Edge Hill Chancellor at BBC Free Thinking event

Edge Hill University's Chancellor Professor Tanya Byron will open this year's BBC Free Thinking festival on Friday 23 October.

Professor Byron is the first speaker at the festival broadcast each year on BBC Radio 3, where she will lay out her vision for the challenging future for the family in 21st Century Britain.

She will speak alongside David Miliband, Lionel Shriver, Dan Cruickshank and Ken Livingstone who all join a weekend of talks, debate, conversation, film and performance at The Sage Centre in Gateshead around the theme of ‘The 21^st Century Family'.

Professor Byron is one of the UK's best known clinical psychologists and an experienced broadcaster, working previously with the BBC on programmes such as Little Angels and House of Tiny Tearaways. She is also a government advisor, publishing a report into the safety of UK children using the internet.

Listen to her opening talk on BBC3 this Friday, 23 October at 9:15pm.