Wantage Literary Festival – Friday 31 October 2025

What if aging could be cured? How much would you risk to stay young?

Eve Smith, an Oxfordshire author of four thrillers including The Waiting Rooms, Off-Target, and One, presents her latest novel, The Cure. The story follows Ruth, a scientist who accidentally discovers a cure for aging. Just one injection a year reverses your biological clock, guaranteeing a long, healthy life. However, Ruth’s cure is hijacked by obsessives willing to risk anything to cheat death, leading to catastrophic consequences. Ruth’s life is shattered until she meets Mara, a young investigator tasked with hunting down those responsible for the deadly cure, and an unlikely alliance begins.

Based on extensive research into the longevity industry, Eve will discuss the ideas behind her book and the increasingly blurred boundary between real-life events and the worlds she creates in her novels. Eve Smith will be in conversation with Nicola Cornick.

Eve Smith is known for her speculative thrillers that delve into societal issues and future trends. Her debut novel, The Waiting Rooms, set during a global antibiotic crisis, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award and was a Guardian Book of the Month.

A vivid new history of how medieval people around the world perceived the moon.

When they gazed at the moon, medieval people around the globe saw an object that was at once powerful and fragile, distant, and intimate – and sometimes all this at once. The moon could convey love, beauty, and gentleness; but it could also be about pain, hatred, and violence. In its circularity the moon was associated with fullness and fertility. Yet in its crescent and other shifting forms, the moon could seem broken, even wounded. In this beautifully illustrated history, Ayoush Lazikani reveals the many ways medieval people felt and wrote about the moon. Ranging across the world, from China to South America, Korea to Wales, Ayoush Lazikani explores how different cultures interacted with the moon. From the idea that the Black Death was caused by a lunar eclipse to the wealth of Persian love poetry inspired by the moon’s beauty, this is a truly global account of our closest celestial neighbour.

Ayoush Lazikani is a distinguished scholar and lecturer at the University of Oxford, specialising in Old English and Middle English. She has published extensively in these areas, including works on devotional writing from the 11th to 13th centuries.