ON OUR RADAR

Climate Science and Creativity

Quay Words’ spring writer-in-residence Ellen Wiles hosts a discussion between Devon writers and scientists about the ways they address the climate crisis in their work.

Leigh Curtis

Quay Words’ spring writer-in-residence Ellen Wiles will host a discussion on Wednesday 27 April at Exeter Custom House with three creative writers and three scientists, all based in Devon, talking about how they address the climate crisis in their work.

Joining Ellen Wiles are poet John Wedgewood Clarke and novelist Ben Smith. All three lecture in creative writing at the University of Exeter.

Also from the university is Richard Brazier, co-director of the Centre for Resilience in Environment, Water and Waste.

Lizzie Kendon is an expert in extreme rainfall and predictive modelling of flooding events and future climate impacts at the Met Office, and Sam Bridgewater leads the Lower Otter Restoration Project and manages Pebblebed Heaths, a new National Nature Reserve, at Clinton Devon Estates.

Subscribe to The Exeter Digest - Exeter Observer's essential free email newsletter

Your personal information will be processed and stored in accordance with our Privacy Policy

Ellen Wiles will speak about her new residency exploring Devon’s riverscapes and the role of beavers in the context of climate change.

The panel will then discuss the similarities and differences between creativity and science and how new experimental work could enable collaboration between these oft-divided worlds. Audience questions will follow.

The event, which starts at 6.30pm, will also be livestreamed. Tickets cost £4/£3. Visit the Quay Words website for more information.


Democracy doesn't work when people don't know who is deciding what on whose behalf and what the costs and consequences of those decisions will be.

Exeter Observer is proving that reader-funded media can deliver the independent public interest journalism our local democracy needs.

Upgrade to a paid Exeter Observer subscription to support our work and get access to exclusive premium content and more.

More stories
Exeter cycle route E9 Wonford Road bus gate modal filter

Wonford Road modal filter bus gate to be first of five Exeter ANPR camera sites

Devon County Council will use new moving traffic offence enforcement powers to issue penalty charge notices to motorists contravening active travel, bus lane and one-way street restrictions.

Devon five-a-day fruit & vegetable consumption by district 2023-24

Exeter residents eat lowest proportion of 5-a-day fruit and vegetables in Devon with only South Hams above England average

Public health report also finds three in ten Devon residents are physically inactive and nearly two-thirds overweight with new countywide health and well-being strategy due in autumn.

Save Northbrook Pool campaigners dressed in black outside Exeter City Council's offices on 24 June 2025

Labour councillors dive deeper into denial in decision to abandon Northbrook pool

Exeter residents mourn as council suppresses destructive consequences of creating St Sidwell’s Point complex that looms in leisure service shadows like a leviathan.

Devon & Torbay Combined County Authority draft local growth plan infographic

Devon & Torbay CCA keeps quiet about 2025-35 Local Growth Plan as it takes charge of regional development agenda

Combined County Authority privately selects unspecified stakeholders to co-author document setting out strategic priorities but with little of substance to say on addressing region’s structural challenges.

Northbrook pool

Exeter City Council fields false prospectus in determination to close Northbrook pool

Ian Collinson reports double down on misrepresentation, material omission and flat denial as council plans to rend more of city’s fabric from its roots.

Clifton Hill sports centre redevelopment site

Second undervalue sale of Clifton Hill sports centre site after buyback loss leaves city with £3m less than initial market value

Council sold land for £2.14m – at £2.11m discount – then bought it back for £3.037m before selling again for £3.375m at £425,000 discount with £225,000 sweetener after also agreeing to spend net £600,000 on preparation, marketing and disposal costs.