• 28/05/2026 6:30 pm
• £15 (general admission) and £10 (concession)
• UEA Lecture Theatre 1

Join us for a very special event with actor, comedian, writer and presenter Sir Michael Palin who has written and starred in numerous TV programmes and films, from Monty Python and Ripping Yarns to The Missionary and The Death of Stalin. He has also made several much-acclaimed travel documentaries, his journeys taking him to the North and South Poles, the Sahara Desert, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe and Brazil.

The prolific travel writer and documentarian, Sir Michael will be in-conversation with Arts Editor Nina Nannar at UEA to discuss his new book and TV series Michael Palin in Nigeria.

With his 80th birthday looming, it crossed Michael Palin’s mind that now might be the time to hang up his boots, to lounge about at home, to take things easy. Then the opportunity to visit Africa’s most populous nation arose. A few weeks later, he was at Lagos airport, camera crew in tow.

The journal he kept during his trip offers a kaleidoscopic view of a country where some 500 languages are spoken and which contains, within its borders, everything from tropical rainforests to grasslands to desert plains. At one moment he is in vibrant but chaotic Lagos, the next in the deserted streets of Nigeria’s hyper-modern capital, Abuja. He is welcomed as an honoured guest by a powerful emir and harangued by a passerby in Benin City. He hears the testimony of a kidnap victim of the terrorist group Boko Haram and experiences the spiritual ecstasy of one of Nigeria’s mega churches. Throughout the trip, he experiences at first hand the contradictions of a country that has so much natural wealth and human talent, yet grapples with corruption, religious strife and deep inequality.

Illustrated with colour photographs and brimming with wry humour and fascinating insights, this is a varied portrait of a complex country.

Michael will be aiming to sign a number of books post event. 

This event is in partnership with the University of East Anglia.

Ticket link: SOLD OUT

The event will be followed by a book signing with Bookbugs and Dragon Tales.