Richard Dawkins - The Magic Of Reality
Here he is signing our books, with accompanying pint.
Playhouse Theatre, Oxford
Boy had I waited a long time. He's quite elusive is RD, but finally I hunted down a date where I could see him in his home town. I'm not sure he's ever been to the West Midlands or is ever likely to, so Oxford seemed the best place. I made the mistake of going by train with Vicky, Cross Country Train's service is truly piss poor, but that aside it was worth the effort.
Once we arrived in Oxford we headed for food and ended up in Jamie's Italian. Now I'm no fan of Jamie Oliver, I think he's a total twat, but Vicky had wanted to sample his food for a while so in we went. Overall it was a nice experience (but I think Carlucio's is better). Anyhow, I digress.
So, the first part of RD's talk was him and Mrs Dawkins (Lala Ward) reading bits from his new book, much like the audio book. That was nice, but he chose bits that didn't really seem to link together, which was a shame. It was interesting none the less. His groupies were pleased anyway (me included). He also demonstrated the iPad app. It was at this point that I realised that I had actually bought all three versions of the Magic of Reality without really thinking about it; hardback, audiobook and app. Whoops.
The second part was him taking questions. Most of these revolved around his distain for religion and he spoke passionately about many of the issues that have gained him a following aside from his scientific expertise. The odd question revolved around evolution and genetics, but mostly it was a religion and superstition bashing session which suited me and the rest of the crowd. It was a pity that no Dawkins hating Christians had managed to plant themselves in the audience, I would have loved to have seen him tackle that 'problem'.
Afterwards he was signing books. Now I had umed and ared about whether to bring The God Delusion with me on the off chance that he could sign it. I decided against it, which was the wrong decision. So, I made Vicky buy another copy so he could sign that. We waited a little while and finally I had my chance to have a very quick chat with the great man himself. He signed our copies of The Magic of Reality and The God Delusion and I thanked him for making my A' level lessons so interesting over the years. He seemed to like that.
A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon out which will stick in the memory banks.
