The Genius Myth
Jewish Book Week
| Helen Lewis | speaker |
|---|---|
| Alice Sherwood | chair |
What – or who – is a genius, and why does the myth of the lone male prodigy fascinate us so much? Helen Lewis discusses The Genius Myth: a Guardian and FT Book of the Year.
“Male, of middle or upper-middle parentage, preferably Jewish” was Hans Eysenck’s notorious sketch of a ‘genius’. The world has largely agreed, from da Vinci and Tolstoy to the Beatles and Elon Musk. In The Genius Myth, a Guardian and FT Book of the Year, Helen Lewis unpicks the allure of the lone male prodigy and the damage the myth can do. Following her bestseller Difficult Women, she joins Authenticity author Alice Sherwood to explore who gets called a genius – and why.
This event will last approximately 1 hour, with no interval.
Concessions & Under 30s tickets
Kings Place Concessions Tickets
We want to ensure that people who may be struggling financially to purchase a ticket can still enjoy visiting Kings Place. A limited number of tickets are allocated for certain events (if the ticket type does not show in the booking pathway, it means they are not available for this event or have all been sold). Concessions tickets are accessible for people on the following criteria (for more information visit our FAQs)
- Pension Credit
- Universal Credit
- Disability Benefit
- Income Support or Job Seekers allowance
- Students
£10 ‘Under 30s’ tickets
A limited number of £10 tickets for attendees aged under 30 are available for certain shows. To purchase an ‘Under 30s’ ticket, please choose the ‘Under 30s’ price type when selecting your ticket(s). If the option does not appear, this means all ‘Under 30s’ tickets have sold out or are not available for this performance. Please note that proof of age may be requested at the venue. The £10 offer does not apply to premium price categories.
Plan your visit
Getting here
Kings Place is situated just a few minutes’ walk from King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, one of the most connected locations in London and now the biggest transport hub in Europe.
Our address is:
90 York Way, London, N1 9AG.
The Venue
Our performance spaces are situated on the lower ground floor. Hall One, Hall Two and St Pancras are located in level -2, reached by stairs, escalator and lift from the ground floor entrance level.
Event Times
Door times indicate auditorium entrance times only. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the Kings Place seating areas, gallery-level art, canal-side terrace, café, restaurant and bar throughout the day and evening.
- Our events begin promptly at the advertised start time. Typically, there is no support unless otherwise stated.
- We recommend arriving in good time before the performance. The Hall doors will open 30 minutes before the performance to allow time to take your seats, or to choose a space for standing shows.
- Latecomers will be admitted at a suitable break in the performance where possible
Access
We aim to make your visit to Kings Place as comfortable as possible. For more information about the accessibility of Kings Place, including details about our Access Scheme, please visit this page.
If you would like to discuss your access requirements with a member of our team, please get in touch with the Box Office team at info@kingsplace.co.uk.
Food & Drink
Rotunda Bar & Restaurant
Rotunda, situated on the ground floor of Kings Place, offers a unique dining and drinking experience alongside Regent’s Canal. The concert bar in the venue foyer will also be open for select events.
Green & Fortune Café
Recently re-furbished and now open with a new look, the Green & Fortune Café is open for selected concerts. Serving hot and cold food and drinks, including sandwiches, salads, soup, stew and a pie of the day, alongside a choice of cakes made by the on-site bakery team. See here for selected concert dates and standard opening hours.
Helen Lewis
Helen Lewis is a staff writer at The Atlantic, based in London, who writes about politics and culture. She writes and presents the BBC podcast series The New Gurus and Helen Lewis Has Left the Chat, and is co-host of Radio 4’s Kafka vs Orwell and Strong Message Here. She won the 2024 Kukula Award for excellence in non-fiction book reviewing.
Alice Sherwood
Alice Sherwood is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at The Policy Institute at King’s College London and author of the award-winning Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture (HarperCollins, 2022). She has served as a judge of the Wingate Literary Prize, and as a trustee of the London Library and the Hay Festival Foundation. She lives in London and Wales.