arts related debates over the weekend covering everything from Ancient Greeks to opera, architecture to fashion, and featuring a great many speakers; including novelist Marcus Sedgwick, novelist and poet Sophie Hannah, and T.S.Eliot prize winning poet George Szirtes, and many more.

You can find a full programme of events – including national and international satellite events, as well as carefully selected readings for each session, specially commissioned ‘Battle in Print’ Essays on selected themes, and videos of previous years’ sessions, on the website at:

www.battleofideas.org.uk