Autumn Lecture Series 2025: Here I stand with Elif Shafak
(Monday 10th November 2025)
When watching live, you can increase the quality of the video to 720p by pressing the ‘settings cog’ button on the video menu. You can also unmute and change the volume.
Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British bestselling novelist, essayist, academic, and activist. She writes in both Turkish and English, and her work has been translated into over 50 languages. Shafak is best known for her novels, which often explore themes of identity, culture, history, and politics. Drawing on Sufi mysticism and writing with a great spiritual sensitivity and depth she emphasizes the importance of unlearning dogmas and embracing doubt as a healthy aspect of faith and understanding. Her work is inclusive, empathetic, and brilliantly creative- she challenges norms, and explores diverse voices. Her unique narrative voice bridges cultures and highlights the unheard in captivating stories that defy easy categorization.
Some of her most acclaimed works include The Forty Rules of Love, Three Daughters of Eve, and 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. She is a passionate advocate for women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and freedom of speech, and she often incorporates these themes into her writing. Shafak has been nominated for the Booker Prize several times and is a recipient of many literary awards.
Please let us know what you thought of tonight’s lecture and submit any suggestions for future themes and speakers by following this link here.
We’d like to thank the very many members of tonight’s audience who have so generously donated trees to help us on our way to net zero for the series. Full details of the Festivals Forest carbon capture project can be found here: https://festivalsforest.eu
You may also like
Contemplative Prayer with Neil MacGregor, 16 May 2020
Nazareth Contemplative Prayer with Neil MacGregor and Revd Richard Carter from Regent’s Park.
ChoralCast – Angel voices ever singing
Daisy Walford, a soprano in St Martin’s Voices, introduces the group singing the hymn ‘Angel voices ever singing’.
Living God’s Future Now – Part 1
The first in a monthly series – part of the HeartEdge ‘Living God’s Future Now’ programme. A conversation between Dr Walter Brueggemann and Revd Dr Sam Wells.
ChoralCast – O God you search me and you know me (Farrell)
Tenor Chris Huggon introduces St Martin’s Voices singing Bernadette Farrell’s ‘O God you search me and you know me’.
Great Sacred Music 14.05.20
Great Sacred Music Podcast
Thursday 7 May 2020
Rivers
ChoralCast – Open thou mine eyes (Rutter)
Alto Sophie Timms returns to introduce St Martins Voices singing ‘Open thou mine eyes’ by John Rutter.
ChoralCast – To God be the glory
Soprano Choral Scholar, Alice Harberd introduces the final ChoralCast with our Choral Scholars, the triumphant hymn ‘To God be the glory’, recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes.
ChoralCast – Christ is our corner-stone
Today’s ChoralCast features the hymn ‘Christ is our corner-stone ‘, recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes and introduced by bass Choral Scholar, Adam Jarman.
Only Believe
Only Believe: A Sermon by Revd Richard Carter. John 14.1-14 1 & Peter 2.2-10.
ChoralCast – Ye that know the Lord is gracious
Today’s ChoralCast features the hymn ‘Ye that know the Lord is gracious’, recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes and introduced by alto Choral Scholar, Lydia Ward.
Contemplative Prayer, 9 May 2020
Nazareth Contemplative Prayer with Revd Richard Carter from the River Thames in Westminster.
ChoralCast – Thy hand, O God, has guided
Today we mark VE Day with a ChoralCast introduced by tenor Choral Scholar, Rob Folkes, featuring the hymn ‘Thy hand, O God, has guided’, recently recording by the Choral Scholars from their own homes.
ChoralCast – The Lord’s my shepherd (Townend)
Soprano Choral Scholar, Rachel Haworth, introduces the beautiful ‘The Lord’s my shepherd’ by Stuart Townend, recently recorded by two of our singers from their own homes.
Great Sacred Music: I was glad 07.05.20
Great Sacred Music Podcast, Thursday 7 May, I was glad: Celebrating the Psalms
ChoralCast – I give you a new commandment
Alto Choral Scholar, Charlotte Bateman introduces ‘I give you a new commandment’ by Peter Aston, recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes.
ChoralCast – Ye choirs of new Jerusalem
Today’s ChoralCast is the hymn ‘Ye choirs of new Jerusalem’, recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes and introduced by tenor Choral Scholar, Jack Harberd.
ChoralCast – We have a gospel to proclaim
Today’s ChoralCast is the hymn ‘We have a gospel to proclaim’, recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes and introduced by soprano Choral Scholar, Ailsa Campbell.
ChoralCast – How sweet the name that Jesus sounds
Today’s ChoralCast is the hymn ‘How sweet the name that Jesus sounds’, introduced by soprano Choral Scholar, Bea Derrick, and recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes.
Contemplative Prayer, 2 May 2020
Nazareth Contemplative Prayer with Revd Richard Carter from the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
ChoralCast – All people that on earth do dwell
The first of our ChoralCasts with the Choral Scholars is ‘All people that on earth do dwell’, introduced by bass, George Cook, recently recorded by the Choral Scholars from their own homes.