The #British Academy: Four questions with Professor Russell G. #Foster

We are delighted to showcase one of the 2024 British Academy’s autumn public events, British Academy Late: The Human Experience, as we share one of our speakers, Professor Russell G. Foster’s recommendations for what to read, watch and listen to.

Professor Russell G. Foster

Professor Russell G. Foster CBE, PhD, DSc, FRSB, FMedSci, FRS, Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Director of the Sleep and Circadian Research Institute, Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford, and one of the speakers at the ‘British Academy Late: The Human Experience’

1. What have you been reading, watching, and listening to over the last month?

I am working on a new book entitled “LIGHT: The Science of a Revolutionary Force for Life”, and one of the chapters is on Visual Ecology, which is the study of how animal visual systems have evolved and how they are adapted for particular visual tasks. I have been reading a lot of papers and books on this topic. It is so fascinating. My favourite watch has been the BBC Documentary – Sex and Sensibility, The Allure of Art-Nouveau by Stephen Smith. I missed this when it was broadcast in 2012, and am loving it. Musically, the BBC Proms have dominated my listening, but I have also listened to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde by the Janácek Philharmonic Orchestra in a 2020 recording. The Liebestod is sublime.

2. What book do you always return to?

That’s a tough question. But in terms of repeat visits it has to be Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course, the 1985 edition. I love cooking and have a huge collection of cookery books, but I always seem to return to Delia. The book is covered in food stains and the spine has fallen off. But the book wears its scars with pride and has never let me down!

3. What’s your guilty pleasure to read, watch or listen to?

There are three very different films I return to endlessly! Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), with the extraordinary music of Michael Nyman; Don Giovanni (1979), the French-Italian film directed by Joseph Losey and an adaptation of Mozart’s classic 1787 opera. It is a treat for both the visual and auditory senses! And Topsy-Turvy (1999), Mike Leigh’s story of how the complicated partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan produced the Mikado. The acting is superb and the end is very poignant.

4. What’s one piece of interesting advice you can give us that you’ve learnt from your subjects?

That science always takes you in unexpected and fascinating directions, and that you have to be open to these surprises. There is a lot of dogma in science and it is critical to always challenge and question “received wisdom” if you want to make a difference.