The St Peter's School Public Lecture programme is a series of lectures, talks, and presentations by a range of expert speakers from many disciplines.
Autumn Term 2025
Eve Poole: Robot Souls: Programming in Humanity?
Monday 15 September 2025, 7pm
Dr Eve Poole will be speaking about the questions raised in her book Robot Souls: Programming in Humanity. The discussion centres around what it means to be human, as well as other existential questions in a time of ever-advancing artificial intelligence.
More about Dr Eve Poole:
Dr Eve Poole OBE Chairs the Woodard Corporation. Previously, she was Interim CEO of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (2023-2024), Interim CEO of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2022), Third Church Estates Commissioner (2018-2021), and Chairman of the Board of Governors at Gordonstoun (2015-2021). She also taught Leadership at Ashridge Business School, following earlier careers at the Church Commissioners and Deloitte Consulting. She has a BA from Durham, an MBA from Edinburgh, and a PhD from Cambridge. She has written several books, including Robot Souls and Leadersmithing, which was Highly Commended in the 2018 Business Book Awards
Free Tickets here
Select an image or... 
...enter text here.
Steve Richards: Was Tony Blair a more effective Prime Minister than Keir Starmer?
Wednesday 1 October 2025, 7pm
Steve Richards is a political columnist, journalist, author and presenter. He will join St Peter's for a talk discussing his new book and the question: Was Tony Blair a visionary, impatiently looking ahead, or a leader trapped by his past? He will also use his experience and expertise to reflect on the efficacy of Tony Blair's leadership in comparison to the current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
More about Steve Richards:
He presents the podcast Rock N Roll Politics and regularly presents The Week in Westminster on BBC Radio 4 as well as BBC series on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. He is the author of The Prime Ministers, Turning Points and The Prime Ministers We Never Had, the latter of which was named a ʻBook of the Year’ in The Guardian and The Times. He writes for several national newspapers including The Guardian, the Independent and the Financial Times. He also presents a popular political one-man show each year at the Edinburgh Festival and across the UK.
Free Tickets here
Iain Dale: Margaret Thatcher: A Political Life Re-evaluated
Friday 10 October 2025, 7pm
This event at St Peter's will see Iain Dale in conversation with former Cabinet Minister, Sir David Davis MP, talking about his most recent book about Margaret Thatcher. They will discuss Thatcher’s time in office, her legacy and enduring reputation with a particular focus on explaining her to a new generation too young to remember her.
More about Iain Dale:
Iain Dale is an accomplished broadcaster, presenting his own daily radio show on LBC, and several podcasts, including For the Many, Iain Dale All Talk and Where Politics Meets History. He is a regular on Question Time, Newsnight, Good Morning Britain, Politics Live and a columnist for the Telegraph. He is the author/editor of more than 40 books, most recently The Presidents and The Prime Ministers. He lives in Tunbridge Wells and Norfolk.
Free Tickets here
Select an image or... 
...enter text here.
Getting to St Peter's School
Where possible we encourage travel via public transport, as there is limited parking on site. To help you plan your journey, please see our dedicated site here.