Ladybird books, impact on harvests, and honouring Brian Aldiss: Reading in the News - 22 August
22 August 2017
Ladybird at the MERL: ITV Meridian and BBC Berkshire (approx. 2 hours in) have covered news that the MERL have purchased a collection of original illustrations for their Ladybird book exhibition. Clare Plastow (Special Collections) spoke about the additional artwork on display.
Crop science: Prof Donal O’Sullivan (Agriculture) spoke to BBC Berkshire (19 mins in) about the impact of extreme weather conditions on arable farming and harvests.
Eclipse: An article featuring work by Prof Giles Harrison (Met) in the New York Times on research conducted during solar eclipses has been reproduced in Columbian news site El Espectador. In addition, Dr Mike Lockwood (Met) is mentioned in a piece on EcoWatch looking at why the sun isn’t “responsible for recent climate change”.
Brian Aldiss: The Guardian cover the news that noted science fiction author Brian Aldiss, who received an honorary degree from Reading in 2000 as mentioned in an announcement by Curtis Brown, has died aged 92. The writer, whose notable work a short story which inspired the 2001 film AI: Artificial Intelligence, had also given a selection of his papers to the University of Reading Special Collections including notebooks for the celebrated Helliconia series. The news is also covered by titles including the Telegraph (£), and Oxford Times.
Also in the news:
- Jon Foster-Pedley (Dean, HBS Africa) writes in Business Brief South Africa about digital disruption in education.
- This is Wiltshire look at work done by museum volunteers, including Helen Brett, who volunteered while studying at Reading for an MA in Medieval History.
- An article about Aubrey Beardsley, an artist closely associated with Oscar Wilde, includes a picture of Beardsley from archives held in Special Collections, in World of Wonder.