The College Scholars were treated to a lecture given by our own Dr Knowles who guided students and staff through a range of ideas linking mathematical concepts and literary texts. Referring to writers such as T. S. Eliot, Dr Knowles explored ideas about mystical numbers, the theory of relativity and the nature of time. Concluding with a detailed analysis of Tom Stoppard’s ‘Arcadia’, Dr Knowles left his audience mesmerised, speculating about the unpredictable and the predetermined and eager to experience a performance of the play itself. He really opened the door to a ‘brave new world’, linking mathematics and literature and emphasising, like Stoppard, that ‘It’s wanting to know that makes us matter’.