New College Festival - Lamorna Ash

Lamorna Ash is speaking at Martin Hall on Saturday 7 November, as part of the New College Festival of Books and Belief. The session runs from 7pm to 8pm, and it's built around her book Don't Forget We're Here Forever: A New Generation's Search for Religion (Bloomsbury, 2025), which asks why so many young people, facing an age of uncertainty, are turning to faith.

Ash didn't start from a place of deep religious knowledge; she grew up with only a smattering of Christianity and began her journey after writing about two friends' unexpected conversions. From there she stumbled upon a recurring phenomenon: in an age of disconnection and apathy, a new generation is discovering, wrestling with, and reshaping religion for itself. The book follows that thread, and the talk draws on the same ground.

Much of the material comes from Ash's own time spent inside different traditions. She describes Evangelical youth festivals, Quaker meetings, a silent Jesuit retreat along the Welsh coastline, and a monastic community in the Inner Hebrides. Through those experiences and interviews with others, she looks at what drives young people in the twenty-first century to embrace Christianity. It's a personal account as much as a wider observation, and the talk will follow that same line.

The session is part of the New College Festival of Books and Belief, run by the School of Divinity. Martin Hall is a historic venue known for its architecture and educational atmosphere, and it's located at New College, School of Divinity, Mound Place, Edinburgh EH1 2LX. Tickets are £8.00 to £12.00, and the talk runs from 7pm to 8pm on Saturday 7 November.