In association with Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Garas) and Yellow Lighted Bookshop
Refugee rights campaigner Lord Dubs (who came to the UK in 1939 on the Kindertransport) talks to author Horatio Clare about what he learned while researching his new book on the small boats crisis.
Fuelled by a one-dimensional story designed to stoke anger and division, migration has become one of the most divisive topics in British politics. It is time for a new conversation.
Labour peer and former MP, Lord Dubs has been a life-long campaigner for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, having himself arrived into the UK in 1939, aged six, on the Kindertransport. One of the most active members of the House of Lords, he tabled the ‘Dubs Amendment’ to the 2016 Immigration Act to protect the rights of unaccompanied minors. Now, aged 92, he continues to be a committed exponent of the idea that politics can be a force for good. You can hear his June 2025 appearance on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs here.
In his superb new book, We Came By Sea, bestselling writer and journalist Horatio Clare explores the small boats crisis in the English Channel. What he found from interviewing lifeboat crews, boarder officers, security guards and volunteers, was not the story we have been told, but the story of one of the great search and rescue operations ever mounted. Horatio believes it is a story that reveals a Britain that is as great and as good as the people in the dinghies believe it to be.
Their conversation will be facilitated by Warren Lee, Director of Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS).
Advance tickets £12.50. They will cost £14 on the door on the night
Copies of We Came by Sea and other titles by Horatio Clare available to purchase at 10% discount on the retail price.
Licensed bar. Doors open at 6:15pm. Talk starts at 7:00pm.
About GARAS
GARAS (garas.org) has been operating for 26 years. They have an Advice Team (who work with those on the asylum seeker journey to refugee status), a Resettlement Team (working with families who arrive on the UK Resettlement Scheme or the Afghan Resettlement Schemes), a Ukrainian Team (who work with Ukrainians who have come to live in Gloucestershire as a result of the Russian invasion of their country), and a Therapy Team (of around 10 therapists who offer a variety of counselling).
Yellow-lighted Bookshop is a local independent bookshop and a regular partner on events at the Goods Shed, including the Tetbury Book Festival. Their small-but-beautiful shops in Tetbury and Nailsworth are always worth a visit.