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HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMBRIDGE

How do you throw a birthday party for a character who lives mostly in her head, who has done much to create the modern world, yet is 800 years old? Since 1209, Cambridge has been the shy, boffiny sister of that good-time girl Oxford. If Cambridge was never outgoing, maybe it’s because there was nowhere to go out to. Until the hi-tech boom, the city was poor, with a dire lack of restaurants. It is rich, though, in choirs and Nobel prizes. Put it down to the weather, which is perfect for studying. The Cavendish laboratory alone has given us the electron, the neutron, the structure of DNA and the first controlled nuclear disintegration induced by accelerated high-energy particles, which also describes the hair-style of many a local mathematician.

Throughout 2009, some remarkable minds will be open to the public. The ADC Theatre’s variety day (scheduled for March) features Peter Hall, Trevor Nunn, Clive James, Rachel Weisz, John Cleese and Tilda Swinton, all alumni. Cantat 800 (in April) has the most heavenly choirs in the solar system, which you can check out via the UK Space Challenge. The Darwin festival in July stars Sir David Attenborough, who is living proof that the evolution of man is not just a theory. ~ ALLISON PEARSON