Fireside Chat with Katie Prescott
Author of The Curious Case of Mike Lynch and the Times Technology Business Editor
Thursday 20th November at 18.30 | The Drawing Room and Zoom | £15.00 per person*
*Includes one glass Prosecco
*£10.00 for those joining via Zoom
Mike Lynch, Britain’s Bill Gates who died tragically in a boating accident having prevailed at long odds over the US judicial system to avoid spending the rest of his life in prison, is a story that almost defies telling. That is even without his business associate who also faced charges in a US court, dying within 24 hours of the Lynch family yacht, The Bayesian, sinking in a storm on the coast of Sicily.
Katie Prescott, The Times Technology Business Editor who kindly joins members for what will be the last Fireside Chat of 2025, was drawn to what by any measure is curious. On the back of her instinct for narrative she has written a biography with the very word in her title. The book was actually commissioned before Lynch’s death, which is illustrative that his life was already a fascinating arc even without his tragic demise.
By the Drawing Room fireside (and the Coffee Room supper table afterwards), Katie will share the rare insight she has gleaned about Lynch in working on this book, due to be published the week after this conversation. She will also share her thoughts on the world of technology in general (and what Lynch’s place was and would have been going forward in it). Moreover, she will have thoughts on how Britain might position herself to profit, in the broadest possible sense, from AI without allowing the power of that to overwhelm day to day life.
As always the Fireside Chat offers you the chance to be sitting comfortably in the Drawing Room for an hour of conversation. Then a select number of those attending who are keen to delve further into the matter can join the guest, in this case Katie, at a Coffee Room supper table for a more in-depth, less formal chat, complementing the Drawing Room dialogue. So book early as always, for the Fireside alone or including supper afterwards.