Benny Higgins: A Life in Reading

At fifteen, growing up football-mad on a Glasgow housing scheme, Benny Higgins received a letter from his grandfather — a Clydeside docker — with a list of books he wanted Higgins to read.

It changed everything.

The former chair of the National Galleries of Scotland, whose remarkable career has spanned finance, culture, and public life, reflects on how reading and the arts shaped his path, and why culture remains essential to who we are.

Chaired by Amina Shah.