"Speakers included John Cornwell, Julian Baggini, Alan Sokal, Harriet Lamb, Astrid Proll, Andrew Anthony, Sheila Rowbotham, Dominic Sandbrook, Peter Tatchell, Raymond Tallis, Charles Leadbeater, George Ferguson, Jon Ronson, Jean Moorcroft Wilson, Adrian Tinniswood, Andrew Mawson, Ben Macintyre, Gerry Anderson, Susan Greenfield, Nick Davies, Simon Singh, Edzard Ernst, Patrick Cockburn, Philippe Sands, Matt Frei, Naomi Klein, Alan Weisman, Kate Mosse, Gary Marcus, and John Bolton.A series of special events were held in autumn 2008, featuring Alaa Al Aswany, Tariq Ali, Deyan Sudjic, Richard Evans, Kate Adie, Niall Ferguson, Chris Patten, Colin Blakemore, Jonathan Miller, Richard Gregory, Robert Winston, A. S. Byatt, Semir Zeki, Richard Wentworth and Paul Nurse.