Saturday 24 January 2026 10.00-17.00, with a lunch break 13.00-14.00 £45 or £40 for Members and Concessions Tutor: Peter Krämer ([email protected]) Sometimes the greatest storytellers are hidden in the shadows. For many people the name Alex Garland only brings to mind the title of his first novel, the exotic travel adventure The Beach (published in 1996, with a film adaptation coming out in 2000). They may not realise that, as a screenwriter and director, Garland has been behind some of the key films of recent decades. He wrote the script for Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) which kicked off the recent avalanche of zombie apocalypse movies and series. He masterfully adapted Kazuo Ishiguro’s heart-breaking 2005 alternative history/SF novel Never Let Me Go (2010, dir. Mark Romanek). As a writer-director he made what many regard as one of the best AI movies of all time: Ex Machina (2014). He directed his own, very loose and visually dazzling adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 cryptic alien encounter novel Annihilation (2018). And he made the folk horror drama Men (2022) which culminates in what is perhaps the most amazing birthing scene ever put on film. Taking the January 2026 release of the third 28 Days Later sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which was once again scripted by Garland, as a point of departure, this day school explores all aspects of his work: his three novels; his many scripts for films, video games and a TV series (the mind-blowing tech thriller Devs [2020]); his – in the case of Dredd (2012) uncredited – work as a director and also as a producer. The focus will be on the origins of Garland’s work in literature and popular culture; on his fascination with both body horror and intellectual challenges; and on his recent turn away from largely female-centred stories (from Never Let Me Go to Civil War [2024]) towards male-centred war and action movies (Warfare [2025] and two 28 Years Later movies [2025/26]) (cp. my blog post https://wfthn.com/2025/06/27/from-the-beach-to-28-years-later-women-in-alex-garlands-stories/). About the tutor: Peter Krämer is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Media, Language and Communication Studies at the University of East Anglia. He is a regular guest lecturer at several other universities in the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic, has written or edited twelve academic books and has also co-authored an illustrated volume about American film for children. He has been involved in adult education for more than thirty-five years. Programmed in partnership with the Sir John Hurt Film Trust. Image credit: Men, Alex Garland, 2022, © 2022 DNA Films & A24.