Cheaper, more sustainable and infinitely more rewarding than rushing around foreign lands in air-conditioned coaches, The School of Life’s unique brand of everyday tourism celebrates the overlooked splendor of the modern world.
Following the success of last year’s excursions which included a weekend on the Isle of Wight with renowned photographer Martin Parr, a holiday to Heathrow Airport with philosopher Alain de Botton, and an alternative road trip up the M1, the School is proud to announce an equally surprising programme of summer holidays for 2009. Highlights include an Urban Gardening Holiday with legendary guerrilla gardener Richard Reynolds, a weekend of Simple Living with editor of The Idler Tom Hodgkinson and a Holiday Inside Your Head with celebrated neuroscientist Mark Lythgoe.
Holidays range in price from £95 - £395. All are based in the UK.
The Urban Gardening Holiday
Dates: Saturday 25 April, 10:00 - 21:00
Price: £95 (includes dinner)
Emma Townshend, The Independent on Sunday’s gardening columnist, and renowned guerilla gardener Richard Reynolds introduce the joys and possibilities of Urban Gardening. They offer glimpses into secret urban gardens on rooftops, inside office blocks and down alleyways, as well as educating guests in essential urban gardening skills such as growing salad in a window-box or replanting your local roundabout. Holidaymakers will collectively transform a patch of orphaned land into a public pleasure garden. The day will culimate with a delectable home-grown feast at The School of Life.
Photographing London
Dates: Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 May or Saturday 23 - Sunday 24 May.
Price: £150 (includes dinner on Saturday evening)
Two of London’s best known street photographers Matt Stuart and Stephen McLaren intertwine stories, anecdotes and slide shows to discover the potential for innovative photography throughout the capital. From Soho to Brick Lane, holiday makers will explore the dynamics and contradictions of street life, allowing both professional and amateur photographers to rediscover the unexpected beauty of familiar places and return with an extraordinary set of souvenirs of everyday life.
A Sky Weekend with Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Dates: Friday 19 - Sunday 21 June
Price: £395 (includes accommodation, meals and activities)
The School of Life is on a mission to reclaim ‘blue sky thinking’ from business buzzword blabber and to show us why contemplating clouds is the perfect antidote to the stresses of modern day life. Join celebrated author of The Cloudspotters’
Holiday Inside Your Head
Dates: Saturday 30 May, 9.30 - 18.30
Price: £95.00
Neurocientists Mark Lythgoe and Ashish Ranpura lead this extraordinary journey deep into the physical spaces of consciousness. Holiday makers will travel to leading laboratories where they will test their own capacities for intuition, improvisation, creativity and memory whilst exploring complex questions of identity and cognition. An astonishing excursion into territories both familiar and foreign.
Philosophy by bicycle
Dates: Saturday 13 June, 08.30 – 19.00
Price: £75 (includes food and all activities)
Join philosopher Nigel Warburton and cyclist Jack Thurston for this unique day of rigorous thinking and gentle freewheeling. Along the way our minds will pedal into higher gears as we contemplate essential questions of identity, freedom, idealism and hedonism. There will be plenty of breaks as we stop to discuss the ethics of climate change, the metaphysics of time or the inclination of long-distance cyclists towards existentialism. Suitable for all levels of cyclist. Please bring your own bicycle.
Simple Living with Tom Hodgkinson
Dates: Friday 10 – Sunday 12 July
Price: £150 (includes food and all activities). Camping space in Tom’s garden is free. The School of Life can offer suggestions for alternative local accommodation.
Join Tom and Victoria Hodgkinson for a weekend of simple pleasures at their idyllic farm in North Devon. Between an idle schedule of skimming stones, star gazing and feasting on food from the farm, we’ll be exploring ideas from a range of cultural figures including the Buddha, St Francis of Assisi and Henry David Thoreau who have advocated the joys to be found in austerity. This is the perfect weekend for anyone who wants to learn to live more lightly in the era of economic gloom and ecological uncertainty, for anyone who finds that society’s obsession with material wealth has not brought them happiness and is searching for alternative sources of inspiration.
A Voyage in Epicuriosity
Dates: Saturday 25 September, 10.00 – 19.00
Price: £95 (includes all food and drink)
An extraordinary gastronomic expedition to kitchens, laboratories and specialist food shops across London led by Jenny Linford, (author of Food Lovers’ London and The London Cookbook), where we’ll reflect on how food and drink has shaped our lives. These personal histories will be set within a broader context as we meet specialists who guide us through the cultural history, science and philosophy of taste. The tour includes opportunities to taste a wide variety of cheese, tea, wine, spices and many other foodstuffs.
A Holiday at Home
Price: £60.00. Available from The School of Life's shop or by post.
This ingenious box assembled exclusively for The School of Life by philosopher Alain de Botton contains everything you need to enjoy a holiday in the comfort of your own front room. Travel first class (socks, an eye mask and all other amenities are included), visit exotic beaches, go on safari, enjoy the comforts of room service in some of the worlds' most luxurious hotels, take in a bit of culture and even enjoy some holiday romance. Best of all, you'll avoid the vicious despair and depression that so often goes hand in hand with returning from a journey to piles of post and nagging existential questions as to one’s direction in life.
To book any holiday call 020 7833 1010 or email info@theschooloflife.com
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For more information about all The School of Life has to offer contact:
Hannah Blake or Nazneen Nawaz at Colman Getty
T: 020 7631 2666 E: hannah@colmangetty.co.uk
Notes to editors
Sophie Howarth, director of The School of Life, is available for interview. Please contact Colman Getty
The School of Life is a new cultural enterprise based in central London offering intelligent instruction on how to lead a fulfilled life. The faculty is made up of some of the brightest thinkers and artists at work today, including Alain de Botton, Geoff Dyer, Susan Elderkin, Tom Hodgkinson, Brett Kahr and Martin Parr. It offers evening and weekend courses, holidays to unexpected locations, stigma- free psychotherapy, secular sermons, conversation meals, a floating faculty of experts and a new kind of literary consultancy service called bibliotherapy
For more information or electronic images contact Colman Getty or visit www.theschooloflife.com
