Words By The Water : Ben Miller & Linda Blair

This weekend was the last weekend of Words by the Water at Theatre by the Lake. Words by the Water is an annual literary festival with novelists, poets, philosophers and scientists talking just to name a few! Seeing as I live so close, I knew I had to go and see a few things and two which caught my eye was Ben Miller talking about Life Beyond Earth and Linda Blair who was talking about How to Streamline.

Ben Miller, Life Beyond Earth

I have been a fan of Ben Miller for a long time; from The Worst Week of my Life to Armstrong and Miller and a particular favourite of mine What we did on our Holiday and I've currently been loving his new science show on ITV. I've always had an interest in science and space since a young age and whilst school did get me down about it sometimes, I still have a love of it. Ben Miller was talking about his new book The Aliens Are Coming which looks at the likelihood of aliens coming and makes the hard science in there more attainable to non mathsy people like me! His talk was really interesting as he talked on subjects such as the golden record, the rare earth hypothesis and how we would communicate with other species, especially when we struggle to communicate with the majority of species on our own planet. 

I thoroughly enjoyed his talk and after the show, was able to meet him and get him to sign the copies of his books I bought. He was a really nice man and took the time to talk to every person who had queued to get their books signed. Something which amazed me was that in the Q&A part of the talk, how he wasn't fazed by the questions asked and answered them really in depth, giving you not only a fuller understanding of the topic but also an idea of just how knowledgable he is on these topics. 

Linda Blair, How to Streamline

I was really excited to go and see Linda Blair because my mum went to see her talk at Words by the Water last year and said that it was a really good talk and that her book, key to calm, was also a really good read. In the talk, she focused on decluttering your life psychologically and physically. Something I found really interesting was when she talked about how you are the truest form of yourself when you are about 9 years old as your more independent from your parents but aren't trying to fit in; you do things which you love. She also talked about removing the word "should" from your life. I can't wait to steal the book from my mum and have a read of it as I'm all about that mindfulness life! 

Sadly Words by the Water has finished this year however there are always lots of things going on at theatre by the lake and it will be back next year!