Ada Lovelace – mother of the Computer Program(me)

Ada Lovelace is a fascinating character, a visionary scientist trying to make a name for herself in patriarchal Victorian Britain, but add into the mix the toxic relationship between her infamous father, Lord Byron, and her staid, and yet equally impressive mother, Lady Byron, plus the eccentric personality of Mr. Charles Babbage and his ever growing and never to be finished Engines, and you have all the ingredients you need for a great story and a very long sentence.

Ada’s story offers up rabbit holes galore – Babbage’s relentless campaign against London organ grinders, the whereabouts of his brain (in two separate locations), unemployed hairdressers in post-revolutionary France working as human computers, a roller-blading inventor with the name of a wizard who created some of most ingenious automata of his time, including the Silver Swan at The Bowes Museum, as well as Luddites and laudanum.

Angela Hill is an honors graduate in History and Social Anthropology from Stirling University and lives and works in Madrid. She will be reading from her new book; Ada Lovelace, and discussing how the DELTA readers support learning English & more.

Drinks and snacks will be served.