Up until the early 19th century, Russian painting consisted almost entirely of academic styles and subject matter dominated by the west, Paris in particular. Artists such as Alexey Venetsianov, encouraged by Czar Nicholas I’s promotion of ‘national trends’ began to change the focus towards more home grown themes, such as the status of the Russian peasant. Already by mid century the class system and village structure, dominated by landowner and the orthodox church was under more critical scrutiny, led by artists such as Vasily Perov, but it wasn’t until the pioneering work of the group known as 'The Wanderers' that Russian society was put more fully under the microscope. By then the serfs had been liberated, in many cases ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of their new found freedom, as were their masters who suddenly found themselves with vast estates and a much reduced workforce. This lecture reveals the fascinating insight into this moving story afforded by the paintings of more than a dozen superb artists, yet whose work is still relatively unknown in the West.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

A senior modern languages teacher in an independent grammar school for many years, Brian Healey has also enjoyed a successful parallel career since the 1980s as a professional artist and interior designer. Since 2006 he has been regularly appointed by a number of prestigious ocean and river cruise lines, either as resident artist, guest lecturer on art history or as destination speaker, for more than forty countries. Most recently this work has successfully extended to art guiding through important towns and museums in France, Belgium, Holland and Spain.

Between 1750 and 1850 one of Britain’s most successful exports was the Georgian House. It was elegant and versatile, particularly suitable for hot climates and a wide variety of building materials. British or local architects might provide plans but a carpenter or bricklayer equipped with a pattern book could produce a satisfactory product. In this lecture we travel from England across the Irish Sea and then across the Atlantic to the American Colonies. We go on to the far side of the world, looking at Georgian buildings in Australia and New Zealand before heading for home with a brief stop in Cape Town. The whole journey can be achieved in a one hour lecture or in a slightly less hectic day of special interest.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Roger Mitchell studied History at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel and study in USA. He is a former College Vice-Principal who now lectures for University of Liverpool and for Adult Residential Colleges. Roger organises and leads country house study tours, and tries to find time to do research on British and American Country Houses.

One of the world’s most popular athletic events commemorates Pheidippides’s epic run from the battlefield of Marathon to his native Athens. Apart from the amazing courage of Pheidippides, why remember a battle that took place over two and a half thousand years ago? Since the 19th century, historians have argued that it was a crucial event, one that had decided ‘the whole future of human civilisation’. As John Stuart Mill put it, ‘the Battle of Marathon, even as an event in English history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings’. Rupert re-creates the background and the battle itself in thrilling detail. He looks at the various ways in which ancient Athens has influenced our art and culture, and argues that Marathon was, indeed, the battle that saved ‘Western Civilisation’. Eye-opening, edge-of-your-seat stuff.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

A prize-winning historian who specialises in the domestic and social life of the past. A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London, Rupert Willoughby is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, of guides to castles owned by English Heritage and Hampshire County Council, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village and Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. He contributes regular obituaries to The Times and The Daily Telegraph, writes privately-commissioned histories of houses, and is an experienced lecturer - and occasional broadcaster - on a broad range of topics, with a particular interest in architecture, interior decoration and costume.

Graphic Icons of the Twentieth Century - This lecture is one in a series of lectures by retired graphic designer Howard Smith.  All are possibly in living memory or near living memory. Today's lecture is an in depth fully researched exploration of extraordinary creativity, sometimes in unbelievable circumstances. Because subjects are recent, there is a wealth of actual information to support the stories, which are both nostalgic and entertaining. The lecture will be lavishly illustrated and contain vintage film clips.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:-  info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International Advertising Agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury. His website on http://www.howardsmith.me.uk has full details. He was delighted to gain accreditation as an Arts Society lecturer in 2017.

So many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art. Not only can these windows into the past show us what the instruments looked like but also the social context in which they would have been played. Music and different instruments also play a strong role within symbolism in art. Sophie explores the instruments in selected works and then gives live demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact:- info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Sophie is a musician well-known for her prowess on the English border bagpipes and has become one of the foremost players of the instrument in the UK. She also plays a variety of early woodwind instruments such as shawm, rauschpfeife, crumhorm and recorder. She’s also one of a handful of British players of the baroque musette, an 18th century French bagpipe similar to the Northumbrian smallpipes.

When not touring with Green Matthews, Sophie also makes instruments (she made her own baroque oboe) and works with respected luthier Tony Millyard on his flutes. Sophie is self-taught on all of her instruments

STOP  PRESS .....

This lecture will now be transmitted by Zoom only, with a recording available until midnight on Wednesday 19 January.

If you would like to try a free taster session, please contact: info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

In 1932 the artist Edward Bawden and his wife Charlotte moved into Brick House, in the Essex village of Great Bardfield, initially sharing the house with another artistic couple, Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood. It was to be the beginning of a fascinating artistic community.

In the years before and during the Second World War painters, printmakers and designers settled in the village, relishing the peace while remaining within easy reach of London.  While Bawden and Ravilious saw active service as War Artists (Ravilious dying in 1942), other artists captured the soon-to-change world of rural England through the Recording Britain project.

By the mid-1950s a diverse, innovative but highly creative group had made Bardfield their home – much to the bemusement of the local villagers, who found the complex relationships and artistic focus of the newcomers rather baffling. In 1954 the artists invited the public into their homes and studios to see their work, starting the increasingly popular ‘Open Studios’ movement that now covers the country, and persuading some of their neighbours that artists could be quite normal people after all!

At the age of five Jo decided to become an archaeologist – but later changed her mind when she discovered how cold and wet it could be digging in the rain.

Luckily her parents loved visiting interesting places, so her childhood love of history was enthusiastically (and much more comfortably) encouraged with frequent trips to art galleries and museums. When Jo first had the chance to study art history, as a sixth former, she found that she was meeting paintings and sculptures that were already old friends – and continued to be intensely curious about art and its histories.

Reading art history at Leicester University, Jo went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Oxford, specialising in the art and architecture of fifteenth century Italy. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore one of the most vibrant and exciting periods in history – and to do so surrounded by the marvellous collections of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

A job in a bookshop turned into a happy and successful twenty-year career in the book trade, eventually running a specialist art bookshop in London, and working with the auctioneers, Christies. Jo also taught art history at adult education classes and, for twelve years, was a volunteer guide for Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Much of Jo's work now is with The Art Society (NADFAS), but she also lectures for The Art Fund and for local art groups and societies. 

Jo really enjoys lecturing and introducing audiences to the periods, places and artworks that she loves. She says that travelling for The Art Society has introduced her to many areas of Britain that she didn’t know, and given her the chance to meet fascinating people and learn so much from their experiences and their responses to her talks.

‘The utmost fulfilment of Leonardo the scientist is seen in his artistic creations. These reveal the most amazing  and inseparable affinity of his scientific and artistic concepts’  - Ludwig Heidenreich 1958. Leonardo would say nature must be his guide and that art was based on a scientific understanding of everything depicted. He used his powers of draughtsmanship and astute sense of observation in his scientific drawings making an incredible contribution to our early understanding of anatomy, aeronautics, warfare, cartography and water engineering to name but a few. It would take centuries of science and technology to catch up with his thoughts. This talk follows Leonardo’s pursuit of these investigations whether they be on his own initiative, his pursuit of remunerative employment or in response to a particular set of circumstances in his life.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Guy Rooker comes to The Arts Society not with a background in the arts but from the world of science in general, and surgery in particular. He describes himself as a retired surgeon with a lifelong passion, fascination, and admiration for the work of Leonardo da Vinci.  Guy considers that the contribution he has made to both the world of art and the investigation of scientific concepts to be quite unique and extraordinary in the way that so many of his pioneering investigations have contributed to the understanding of our world today.

In 1888 Gertrude Jekyll wrote a short but seminal article in The Garden in which she urged the readers to “remember that in a garden we are painting a picture”. As an accomplished watercolour artist, Miss Jekyll was familiar with the principles of using colours, but she felt that in gardens these principles “had been greatly neglected”. This talk looks at how to apply these principles in designing a border, but it also looks at the ways in which a border is different from a painting. However, it goes further than this and looks at how contemporary work of the likes of Turner, Monet, Rothko, Jackson Pollack, and Hockney evolved in parallel with ideas about what a garden or border should look like.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Since 1986 Timothy Walker has given 1,500 public lectures. This was originally part of his work as director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden from 1988 to 2014. Botanic gardens are often described as living museums, and garden curators lecture about them in the same way as museum curators talk about their collections. Since 2014 Timothy has been a college lecturer and tutor at Somerville College, Oxford.  Gardens are often thought of as a place where science and art meet on equal terms. This lecture investigates this relationship.

For many years Scottish artists found it necessary to travel south to make their names and careers in art, but with the increasing importance of the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow from the end of the 18th Century, an independent Scottish art scene became possible. These developments will be traced through individuals such as Sir Henry Raeburn, the first artist to find success whilst remaining in his native Scotland, and Sir David Wilkie, important as one of the first to truly export Scottish art. This lecture will also look at the parallels between Scottish and other European art, as well as periods of divergence, touching on art movements such as the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists. 

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Rosalind has a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. She also lectures at the Tate and Dulwich Picture Galleries, to independent art societies and on cruises. In addition, Rosalind leads art appreciation holidays.

Alchemy & Adventure: A History of Exotic Colours and Poisonous Pigments

It easy to take colour for granted in our man-made world, but before organic chemistry, the most desirable pigments were often rare, exotic or poisonous.

Merchants supplied cochineal ‘grana’ from the holds of Spanish galleons, pungent golden nuggets from India and lapis rock carried by camel train from the mountains of Badakhshan. Alchemists prepared deadly King’s Yellow, mysterious Vitriol of Venus and Moorish Gold concocted from basilisk powder and human blood.  Small wonder artists kept their paint recipes closely guarded in Books of Secrets.

This lecture tells the stories of alchemy and adventure behind some our most beautiful and colourful paintings.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Lynne Gibson now works as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, Critical and Contextual Studies, as well as in practical Drawing, Painting and Printmaking. For many years Lynne lectured for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme and residential summer schools. She gives talks, lectures and guided tours to a wide range of organisations and institutions including ARCA colleges, the National Trust, National Gallery, art museums and art societies. Also, when time permits, she works as a professional artist specializing in oil painting and etching. Solo and group shows have included the RWA, British Museum and the Barbican.

Tite Street was one of the most influential artistic quarters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Throughout its turbulent history, it was home to innumerable artists, writers, suffragettes and madmen.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11:00. 

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes is an experienced guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern and lectures at various art societies and institutions. She has a special interest in British and European art of the late 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Having gained an MA in film and television practice, Jennifer had a long-standing career spanning twenty years as a television producer/director making documentaries and factual programmes for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. She was also a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths College and Birkbeck, University of London and a senior lecturer at Southampton Solent University in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society.

What skills did it take for a woman to become a painter in 17th c Europe? Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654) was by no means the only woman painter of her period, but she was a rarity, and ranks amongst the greatest painters of the 17th century. Her career spanned a time of great change in Italian taste, from the power and earthiness of Caravaggio, to the more elegant classicism of Reni and Domenichino. Her family connections meant that she moved between a number of different centres in Europe - Rome, Florence, Naples and London, and her work reflects the different tastes of these centres. 

This lecture considers her training in the very male world of the roman studio, and explores her skills in painting in a style which is both individual but which also put her in the forefront wherever in Europe she found herself working.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe has an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh and a PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, Chantal has taught at Sotheby's Institute of Art on the MA in Fine and Decorative Arts since 1989 and as a freelance lecturer for a number of societies in London, Italy and America. Having also trained as a paintings conservator, she brings an understanding of the making and the physical painting to her lectures.

Wine merchants, poisoners, mine owners and creators of afternoon tea - the colourful history of one of England’s oldest aristocratic families and the fascinating art that surrounds them.  The story of the Russell family from the 15th to the 20th century.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Geri is a former Fleet Street journalist and film PR. She has a first-class honours degree in History and Theology, a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology doctorate from Roehampton University in London. She has been lecturing for the past 14 years both in the UK and internationally. She is also principal lecturer on The Arts Society South West Area’s History of Art course and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Roehampton University.

For those who have read about, or seen and enjoyed the recent film The Dig about Sutton Hoo with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan will be able to understand the real facts behind the dig and the Anglo-Saxon treasures that were unearthed. 

In his talk, William Forrester will cover:

• The setting and topography of the burial ground.
• 1938: Basil Brown opens three mounds for the land owner, Mrs. Pretty.
• The discovery, the 1939 dig and its ship.
• The British Museum returns, the 1965 dig and results.
• The investigations of 1983-92 by Martin Carver the new discoveries including the sandmen and the Prince’s Grave.
• Considering the finds in detail including the shield, sceptre, lyre, silverware, sword, coins, stupendous jewellery and, of course, iconic helmet from Mound 1.
• The dig of 2000 reveals a new Anglo-Saxon cemetery.
• The National Trust Visitors Centre and its opening in 2002 by Seamus Heaney.
• The parallels to the Staffordshire Hoard and the Prittlewell burial.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

William Forrester

MA from Oxford University, a Diploma in Art History (with distinction) and is a qualified teacher (PGCE from Reading University). Lectured for the National Portrait Gallery (where he worked in the Education Department), the British Museum, the National Gallery and the National Trust. Organised and led study and orientation programmes for the Universities of New York, Illinois and New Jersey (Rutgers. An Adult Education tutor for the Universities of Surrey and Warwick. Publications include The Collins Guide to the Lake District and Access in London (latest edition 2014) and he is a contributor to The Time Out Book of London Walks and Time Out's Open London (2012). Wrote and presented programmes for Central TV, Thames TV and BBC Radio 4. Blue Badge Guide/Lecturer for London and Cumbria, particular expertise in guiding at the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral and the British Museum. Awards from the Lord Mayor of London, the Evening Standard and the British Tourist Authority for his work and was made Man of the Year in 1990 and Guide/Lecturer of the year in the inaugural year of the award, sponsored by the British Museum.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, born in December 1770, Sandy guides us through the life and work of this brilliant, cantankerous, visionary and astonishingly original composer, a man who tore up the rule book of classical music. Visual illustrations include a selection of contemporary portraits, while musical examples are drawnfrom his genre-busting piano sonatas, quartets and symphonies, and from the revolutionary opera Fidelio. We’re talking about much more than just a musician here – Beethoven was a true Romantic artist, or as he preferred to describe himself, a “poet in sound”.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to 'try us out', free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Sandy is one of the UK’s most authoritative broadcasters in the field of classical music. His varied career has seen him as author, bassist, conductor, broadcaster and presenter, sharing his passion for music.

After studying music at St Catharine’s College in Cambridge, Sandy worked as music director for the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and in London’s West End.  Following this, Sandy became a regular presenter on BBC Radio 3, where he stayed for more than a decade. His 26-part radio series for Irish radio station RTÉ Lyric FM: Great Moments in Classical Music, won silver in the Specialist Music category of the PPI Radio Awards.

When he is not on our airwaves, Sandy is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music and presenter of a related online course covering a thousand years of classical music from the medieval to modern eras. He also devises and leads cultural lecture holidays across Europe to flagship events such as the Leipzig Bachfest and the Sibelius Festival in Finland.

The Borgias - a family which dominated the Papacy and Italian politics in the last decades of the 15th century.  In an age of brutality and church corruption were they really so bad by the standards of the time?

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

If you would like to try us out, free of charge, please contact: 

info@theartssocietysudbury.org.uk

Novelist, broadcaster and critic, Sarah read history at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2), and Night Waves (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen novels, taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis, is a visiting tutor on the MA in creative writing at Oxford Brooks and has lectured around the world at festivals and conferences.

BONUS  CHRISTMAS  LECTURE

Launched 100 years ago, Rupert has had three official artists and this is the story of each of them and their creativity that has made Rupert the longest standing strip, thrilling generations with his adventures.

In addition, Howard Smith has written a book on the same subject.  A committee member has a copy and highly recommends it, as it brought back so many happy memories from the 1950s of the Rupert Annual in his Christmas stocking.  The price is £15 (inclusive of p&p) and you can order it through Howard’s website:  www.howardsmith.me.uk.

This lecture will be delivered via YouTube, starting at 11 a.m.  Invitations will be sent to members.

Howard Smith

Born during the Second World War, Howard was educated in Scotland and gained an MA from Trinity College, Dublin. In the 1960s he worked for UK and International Advertising Agencies before starting his own marketing and print company in Canterbury. He was delighted to become an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society in 2017.

In Northern Europe landscape painting has a powerful hold on our visual culture, especially in Scandinavia where far northerly folk have found a kinship with nature to be indispensable. This relationship is powerfully expressed in paintings of snow and sun, rock and forest, mountain and fjord and helped confirm their difference from Mediterranean culture and to shape national identity.

This lecture is an introductory survey of Scandinavian art; a little known treasure trove of stunning images of the Northern landscape and the country people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

Tim’s involvement in art began with the practical; for a number of years he was a professional painter/ ceramicist in Scotland and Wales, before returning to university to study literature and the history of art, then training to teach adults.

For the last 30 years Tim has been a freelance cultural/art historian, specialising in 17th and 19th century art and society. Tim has recently completed a second lecture tour of Australia.

Tim now lectures for Cambridge University, the WEA, The Arts Society and The Art Fund, and presents residential study courses in Britain and Europe.

Many of Dickens' characters - Mr Micawber, Fagin, Abel Magwitch - remain with us long after the books are put down.  The talk is interspersed with readings from his works: a truly Dickensian experience.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

Bertie Pearce has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, Bertie has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. He has written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

The gripping and sometimes hilarious story of how a band of heroic curators and eccentric custodians saved Britain's national heritage in a race against time in 1939.

This lecture will be delivered via Zoom, starting at 11 a.m.

Dr Caroline Shenton is an archivist and historian. She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives in London, and before that was a senior archivist at the National Archives. Her first popular history book: The Day Parliament Burned Down, won the Political Book of the Year Award in 2013 and Mary Beard called it ‘micro history at its absolute best’ while Dan Jones considered it ‘glorious’. Its highly-acclaimed sequel, Mr Barry's War, about the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster, was a Book of the Year in 2016 for The Daily Telegraph and BBC History Magazine and was described by Lucy Worsley as ‘a real jewel, finely wrought and beautiful’. 

Caroline teaches Public History to postgraduates at the Centre for Archives and Information Studies at the University of Dundee, and during 2017 was a Political Writer in Residence at  Gladstone's Library.

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

For many years Scottish artists found it necessary to travel south to make their names and careers in art, but with the increasing importance of the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow from the end of the 18th Century, an independent Scottish art scene became possible. These developments will be traced through individuals such as Sir Henry Raeburn, the first artist to find success whilst remaining in his native Scotland, and Sir David Wilkie, important as one of the first to truly export Scottish art. This lecture will also look at the parallels between Scottish and other European art, as well as periods of divergence, touching on art movements such as the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists. 

Rosalind Whyte

BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. Experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. Lectures at Tate, Dulwich Picture Gallery, to independent art societies and on cruises. Leads art appreciation holidays.

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

In 1932 the artist Edward Bawden and his wife Charlotte moved into Brick House, in the Essex village of Great Bardfield, initially sharing the house with another artistic couple, Eric Ravilious and Tirzah Garwood. It was to be the beginning of a fascinating artistic community.

In the years before and during the Second World War painters, printmakers and designers settled in the village, relishing the peace while remaining within easy reach of London.  While Bawden and Ravilious saw active service as War Artists (Ravilious dying in 1942), other artists captured the soon-to-change world of rural England through the Recording Britain project.

By the mid-1950s a diverse, innovative but highly creative group had made Bardfield their home – much to the bemusement of the local villagers, who found the complex relationships and artistic focus of the newcomers rather baffling. In 1954 the artists invited the public into their homes and studios to see their work, starting the increasingly popular ‘Open Studios’ movement that now covers the country, and persuading some of their neighbours that artists could be quite normal people after all!

Jo Walton

At the age of five I decided to become an archaeologist – but later changed my mind when I discovered how cold and wet it could be digging in the rain.

Luckily my parents loved visiting interesting places, so my childhood love of history was enthusiastically (and much more comfortably) encouraged with frequent trips to art galleries and museums. When I first had the chance to study art history, as a sixth former, I found that I was meeting paintings and sculptures that were already old friends – and I’ve continued to be intensely curious about art and its histories ever since.

I read art history at Leicester University, then went on to do a post-graduate diploma in Oxford, specialising in the art and architecture of fifteenth century Italy. This was a wonderful opportunity to explore one of the most vibrant and exciting periods in history – and to do so surrounded by the marvellous collections of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.

A job in a bookshop turned into a happy and successful twenty-year career in the book trade, eventually running a specialist art bookshop in London, and working with the auctioneers, Christies. I also thoroughly enjoyed teaching adult education classes in art history and, for twelve years, I was a volunteer guide for Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Much of my work now is with The Art Society (NADFAS), but I also lecture for The Art Fund and for local art groups and societies. Some years ago I lectured on several P&O cruise liners, discovering, rather to my surprise, that I loved being at sea in very large ships.

I really enjoy lecturing and introducing audiences to the periods, places and artworks that I love. Travelling for The Art Society has introduced me to many areas of Britain that I didn’t know, and it’s also given me the chance to meet fascinating people and learn so much from their experiences and their responses to my talks.

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

One of the world’s most popular athletic events commemorates Pheidippides’s epic run from the battlefield of Marathon to his native Athens. Apart from the amazing courage of Pheidippides, why remember a battle that took place over two and a half thousand years ago? Since the 19th century, historians have argued that it was a crucial event, one that had decided ‘the whole future of human civilisation’. As John Stuart Mill put it, ‘the Battle of Marathon, even as an event in English history, is more important than the Battle of Hastings’. Rupert re-creates the background and the battle itself in thrilling detail. He looks at the various ways in which ancient Athens has influenced our art and culture, and argues that Marathon was, indeed, the battle that saved ‘Western Civilisation’. Eye-opening, edge-of-your-seat stuff.

Rupert Willoughby

A prize-winning historian who specialises in the domestic and social life of the past. A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London, he is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, of guides to castles owned by English Heritage and Hampshire County Council, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village and Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. He contributes regular obituaries to The Times and The Daily Telegraph, writes privately-commissioned histories of houses, and is an experienced lecturer - and occasional broadcaster - on a broad range of topics, with a particular interest in architecture, interior decoration and costume.

PLEASE NOTE:  THIS LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Between 1750 and 1850 one of Britain’s most successful exports was the Georgian House. It was elegant and versatile, particularly suitable for hot climates and a wide variety of building materials. British or local architects might provide plans but a carpenter of bricklayer equipped with a pattern book could produce a satisfactory product. In this lecture we travel from England across the Irish Sea and then across the Atlantic to the American Colonies. We go on to the far side of the world, looking at Georgian buildings in Australia and New Zealand before heading for home with a brief stop in Cape Town. 

Roger Mitchell

Studied History at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds. Awarded Churchill Fellowship to travel and study in USA. Former College Vice-Principal who now lectures for University of Liverpool and for Adult Residential Colleges. Organises and leads country house study tours, and tries to find time to do research on British and American Country Houses.

In this talk Andrew shows that with the turbulent political times between 1870 and 1929 culminating with final collapse of the European and Russian Monarchies, countless astonishing art and jewel collections were dispersed looted or sold.

Fortunately this coincided with the growing wealth and power of America’s millionaires, who were themselves intent on creating palaces of their own, filling them with the greatest paintings and furniture and weighing down their wives and providing their daughters with a dowry of the finest of royal jewels.

Andrew explains how many of these fabulously wealthy heiresses married into the British Aristocracy, bringing many of the treasures with them, and how with the decline of the British Empire and Aristocratic power these legendary jewels have again been parted with and now can be seen in the world's great museums, for all to enjoy.

Andrew Prince

Andrew has had a passion for jewellery since he was a small child. In fact his enthusiasm can be traced back to the time when, at the age of three, he swallowed his one of his mother’s pearl earrings having found her jewel box hidden from him in a cupboard. The very first piece of jewellery he created was a ring made of copper wire pulled from the back of a television. He presented it to his grandmother (it turned her finger green and gave her a rash). He then created a necklace for his mother using beads taken off her wedding dress (she was not at all happy).

In 1980, when he was nine, Andrew's mother took him to the Princely Magnificence exhibition at the V&A, exhibiting Renaissance jewels dating from 1500 to 1630. It proved a revelation. Dazzled by the splendour and opulence of the jewels on show, Andrew decided then and there that creating jewellery was what he wanted to devote his life to. His passion for jewellery grew when, in 1984 on his first ever visit to Bond Street, Andrew viewed an exhibition by Castellani and Giulianoe at Wartski & Co’s. While there, he was allowed to handle beautiful 18th century gold boxes and magnificent imperial Russian pieces by Fabergé. In 1987, just before leaving school, he took time off to visit Geneva to view the astonishing Sotheby’s auction of the Duchess of Windsor's jewellery collection. Here, for the first time, he held pieces created by some of the world's greatest jewellers, fashioned from only the finest of stones and set in designs of outstanding quality. For the young Andrew, it was a life-changing experience.

In August of that year, two weeks after his 16th birthday, Andrew started work in London’s Bond Street, working for The Antiques Roadshow expert Ian Harris. Under his guidance, Andrew developed an appreciation for jewels that were valued for their quality of design and craftsmanship, rather than for how much the stones in the piece were worth. He then joined the renowned contemporary jeweller Elizabeth Gage and worked with her on the design and production side. Through her and her private collection, Andrew was able to see and handle rare and extraordinary stones with names such as Sphene, Andalusite, Spinel and Dioptase, many of which are far rarer than diamonds. Elizabeth Gage was to have an enormous influence on Andrew's sense of what was possible within the realm of jewellery design.

Andrew's taste for fine 'costume jewellery' can be traced back to an antique market, where he came across a late Victorian brooch set with what he initially thought were emeralds and diamonds. They were, in fact, crystal and green glass set in silver and gold. He realised that beautiful jewellery didn't require expensive stones, and that it was the elegance of the design and the quality of the workmanship that truly mattered. Private commissions then started to trickle in. The trickle turned into a flood, as celebrities such as Michael Jackson (a large crystal and pearl shoulder jewel) and Shirley Bassey (necklaces) were seen wearing Andrew's creations.

In 2002, the V&A commissioned a collection of jewels to accompany the resplendent Tiaras, Past and Present exhibition which became one of their most popular exhibits. The exposure gained by the show then led to Andrew's jewellery appearing in film.

In 2005, he was asked to make tiaras and jewellery for Mrs Henderson Presents starring Judy Dench. In 2009, pieces were commissioned for The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and Miranda Richardson. In 2012, he was chosen by the creators of Downton Abbey to supply a large collection of jewellery for the third series. The characters played by Maggie Smith, Shirley Maclaine, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery were all adorned with elegant tiaras, combs, earrings and necklaces designed and created by Andrew Prince.

The beauty of Kenneth Grahame’s prose is widely acknowledged but the story is so full of wonderful imagery that it almost demands to be illustrated. First published in 1908 without illustration, the classic tale of Ratty, Mole, and the incorrigible Mr Toad has been in print ever since. What is less well known is that it has been illustrated by more than ninety artists – making it the most widely illustrated book in the English language.

However, ‘Willows’ is a far more interesting book than its popular and often young audience might appreciate. It deserves recognition as a novel in which adult readers will find not just humour and entertainment but wisdom and meaning. In this engaging presentation we will revisit the story as depicted by numerous well known illustrators such as E H Shepard, Arthur Rackham, Robert Ingpen, Val Biro and Inga Moore. Where appropriate we will compare and contrast the same scene in the book through the eyes of different artists, a study known as ‘comparative illustration'.

We will also explore how the story came to be written for Grahame’s son Alastair and the interesting but ultimately tragic life of Kenneth Grahame.

John Ericson 

Formerly a lecturer at the University of Bath where he was Director of Studies in the School of Education with responsibility for the professional development of teachers. He has worked extensively overseas as an educational consultant and this has given him the opportunity to give lectures and presentations at conferences all over the world. In 2008 and again in 2011 he undertook extensive lecture tours of Australia and he has been a popular speaker on the NADFAS circuit for a number of years. In his professional life he has developed a particular interest in presentation skills including the role of pictures in learning and the appropriate use of PowerPoint. This coupled with his ability to relate well to people of all ages and backgrounds makes him an impressive and confident public speaker.As well as the talks he has developed from his professional background, he offers presentations on an eclectic range of topics that are derived from his diverse interestsand enthusiasms such as, Pub Signs, Children’s Book Illustrations and the Shakers of North America. All his talks, are entertaining, highly informative, very well illustrated and presented with warmth and humour

Edward Lear, eminent Victorian and friend of the Laureate, Tennyson, was an eccentric. Loved by earlier generations of children for his nonsense verse, he was an adventurous traveller who earned a reputation as a brilliant watercolourist and painter of Italy, Greece, Egypt and India. This lecture, set firmly in the context of an illustrated and fascinating biography draws on the poems, paintings and present day locations to evaluate a colourful and creative life.

Denis Moriarty

Leads cultural tours: music, English festivals, Schubertiade in Austria, Dresden, Vienna, Budapest and Prague; architecture and history, India, America, Egypt, Portugal, Malta, for private parties.

Paul Nash is best known as a painter of war. An official war artist in both the First and Second World Wars he made some of the most memorable images of conflict including ‘We are making a new world’ (1918) and ‘Totes Meer’ (1941). This lecture will include these and other war paintings. However, it will look at the other ‘wars’ that played a major part of his life and art: including the never-ending war between mankind and nature, and his own personal wars with ill-health, loss and love. While strongly connected to real events and emotions, the lecture will explain how he incorporated abstraction and surrealism into his art making. . 

Ray Warburton

Has studied art history at the Open University and the University of Buckingham. A Guide at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, who leads public tours of all the permanent displays and also undertakes exhibition tours. An experienced public speaker who has given presentations and lectures on a range of themes to diverse audiences over many years.

The first part of this lecture illustrates the mighty Persian Empire of the Great Kings such as Darius. Their palace at Persepolis has monumental architectural remains and a wealth of relief sculpture, which reveals the ethos of the empire and the symbolism of kingship. The second part traces the development through the Islamic period of the architecture of mosques and palaces, and of their brilliant decorative tilework and painting, including the splendid buildings of Shah Abbas' early 17th century Isfahan. The political and religious background includes an account of how Shi'a Islam came to take root and become the ruling creed in the late 20th century Iran of Ayatollah Khomeini. Also offered as a study day. 

John Osborne

Graduated in Classics at Cambridge University. Taught Classics at Marlborough College for over thirty years. Worked for the British Council in Iran and Turkey, and lectures in Islamic Civilisation. Tutor, Marlborough College Summer School. Lecturer, Department of Continuing Education, University of Bath. Guide at Salisbury Cathedral. Lecturer on cruises and leader of numerous study tours to Bulgaria, Romania, Iran, and Turkey and other countries in S.E. Europe and the Mediterranean. Lecture tours of Australia (twice) and New Zealand.

Dame Zaha Hadid died on March 31st 2016 at age of 65. Architectural historians of the future will surely recognise her as one of the most important architects of the early 21st century. She was born in Iraq and her reputation was global, but she made Britain her home.

This lecture tells the story of her career from the visionary projects of the 1980s, through the years of frustration when her designs were considered unbuildable, to the prolific crop of successful projects built all over the world in the last decade of her life.

Colin Davies

Colin is Professor of Architectural Theory, former editor of the Architects Journal and contributor to magazines worldwide.  His books include: Thinking About Architecture, Key Houses of the Twentieth Century, The Prefab Home, High Tech Architecture and monographs on work of Foster, Hopkins, Grimshaw.

Picture: Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan 

Thomas Moran was the greatest American landscape painter of his time. He deserves to be as well known and as highly regarded here in England, where he was born, as he is in America, where he lived and worked.

Inspired by the paintings of Turner, Moran was an explorer as well as an artist. His 30 visits to the West included the first survey of the Yellowstone in 1871 and an expedition to the Grand Canyon with John Wesley Powell in 1873. Moran’s great paintings of these natural wonders were purchased by Congress for $10,000 each and revealed for the first time, the scale, the colour and the light of these extraordinary places. He continued to travel, to paint and to champion the dramatic landscapes of the West for another half century. A remarkable life and wonderful paintings. 

Roger Mitchell

Roger studied History at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds. Awarded Churchill Fellowship to travel and study in USA. Former College Vice-Principal who now lectures for University of Liverpool and for Adult Residential Colleges. Organises and leads country house study tours, and tries to find time to do research on British and American Country Houses.

The seventeenth century was a period of great wealth in The Netherlands. It was also a time in which it became fashionable to collect precious and interesting objects from different parts of the world in ‘cabinets of curiosities and theatres of memory’, thereby illustrating the interests of the collector and his enquiring mind. To be worthy of their contents the display cabinets were often works of art in themselves, made by craftsmen using the finest woods and materials such as gold, silver, brass, tortoiseshell, ivory and precious and semi-precious stones. Inside would be a selection of drawers and miniature cupboards, maybe featuring small paintings and engraved glass.

From the mid-sixteenth century display cabinets developed as the most prestigious article a furniture maker could produce. Often using great ingenuity, craftsmen incorporated hidden features which had to be discovered by a new owner. These cabinets were mostly seen as a male preserve.      

At the same time well-to-do ladies had their own display cabinets, in the shape of dolls’ houses. These miniature households not only are important as works of art, containing objects created by the finest artists and craftsmen of the period (including carpenters, silversmiths, basket makers and glass blowers), but also provide us with an insight into everyday life at the time. Quite a number of the objects found in them no longer exist in real life size.

In this lecture we will take a detailed look at the amazing craftsmanship displayed in the cabinets, whilst learning about the life style enjoyed by some of the wealthy burghers living in The Netherlands during that country’s Golden Age.

Anna Hallett

Anna is an historian with interests in architecture and the arts. She was born in the Netherlands where she studied history and English literature, followed by two history degrees in England. She has lectured on a variety of subjects for a wide range of educational institutions, including universities, colleges and museums. 

Anna has made a special study of the decorative tile industry in the Ironbridge Gorge and published books on almshouses (2004) and on markets and market places and their buildings (2008).

Picture: Domenico Remps, Scarabattolo - Cabinet of Curiosities, 17th century

This talk will provide a whistle-stop tour of the history of food as an artistic medium, starting with 16th century sugar sculpture and venturing all the way up to 3D dessert printing and beyond!

This exploration into the realms of dessert as spectacle includes an accompanying display to illustrate and enhance the historic subject.

Tasha Marks

Tasha is an award-winning food historian and artist, who explores the relationship between food, art and history. Her practice, AVM Curiosities, champions the use of food as an artistic medium, with projects ranging from museum-style exhibitions and sculptural installations, to interactive lectures and limited-edition confectionery.

Recent academic achievements include publication in the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, where she authored the entry on Mrs Beeton, one of the Victorian era’s most influential cooks.

By the middle of the 16th century dowries in Italy were so expensive that most respectable families could not afford to marry off more than one or two daughters. The rest became nuns, entering convents at puberty and never leaving. Not surprisingly not all of them went willingly.

But along with stories of enforced incarceration and horror, there was also unexpected space for creativity: art, scholarship, writing, drama and music. As well there was the possibility of another kind of fulfilment – and power – that of ecstatic union with the spiritual husband, Jesus Christ. Behind those walls a great deal was going on. 

Sarah Dunant

Novelist, broadcaster and critic.  Sarah read history at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2), and Night Waves (BBC Radio 3). She has published thirteen  novels, taught renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis, is a visiting tutor on the MA in creative writing at Oxford Brooks and has lectured around the world at festivals and conferences.

Sarah's last five novels have been set within the Italian Renaissance. Her latest: In the Name of the Family (published in 2017)  completes the story of the Borgia family and the remarkable period of Italian history in which they lived. 

Painting by Plautilla Nelli (Firenze 1524-1588) Santa Caterina de Siena 

The story of one of the greatest creative collaborations of all:  Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, whose team of dancers, choreographers, and costume and set designers transformed expectations of what a night in the theatre could be, and the circumstances behind its most notorious stage work of all.

Sandy examines the build-up to the Rite of Spring’s premiere in Paris, takes a look at the original costumes, plays excerpts from this fascinatingly inventive score, and explores what divided opinions of that first-night audience quite so dramatically.  No, nothing could top the riot at the Rite in 1913…

Sandy Burnett

After studying music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy spent a decade as one of the core team of music presenters on BBC Radio 3. He enjoys a varied career that embraces broadcasting, conducting, playing double bass and communicating his passion for music. His radio series for Ireland’s RTÉ Lyric FM, Great Moments in Classical Music, recently won silver in the Specialist Music category of the PPI Radio Awards. He regularly leads cultural lecture holidays, and is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music. 

Edward Frederick Benson, always known as ‘Fred’, was a member of the extraordinary Benson family. His father, Edward White, was Archbishop of Canterbury, and deviser of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. A brother, A.C. Benson, was notable as the author of the words of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ and of the longest diary in the English language.

Fred himself was a champion figure-skater and archaeologist, and author of over 70 novels and ghost stories but was an elusive personality. His six ‘Mapp and Lucia’ novels are set in ‘Tilling’, Benson’s own (loosely disguised )town of Rye, and feature sharply-drawn satirical portraits of its inhabitants. Benson’s literary style is a delight: never was personal venom and animosity delivered in such elegant prose. This lecture explores this enigmatic figure, and also includes readings of some of the novels’ delights. 

Roger Askew

Roger was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in English.  He combined a teaching career with professional singing in London, and after obtaining a further degree in Music became Director of Music at Daniel Stewart’s and Melville College in Edinburgh.

After retiring in 2003 he returned to the south of England.  He is President Emeritus of The Stoke Poges Society and Chairman of The Arts Society Windsor.

Around the world, there are thousands of museums containing natural history collections. One estimate suggests 2.5 billion preserved fish, rock, insects, birds, plants etc. are stored away; why do we do this? Natural curiosity is an age-old motivation,

in recent centuries this became formalised in the Wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosities) and then the modern museum. But curiosity itself it not enough (to some) to justify keeping these collections, today they are used to understand how the universe, our world and us humans came into being. They can also help us learn how our planet is changing and what the future holds.

Natural history museum collections also attract unexpected audiences, many collections are inspiration for artists, designers, engineers and medical researchers amongst others.

Dr Mark Spencer

Mark has been fascinated by plants since he was a small boy. Originally a horticulturist, he later studied botany at university after which he worked as a field botanist for a regional conservation organisation. After 12 years as a museum curator at the Natural History Museum Mark is now a consultant forensic botanist, public speaker and occasional radio and TV ‘personality’. He also retains a strong interest in the history of botany and botanic gardens, invasive non-native species and the flora of North-West Europe.

Lights, camera, action! – inside stories of the art and artifice of the early decades of Hollywood. This lecture covers the work of stills photographers, costumiers, publicists, actors and actresses and the movie moguls who made it all happen.

Geri Parlby

Geri is a former Fleet Street journalist and film publicist. She has a first class honours degree in History and Theology, a Masters in History of Art from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology doctorate from Roehampton University in London.

She has been lecturing for the past eleven years both in the UK and internationally. She is also principal lecturer on the NADFAS South West Area’s History of Art course and is an Honorary Research Fellow at Roehampton University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

When it was at its peak in the 18th century, the Grand Tour was recognised as one of the rites of passage for the young British nobility and upper classes.  The destination was always Italy although Germany, France, Switzerland and the Low Countries were taken in en route.  The affair was open ended and the tour could last from a few months to several years. The lecture takes a look at 18th century Italian music making – the composers, the performers, the forms and styles – and determines what it was that drew the young musical aristocracy south, time and again.

The lecture is illustrated by digital images and live music examples taken from some of Allegri - Miserere, Pergolesi, Handel’s Italian Operas, Domenico Scarlatti and Corelli.

We can promise you a lively and memorable morning followed by lunch and a celebratory drink.

This event is fully booked.

Two great figures of the 18th century never met but had a relationship that involved art, patronage and politics. Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, was a passionate anglophile and patron of the arts. She demonstrated both when she commissioned England’s most innovative potter, Josiah Wedgwood, to make a dinner and desert service to serve 50 people for her new country palace built at Kekerekeksinen, or ‘The Frog marsh’. The resulting service, each piece decorated with a different topographical view of a country house, garden or well-known landscape, has become an extraordinary visual record of Great Britain in the 18th century.

Deborah Lambert

Formerly Curator of the Schroder Collection, a private art collection. Studied for her MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute. Worked for many years as an academic director and lecturer for Christie's Education. Appears regularly as a furniture specialist on the Antiques Roadshow.

In no other country did art play such an important role in national life in the 20th century as it did in Russia. Before the 1917 Revolution, Russian artists of the calibre of Kandinsky, Malevich and Stravinsky emerged for the first time as leaders of the European avant-garde. They were not only consummate professionals and peerless artists in their own right, they were revolutionaries, committed to forging a new artistic language. This lecture explores the nature of the revolution which took place across the arts in Russia on the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution. It will show how artists of the avant-garde took a leading role in early Soviet culture, and explain what happened under Totalitarianism, when Stalin started subjecting painters, musicians and writers to ideological control in the early 1930s, focusing on key figures like Shostakovich and Malevich. Finally, we shall seek to answer questions such as: What happened to Russian culture after the “death” of the avant-garde? What was Socialist Realism? Who were the dissidents? What are the great masterpieces of Russian culture in the 20th century? 

Dr Rosamund Bartlett

Doctorate from Oxford and has held senior university posts, most recently at the European University Institute in Florence. Specialises in comparative study of art, music and literature, and currently writing a book on the Russian Avant-Garde and European Modernism. Author of several books, including biographies of Tolstoy and Chekhov, whose works she has also translated for Oxford World's Classics. Extensive experience lecturing in Russian cultural history at venues such as the V&A, the National Theatre and Covent Garden, and broadcasts regularly on the BBC. Often invited to lecture on tours, and is founding Director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, set up to preserve the writer's house in Yalta.

Laura Knight, born in Nottingham in 1877, died in London in 1970 at the age of 93. From a difficult and impoverished background she rose to become the first woman ever elected to the Royal Academy and the first painter made a Dame. She was a War Artist in both world wars and wrote two volumes of autobiography. Knight belonged to a generation which saw women vote, sit in Parliament, and gain entry to formerly male professions such as medicine and the law. By her determination and ceaseless hard work, she became something of a spokesperson for the self-made woman of the age. The lecture traces her long and highly varied career from the artist communities of Staithes and Newlyn to affluent St John’s Wood in London and her wartime refuge in Malvern. Sustained by her great long-lasting friendships with many of the leading artists, performers and writers of her time, Alfred Munnings, George Bernard Shaw, Tamara Karsavina and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, she was one of the great figures of twentieth-century British culture.

Tim Wilcox

Read Modern Languages at Cambridge, then History of Art at the Courtauld Institute.  He was a curator at the V&A, in Liverpool and Hove; from 2001-03 was Acting Assistant Keeper in the British Museum Department of Prints and Drawings.  As a freelance curator and lecturer since 1997, he has taught at the Universities of Brighton and Surrey and is a regular course leader at the Courtauld Institute Summer School. He has curated numerous exhibitions including for Tate, The Lowry, Dulwich Picture Gallery and elsewhere.

One of the most derided towns in England, renowned for its dullness, Basingstoke is distinguished only by its numerous roundabouts and absurd Modernist architecture. Rupert explains that the post-war planners, who inflicted such features as ‘the Great Wall of Basingstoke’ on the town, were politically-motivated and bent on destroying all traces of its past. He reveals the nobler Basingstoke that is buried beneath the concrete, and the few historic gems that have survived the holocaust. Hilariously told, it is a story that neatly illustrates the ugliest episode in England’s architectural history. As Betjeman wrote prophetically, “What goes for Basingstoke goes for most English towns”. 

Rupert Willoughby

A prize-winning historian who specialises in the domestic and social life of the past. A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London, he is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, of guides to castles owned by English Heritage and Hampshire County Council, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village and Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. He contributes regular obituaries to The Times and The Daily Telegraph, writes privately-commissioned histories of houses, and is an experienced lecturer - and occasional broadcaster - on a broad range of topics, with a particular interest in architecture, interior decoration and costume.

In this light-hearted look at the rituals and practice of cannibalism, Louise will first show how they have inspired some extraordinary works of art - from great paintings to the cannibal cartoons of the Victorian era. She will then look at cannibal myths deeply embedded in some cultures and at how these may have originated  in actual rituals in the ancient past. Finally, Louise will take you to the jungles and highlands of Papua New Guinea, following in the footsteps of Miklouho-Maclay, a young Russian explorer, who became 'King of the Cannibals' there in the 19th century. 

Louise Schofield

Having been Curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities in the British Museum for thirteen years, Louise now works on international archaeological projects, principally in Turkey and Albania. She lectures for a number of universities and institutions, including Florida State University, Christie's Education and cruise companies.

Victorian Grand studio houses were the phenomena of an age that rewarded its artists. Created as homes and workplaces, they were also exuberant palaces that gave confidence to patrons who visited. This lecture will look at a group of studio house of late nineteenth century artists considered celebrities including Lord Leighton, Sir Luke Fildes and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. These houses were visited by journalists who produced illustrated articles to feed an eager public that wished to experience these fantastic dwellings for themselves. It will look at how these buildings echoed the art and personality of the artist, how they were used and created.

Mark Bills

Studied at the Slade School of Art and at the universities of Birmingham and Manchester. Was Curator at the Watts Gallery, now Curator of the Gainsborough Museum and lectures regularly at the Tate, Russell-Cotes Gallery, Museum of London, Guildhall Art Gallery, Bristol University and Mercer Art Gallery.  Has also presented talks in New York and Finland.  Publications include George Frederic Watts: Victorian Visionary (2008), The Art of Satire: London in Caricature (2006) and William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age (2006).

The name Le Bateau-Lavoir was coined by French poet Max Jacob. The building was dark and dirty, almost seeming to be scrap pile rather than a dwelling. On stormy days, they swayed and creaked, reminding people of washing-boats on the nearby Seine River, hence the name. It has been suggested that the structure was a manufacturing facility in the previous century.

The building stands on a small cobblestone square that was known as Place Ravignan. In 1911, it was rechristened Place Émile Goudeau for Émile Goudeau (1849–1906), a popular novelist, poet, and journalist who founded Les Hydropathes, a renowned and famous literary club. The square now has a Wallace fountain and is planted with horse chestnut trees.

Maxime Maufra (1863–1918) was the first noted artist to take up residence in Bateau-Lavoir, around 1890.[1] Kees van Dongen and Pablo Picasso took up residence between 1900 and 1904. After 1904 more artists and writers moved in, including Otto van Rees, Pierre Mac Orlan, Juan Gris, André Salmon, Pablo Gargallo, Max Jacob and Pierre Reverdy. It became an unofficial club that included artists (Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Amedeo Modigliani, Jean-Paul Laurens, Maurice Utrillo, Jacques Lipchitz, María Blanchard, Jean Metzinger and Louis Marcoussis); writers (Guillaume Apollinaire, Alfred Jarry, Jean Cocteau, Gustave Coquiot, Cremnitz (Maurice Chevrier), Paul Fort, André Warnod, Raymond Radiguet, Gertrude Stein); actors (Charles Dullin, Harry Baur, Gaston Modot); and art dealers (Ambroise Vollard, Clovis Sagot, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Berthe Weill).

While residing in the Bateau-Lavoir Picasso painted one of his most noted works, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, considered by art historians as a proto-Cubist painting (the precursor of a movement that became known as Cubism in 1911).

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, creative artists living at the Bateau-Lavoir and in the neighborhood began moving elsewhere, mainly to Montparnasse.

Hilary Guise

Lectures in the main museums in London for American universities, and has toured widely in the USA and lectured for the Smithsonian Institution. Has also worked for the Art Fund, taught courses for Cambridge University, has been a guest speaker on cruises. Trained as a painter at Central St Martin’s, she exhibits abroad, most recently in Berlin and France. Lives in London and in Provence.

Love them or hate them, Brutalist buildings are now being listed and protected as a part of our architectural heritage. Brutalist structures, with their emphasis on blockish forms and concrete construction are often described as ugly, crude and drab yet there are examples of this building type which merit a second examination. Considering Britain’s best (or most notorious) Brutalist constructions, including the Trellick Tower in London and the Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth, as well as notable examples from around the world this lecture will shed new light on an architectural style which we may yet learn to love! 

Dr Sarah Pearson

Holds a First Class BA in Art History from Reading University, an MA in World Art Studies from the University of East Anglia and a PhD in Architectural History, also from Reading. Lectured for 10 years at Reading and at the University of East Anglia, and now works as a freelance lecturer and adult education provider. Has published articles and a book chapter on the architect Francesco di Giorgio and currently researching the development of the Riddlesworth estate with a view to future publication

The Taj Mahal was built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The lecture traces the origins of its design, its site in Agra, how it was built, the craftsmen, the interiors and its surrounding buildings and gardens.

Oliver Everett was educated at Cambridge University and did post graduate work at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA; and at the London School of Economics. Following service in the Foreign Office, including postings in India and Spain, he was Assistant Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales,1978- 80; and then Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981 -3. He was Librarian in the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, 1984 2002. He is now Librarian Emeritus following his retirement in 2002. He wrote the official guidebook and audio tour on Windsor Castle, taught a course on its history and advised on a television programme about it. He wrote articles on the Royal Library and helped with two books on aspects of the Royal Collection. He is advising on a possible history series for television. He lectures widely in Britain and abroad and also on cruise ships.

Jan Steen is amongst the most popular painters of the Golden Age in his native country, yet relatively unknown abroad.  A near-contemporary of Vermeer, Steen painted a prodigious number of works, from portraits to biblical scenes, but most of all genre paintings – the genre in which Vermeer also excelled.  Yet, unlike Vermeer, whose works often appear understated and serene, Steen’s genre scenes are usually boisterous and filled with telling details. Although the painter often included moralising symbols that warn of punishment and retribution, the last impression is that his works usually convey is one of humour and joie de vivre. 

Sophie Oosterwijk

Born in Gouda (Netherlands).  Has an MA and PhD in English Literature (Leiden), an MA in Medieval Studies (York) and a PhD in Art History (Leicester).  Has taught at the universities of St Andrews, Leicester, Nottingham and Manchester, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, National Trust, V&A, U3A, WEA and other organisations, and organised many study days, tours and visits.  Also a regular lecturer for Cambridge University and Martin Randall Travel, and Honorary Research Fellow with the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews.  

As a costume designer, Anna Buruma was fortunate enough to be involved in several rather special period productions ranging from one set in 15th century France to one set in 1930s Hollywood. She will talk about helping to make these productions work, showing both the problems and the fun this involved.

Anna Buruma

Studied theatre design and worked in the theatre and as a costume designer for television and film. In the 1990s, she gained an Art History MA from the Courtauld Institute, focusing on the history of dress.    Since 1995 she has been the archivist at Liberty, London and is Curator at Central St Martins School of Art & Design.  In addition to lecturing widely, Anna has published articles and books on historical costume and fabric design.  Though interested in all aspects of textiles and dress, because of her work she is particularly drawn to the 20th and early 19th centuries.

This lecture examines the astonishing impact of glass on both our lives and those of our ancestors. It is my fervent contention that glass is the greatest substance ever created and yet it remains largely invisible to us, in more ways than one.

The talk explores the catalytic effect that glass has had across the range of human endeavour since the Renaissance: through science, medicine and technology to architecture, travel and communications.

Where, for instance, would be without spectacles, light bulbs and windscreens? How many of us would be alive if it were not for the identification of germs and microbes through the use of microscope lenses? And how pleasurable would life be without window glass and loft insulation? Without glass, we would have no computers, televisions, films, telephones...

Glass is a magical substance whose role in transforming our lives is both immeasurable and almost entirely unrecognised. This talk attempts to put this omission to rights.

Andy McConnell

Has dealt in antiques since adolescence, but served an apprenticeship in journalism.  After working in music, film and television, he returned to writing in 2004 as the author of the acclaimed tome 'The Decanter, An Illustrated History of Glass From 1650'.  He followed this in 2006 with Miller's' 20th Century Glass.  He writes regularly for journals as diverse as 'The Times' and 'Glass Circle News' and runs Britain's largest antique and vintage glass gallery in Rye, Sussex.  He is best known as the distinctly humorous glass specialist on BBC's evergreen Antiques Roadshow and has recently completed his sixth series.

To coincide with the anniversary of the start of Captain James Cook’s final and fatal voyage in 1776, the lecture explores the impact of his three extraordinary voyages of discovery on European thought, art and science. Cook is widely renowned as an explorer, pioneering navigator and preventer of scurvy and his voyages provided unprecedented information about the Pacific Ocean, and about those who lived on its islands and shores. This was to have a profound influence on The Enlightenment. The lecture is lavishly illustrated with the exquisite drawings and watercolours of Sydney Parkinson, the glorious paintings of William Hodges and George Stubbs, the botanising of Sir Joseph Banks and the remarkable cartography of James Cook himself.

Peter Warwick

An author, historian and major event organiser, and a recognised authority on Admiral Lord Nelson. Specialises in naval and polar history.  Chairs the 1805 Club, which conserves the monuments of the Georgian sailing navy; the New Waterloo Dispatch/Waterloo 200, the official body arranging the bicentenary commemorations for Waterloo in 2015; and Thames Alive which in 2012 arranged the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant and the Thames Olympic Torch Relay.  Was vice-chairman of the Official Nelson Commemorations Committee and played a key role in the planning of the Trafalgar 200 and Sea Britain 2005.  Lectures at the Defence Academy, National Maritime Museum, National Museum for the Royal Navy, Royal Institution and at schools and universities.

Among the most important and valuable works of art from Africa, these antique bronze sculptures from the West- African kingdom of Benin astounded critics when they were first seen in Europe in the late 1890s.  They could hardly believe that such technically accomplished sculptures were created by African artists.  The superb workmanship and outstanding aesthetic quality of Benin’s royal sculptures rivals the very best work of the Italian Renaissance.  This lecture reveals the sophisticated production processes, the symbolism and ritual use of the bronzes, as well as investigating the response of avant-garde artists of the early 20th century, such as Picasso and Matisse, who struggled to place them within their category of ‘the primitive’.  One of the richest collections of the Benin bronzes is in the British Museum, but many examples are on show in museums across Britain and Europe.

Dr Claire Walsh

MA V&A/RCA; PhD European University Institute, Florence.  Having previously worked at the V&A and lectured there and for the University of Warwick, now lectures for the Open University.  Has lectured widely in Britain; at the Courtauld Institute of Art and Museum of London amongst others, and to specialist groups including the Art Fund, the Ceramics Society, the Costume Society and the Ancient Monuments Society.  She has also lectured in Europe, the USA (including Yale and the Huntingdon) and Canada and has numerous publications.

From the late seventeenth century to the modern period this lecture looks at the development of the sport of horseracing in England through its associated cultural material.  Using the wealth of paintings, archive material and decorative art objects associated with and depicting the ‘Sport of Kings’, the lecture will take as its starting point the earliest origins of the sport including the development of Newmarket and the Jockey Club as racing’s ‘Headquarters’.  Treasures of the Turf also explores other influential racing circuits and because of the national nature of the sport can be adapted to include links to the local area. 

Christopher Garibaldi

Director of the National Horseracing Museum, Newmarket. Senior Curator & Assistant Keeper of Art (Decorative Art) at Norwich Castle Museum 1998-2003. 1997-1998 Curator for exhibition George Wickes of Bury St Edmunds, Royal Goldsmith. 1994-1997 Catalogued the silver in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Speaker's Residence - The House of Commons.

Laura will illustrate the influences on our greatest 18th Century landscape designer, 'Capability' Brown, celebrating the 300th anniversary of his birth this year.

Laura de Beden

Doctor in Humanities (Bocconi University, Milan).  Postgraduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture (University of Central England).  Chartered landscape and garden architect, international lecturer and writer on landscape issues.  Course leader in Garden Design at Kingston University; lecturer for the National Trust, the English Gardening School and the Chelsea Physic Garden.  Study tours abroad.

The greater part of the modern popular conception of the medieval knight comes not from the Middle Ages itself, but from the Victorian imagination.  19th-century medieval-revivalist art, architecture and literature still influence the modern mind. While he took some inspiration from the real Middle Ages, the Victorian medievalist was perhaps more interested in his own ideas about what the ‘Age of Chivalry’ should have been, rather than what it actually was.

This process of historical reinvention cannot be better illustrated than through an exploration of the event that in many ways originated the Victorian obsession with chivalry. The Eglinton Tournament of 1839, inspired by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and research of the armour antiquarian Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, attempted to recreate a full-scale medieval tournament, with prominent aristocrats of the day taking part as combatants. The event, and indeed the preparations leading up to it, caused a media sensation. 150,000 people made the journey to the Earl of Eglinton’s castle in southern Scotland to witness the spectacle, which was unfortunately spoiled by heavy rain on its first day. The tournament nevertheless proved to have been a historic event, its legacy an artistic and cultural movement that defined the age. 

Tobias Capwell

Toby is Curator of Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection in London, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an internationally acknowledged expert on Medieval and Renaissance weapons.  His book, Masterpieces of European Arms and Armour at the Wallace Collection (2011) was named Book of the Year by Apollo Magazine in 2012.  He appears regularly on television, most recently as presenter and armour advisor on Richard III: The New Evidence (2014), and as the writer and presenter of Metalworks: The Knight's Tale (2012).  His publications include The Noble Art of the Sword: Fashion and Fencing in Renaissance Europe 1520 1630, ex. cat. (2012) and 'The Arming of an English Man at Arms, c.1415', appendix, in Sir Ranulph Fiennes' new book Agincourt: My Family, The Battle, and the Fight for France (2014).  After fifteen years of research, Toby's groundbreaking book Armour of the English Knight: 1400-1450 was published in September 2015; the second part, dealing with the second half of the 15th century, will be released in 2017.

Mucha produced paintings, posters and advertisements, as well as designs for jewellery, carpets, wallpaper and theatre sets in what was initially called the Mucha Style but became known as Art Nouveau.

Eric Knowles

Has over twenty five years' experience lecturing to museums and galleries around the world, including the V&A, British Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Art Deco Society of New York, and Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, along with countless antique societies in the UK.  He hosts fine art, antiques and architectural trips in the UK, USA and Europe, and has broadcast for thirty years with the BBC's Antiques Roadshow.

Mr Punch – the most famous puppet character of all time.

His comic irreverence gave “Punch” magazine its title.

His anarchic vitality has inspired opera, ballet and punk rock and his enduring popularity has seen his likeness on goods ranging from Victorian silverware to computer video games.  Appearing in England in 1662, Punch is descended from the Italian Clown Pulcinella of the 15th century Commedia Del'Arte tradition.

Even today, this Lord of Misrule uses his slapstick to dispense with oppressive authority, be it politicians, political correctness or the devil, while proclaiming his notorious refrain: "That's the way to do it!”

This is a members only special event.  For further information and booking details please  click here.

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Bertie Pearce

Bertie Pearce is a born Entertainer. His shows are remembered years afterwards for all the right reasons!

Bertie has a BA (Hons) in Drama and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq.  He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star.  He has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled ‘All Aboard’. He also lectures widely to NADFAS groups and on cruise ships.

As a costume designer, Anna Buruma was fortunate enough to be involved in several rather special period productions ranging from one set in 15th century France to one set in 1930s Hollywood. She will talk about helping to make these productions work, showing both the problems and the fun this involved.

Anna Buruma

Studied theatre design and worked in the theatre and as a costume designer for television and film. In the 1990s, she gained an Art History MA from the Courtauld Institute, focusing on the history of dress.    Since 1995 she has been the archivist at Liberty, London and is Curator at Central St Martins School of Art & Design.  In addition to lecturing widely, Anna has published articles and books on historical costume and fabric design.  Though interested in all aspects of textiles and dress, because of her work she is particularly drawn to the 20th and early 19th centuries.

This lecture examines the astonishing impact of glass on both our lives and those of our ancestors. It is my fervent contention that glass is the greatest substance ever created and yet it remains largely invisible to us, in more ways than one.

The talk explores the catalytic effect that glass has had across the range of human endeavour since the Renaissance: through science, medicine and technology to architecture, travel and communications.

Where, for instance, would be without spectacles, light bulbs and windscreens? How many of us would be alive if it were not for the identification of germs and microbes through the use of microscope lenses? And how pleasurable would life be without window glass and loft insulation? Without glass, we would have no computers, televisions, films, telephones...

Glass is a magical substance whose role in transforming our lives is both immeasurable and almost entirely unrecognised. This talk attempts to put this omission to rights.

Andy McConnell

as dealt in antiques since adolescence, but served an apprenticeship in journalism.  After working in music, film and television, he returned to writing in 2004 as the author of the acclaimed tome 'The Decanter, An Illustrated History of Glass From 1650'.  He followed this in 2006 with Miller's' 20th Century Glass.  He writes regularly for journals as diverse as 'The Times' and 'Glass Circle News' and runs Britain's largest antique and vintage glass gallery in Rye, Sussex.  He is best known as the distinctly humorous glass specialist on BBC's evergreen Antiques Roadshow and has recently completed his sixth series.

A pictorial history of drinking glasses through the ages, studied through images of actual objects and through paintings.  The lecture will focus particularly on the development of the wine glass, but will also look at glasses designed for other beverages, such as: beer, cider, ale, cordial, etc.  It will consider the drinking habits of different countries and the types of glass associated with those countries, e.g. the Venetian wing stemmed glass, the German roemer, the Dutch flute and the English baluster stemmed glass; and will discuss the association of fine glass drinking vessels with feasting and conviviality.

Jane Gardiner

Jane has a MA History of Art, University of London and trained at the V&A where she continues to lecture today. She was Senior Lecturer at Sotheby’s Institute of Art for 17 years, becoming a Deputy Director.   She has also lectured for the National Trust, the Art Fund, London University, Buckingham University, l'Institut d'Etudes Superieures des Arts in Paris, a private women's college in Saudi Arabia, on cruise ships and at antiques fairs and interior design conferences in America.

Two years ago Nicholas introduced a lecture on War Artists, Spies and the Art of Deception.  This included his father’s part in deception during the last War.  Today’s lecture follows on from there.

Camouflaging of ships in wartime was invented in WW1 by the artist Norman Wilkinson and perfected in the Royal Academy Schools.  That’s a story in itself, but it was a professional conjuror who accomplished astonishing things against Rommel in Africa. One of his tasks was to hide the port of Alexandria from aerial attack: and he succeeded. However, his greatest challenge was the first one he was given:  “The Suez Canal is over 100 miles long and 200 yards wide.  We want you to hide it.”  And in fact, throughout the War, not one German bomb was dropped on the Canal because the Luftwaffe simply couldn’t see it! How did the conjuror manage this?  This lecture will reveal the answer!

Nicholas Reed

Nicholas is an art historian and archaelogist.  In the 1980s he became Founder- Chairman of the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe.  He is the author of four books on the Impressionists in England and one on the Frost Fairs on the Frozen Thames.  

In the early evening of 16 October 1834, to the horror of bystanders, a huge ball of fire exploded through the roof of the Houses of Parliament, creating a blaze so enormous that it could be seen by the King and Queen at Windsor and from stagecoaches on top of the South Downs.  In front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, the great conflagration destroyed Parliament's glorious old buildings and their contents.  No one who witnessed the disaster would ever forget it.

Based on Caroline’s book of the same name, this talk takes the audience through the gripping hour-by-hour story of the fire with stunning slides and considers its devastating aftermath and far reaching consequences.  The story of the fire is told through contemporary depictions of the disaster by Turner, William Heath and others.

Caroline Shenton

Caroline is an archivist, historian and author . She was formerly Director of the Parliamentary Archives at Westminster and a senior archivist at The National Archives at Kew. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Historical Society and has appeared on national TV and radio and reviews books for The Spectator.  Her first popular history book, ‘The Day Parliament Burned Down’, was published to rave reviews in 2012, and won the inaugural Political Book of the Year Award in 2013.  

Ever since the mid nineteenth century, modern art has been (and remains) a popular subject for satire.  Constantly changing, and often seemingly bizarre, modern art made an irresistible target for a host of cartoonists, humorous writers and wise-guys.  Some artists, such as Gustave Courbet, welcomed their attention in the belief that there was no such thing as bad publicity; others, lplike Jackson Pollock, were hurt by what they took to be an attack on their integrity.

The cartoonists themselves could be funny, cruel and at times extremely perceptive.  From the French humourist, Cham, through the work of the gifted staff on the New Yorker, to the Daily Telegraph’s brilliant cartoonist Matt, they provide an absorbing, illuminating and, above all, a funny, revealing and sidelong view of 150 years of modern art.

Barry Venning

An historian of British art with a particular interest in the work of JMW Turner, on whom Barry has published widely, including the volume on Turner in Phaidon's Art & Ideas series, and several catalogue essays for exhibitions in the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland.  He was the BBC's script consultant on Turner's Fighting Temeraire and in 2013 took part in a BBC documentary called 'The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution'.  He has also published a study of John Constable's paintings. His interests and his teaching extend from medieval architecture to contemporary British art.  Barry is currently Associate Lecturer with the Open University and lecturing on a freelance basis for NADFAS, Christie's Education and other organisations.

The fame of the Queen of Sheba has lasted across the many intervening centuries since she made her epic journey from her distant land to the court of King Solomon. A passage in the Bible’s Book of Kings has immortalised this Queen and the journey that she made, her camel caravan laden with gold and incense as gifts for the king of Jerusalem.  In this talk Louise looks at how the Queen of Sheba has captured the imagination of great artists, inspired epic films and has led archaeologists to go in search of her land – a search that has led to discoveries of great temples, tombs and treasures.

Louise Schofield

Having been Curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities in the British Museum for thirteen years, Louise now works on international archaeological projects, principally in Turkey and Albania. She lectures for a number of universities and institutions, including Florida State University, Christie's Education and cruise companies.

Suffolk boasts some of the most fascinating churches of medieval England, many linked intimately with St Edmund, an East Anglian Christian king martyred by the Danes in 869.  Churches such as St Nicholas at Little Saxham, have round towers built to protect East Anglia from Danish invasion.

The once magnificent Benedictine abbey at Bury St Edmunds housed St Edmund’s precious shrine and became a vibrant center of artistic excellence during the 12th century, producing such wonders as the Bury Bible, now in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 

A plethora of spacious, lofty towered, 15th-century parish churches, such as Ss Peter and Paul, Eye, and Holy Trinity, Long Melford, express visually the opulent wealth derived from the wool and cloth trade in Suffolk during the later Middle Ages.  Their wealth of original decoration and furnishings include: wall paintings; alabaster carvings, stained glass; painted rood screens; and altarpieces, many of which make reference to St Edmund’s life and cult.

Sally Dormer

Sally has a BA (History) from the University of Durham; a PhD (Medieval Manuscript illumination) and a MA (Medieval History of Art) from the Courtauld Institute.  She is lecturer and tutor for the Early Medieval Year Course at the V&A and Dean of European Studies for 2 US Universities. She is also a freelance lecturer for The Art Fund and conducts study tours for NADFAS, cruises and other tour groups.

Where better to spend yuletide in pre-revolutionary times than in snowy Russia?  Imagine yourself on Christmas Day wrapped in furs, sitting in your troika, bells ringing, on your way to church to celebrate the end of the 40 day fast, which ends as soon as the first evening star appears in the sky.

Rosamund explores the rich tradition of religious and folk customs associated with the Christmas period in Russia, and shows how they are reflected in the Russian arts, with musical illustrations.  She also talks about the secular Christmas celebrations introduced to Russia by Peter the Great, how they were transformed by Stalin during Soviet times, and what Christmas means to Russians today.

Rosamund Bartlett

Rosamund has a doctorate from Oxford and has held senior university posts, most recently at the European University Institute in Florence.  She specialises in the comparative study of art, music and literature, and is currently writing a book on the Russian Avant-Garde and European Modernism. The author of several books, including biographies of Tolstoy and Chekhov, whose works she has also translated, Rosamund has extensive experience lecturing in Russian cultural history at venues such as the V&A, the National Theatre and Covent Garden.  She also broadcasts regularly on the BBC and is founding Director of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, set up to preserve the writer's house in Yalta.

The great capital cities of Europe are more than just museums of architecture.  They are reliquaries of their history.  Moulded by the dynasties that ruled them, their streets hold the memories of their past: their moments of greatness and disaster, the plots and conspiracies of their politics, the legends of their origins and the superstitions, customs and beliefs of their everyday lives.

One of the great treasure houses of Europe. Prague was reduced to a near ruin under the communists. It has now been restored to its former glory, a unique blend of Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture.  The lecture looks at the rich fabric of Prague’s past, its legends and its history, as well as the artists, composers, statesmen and rogues that have illuminated this fairy tale city.

Douglas read Fine Arts at Cambridge and has lectured on paintings since 1980.  He has written and presented various TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on 'Whistler'  and the exhibition video on 'William Morris'.   Peter is the author of  6 novels and a book on Monet as well as being an artist and lecturer on many London art courses.  

This lecture will take us on a light-hearted pictorial tour of our capital looking at street art, statues and architecture both classical and not so classical.  We will see memorials to great events and people that will both provoke and amuse, as will examples of quality graffiti observed over many years of guiding in London.

Peter is a retired member of Royalty and Diplomatic Protection at Scotland Yard and an adult education tutor of Architectural History and Social Studies.  He is a Freeman of the City of London and an author and broadcaster on London and Essex History.  He is also President of Woodford Green National Trust Centre.

British photography enjoyed a golden age in the 1960s. Young, talented newcomers broke out of the conventional studio to revolutionise perceptions of fashion, portraiture and popular culture. This lecture looks at a range of superb images from photographers such as David Bailey, Terence Donovan, Lewis Morley, Tony Ray-Jones and Jane Bown.

This is a members only special event celebrating our 25th anniversary.  For further information and booking details please click here

Brian Stater

Brian’s chief interests lie in architecture, photography and history and he combines all three in his lecturing career. He has taught architectural history at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, since 1997 and became a lecturer with the National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies (NADFAS) in 2003. He is a member of the Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography and an exhibition of his own photographs has been staged at UCL.

In an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the skills of some great photographers of the past he has begun to work with a pre-War Leica camera as used by, among many others, his great hero Henri Cartier-Bresson. Brian is an engaging and amusing speaker who seeks to entertain as well as inform his audience.

Beeton’s Book of Household Management is probably the most well-known cookery book ever published in England. In print continuously, running through tens of editions, since 1861, until recently it was a staple item in any self-respecting kitchen. However, while later editions are excellent, the 1861 original is deeply flawed, with plagiarism its major feature. This lecture, which is delivered in costume, and starts in character, explores the context in which the book was published, covering dining styles, the look, feel and taste of food, and the functioning of mid-Victorian kitchens. It looks at Beeton’s remarkably short life (she died aged 28) and her rather more enduring legacy to the culinary arts.

Annie Gray

A food historian with degrees from Oxford, York and Liverpool, Annie’s PhD looked at changes in dining in the nineteenth century, while her masters was in archaeology. She works across the heritage industry, as a consultant on food and dining, as well as the use of live interpretation and the presentation of sites to the public. She lectures widely on subjects ranging from the development of afternoon tea to the history of cake. She is the author of a number of both academic and popular articles, working also as a costumed interpreter, representing cooks and kitchenmaids in the Georgian and Victorian periods. She leads a team at Audley End House, cooking and interacting with the public in the guise of servants in 1881. Increasingly in demand from the media, she has appeared on programmes such as The Great British Bake Off, and as a historical advisor to the recent Coffee and Calf's Head (BBC4). She is a regular panellist on Radio 4's The Kitchen Cabinet.

This lecture explores Kandinsky’s journey from figurative landscape painter to modernist master, as one of the first artists to develop a radically abstract language. It examines how, from his early landscapes inspired by the Bavarian countryside and folk imagery from Russian fairy tales and legends, Kandinsky’s style evolved after he moved to Germany and co-founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group. The lecture looks at how Kandinsky came to see painting as an alternative pathway to spiritual reality, increasingly stripping away descriptive detail by reducing recognisable elements. At the same time, he began to include large areas of vibrant colour to stimulate emotions associated with classical music, pursuing his interest in synaesthesia.

Rosalind Whyte

Rosalind has a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich and also lectures at the Tate and Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Laura Ashley - the name that has become an international byword for the classic English countrywoman living in bliss. But what was Laura Ashley the woman really like, behind the façade of the family-based company that not only used her name, but also was moulded on her personal image? And how did she manage to change the way we all dressed and decorated our homes in the1970s?

Anne Sebba

Anne is a biographer, historian and author of nine books who lectures to a variety of audiences in the US and UK, including the English Speaking Union, Royal Overseas League, National Trust, British Library and Imperial War Museum. A broadcaster - she presented a Radio 3 documentary about the pianist Harriet Cohen and for Radio 4 the documentary 'Who was Joyce Hatto?' - she regularly appears on television talking about her books, mostly biographies including Jennie Churchill, William Bankes, Laura Ashley and Wallis Simpson. The latter, published as That Woman, was an international bestseller and she is currently working on a history of Paris between 1939-49 through women's eyes, due to be published in 2016. Anne is currently chair of Britain's 9,000 strong Society of Authors.

Francis Woodman's talk looks at a range of collapses in medieval buildings across several centuries and explains why so many catastrophes occurred and how, in particular, the English rose to the challenge. It would be in England that some of the greatest, most daring and spectacular solutions would emerge: triumphs in the face of disaster.

Francis Woodman 

A lecturer in Art History and Architecture at the University of Cambridge, based at the Institute for Continuing Education, with several books and numerous articles for academic journals, Francis has previously taught History of Art at the UEA and UCL (London) and has lectured in Adult and Higher Education since 1978. He has lectured to cathedral groups, National Trust, on cruise ships and to universities in Australia and the USA. He has led numerous lecture tours all over Europe, North Africa and the Far East.

London's grandest thoroughfare for centuries, the Thames has hosted royal weddings and state funerals, fireworks and pyrotechnics, music and masques, coronations and Lord Mayor's pageants, processions and civic festivities. Teaming with life and busy with shipping, the City's life-blood has also been the playground of both royalty and the common man. Noble buildings and palaces rose along the river, private and public pleasure gardens swept down to the banks and the shores have been the playground to the children of the East End and happy hunting ground for mudlarks, scavengers and archaeologists. The Thames has inspired poets, artists, composers and chroniclers. In Edmund Spenser's words it has "dansed as a stage", the setting for frost fairs an masques, races for royal yachts and rowing boats, pleasure trips and regattas.

Jo Mabbutt

Originally a trained singer, pianist and orchestra administrator, Jo is now a decorative artist who combines antique lace with gilding, printing and painting, working to commission, selling through exhibitions and collaborating with other designers. She trained in wood graining, marbling, gilding, specialist paint finishes and interior design and was awarded the City & Guilds Silver Medal for Excellence in 2000. Jo taught in further education for 8 years on Art & Design National Diploma and Foundation courses. Having up-skilled at Central St Martin's College of Art & Design, she now lectures and runs workshops for both leisure and specialist groups.-

This lecture explores the fascinating world of the artist jewellers from 1900 to the present day. The work of highly creative artists who express their ideas in precious metal has now become collectable in its own right, revealing that art jewellery has moved from fashion to the art gallery, and to museums.

Rosemary Ransome-Wallis

Rosemary is Curator of collections of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths specialising in living designer and artist craftsmen and is a Freeman of the City of London and Liveryman of the Goldsmiths' Company. She is the author of 'Treasures of the Twentieth Century' (Goldsmiths Hall 2000) and advisor to the Silver Trust for Downing Street. In addition, Rosemary is a Fellow of the RSA and the Royal Society of British Sculptors

Maggie is a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, and an Associate of the British Institute of Professional Photography. Her work includes identification of organic gem materials, teaching, writing and research. She gives lectures and seminars for specialist groups, for example gemmologists, museum curators and conservators, in the UK and abroad and is the author of Gem and Ornamental Materials of Organic Origin (2003, reprinted 2010) and publisher of the online information archive Organic Gems.

Nicole studied Art History at the Universities of Sussex, York and Paris. She was Senior Lecturer at Queen's University until 2009, working primarily with adults, managing and teaching on both the Part-Time degree and Extra-mural programmes and conducting annual, international study tours. She also established the Department of Art History, the first in the north of Ireland. Nicole now lives in central London and is a freelance lecturer, working for organisations, including National Museums, the National Trust, Queen's University and private cultural bodies, and she is a guide lecturer for tours. Her publications focus on adult education and the arts.

David Evans was born and brought up at Lamorna Cove in Cornwall and knew some of the Newlyn and Lamorna artists in their final years. David lectures on Newlyn artists to the Art Fund and The National Trust.

Leslie Primo holds a BA in Art History and a MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London and, between 2005 and 2007, was a visiting lecturer in Art History at the University of Reading. He lectures and gives guided tours at both the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. He has also lectured at the City Literary Institute and presented a series of talks at the National Maritime Museum and the Courtauld Institute

Edward R Saunders is a graduate of both Oxford University and Rhodes University (South Africa) and has a diploma in Fine and Decorative Arts. He has lectured for the Victoria & Albert Museum, London University, the Wallace Collection, the National Trust and other institutions. He also lectures annually at the University of Cape Town.

Fenella Billington BA(Hons), MA studied at Manchester University and has a masters degree in Art History. She is a lecturer for the University of Liverpool's Continuing Education Programme for Adults. She has also given guided tours of Rome and Florence and has given presentations on cruise ships. She is a Livery woman of the Worshipful Company of Skinners of London.

Jane Tapley is a specialist events organiser at the Theatre Royal, Bath. She interviews writers, visiting actors and directors. She lectures to theatre-going Societies, National Trust, History and Fine Arts Groups. She is a consultant on 18th and 19th centuries food to various television productions of Jane Austen. She hosts and cooks 'period meals' at her Regency house in Bath for various literary groups.

Stephen is an ex-resident artist of Felsted School. He is a visiting lecturer at The Inchbald School of Design and he has done post graduate work on Constable at The University of Essex. He specialises in landscapes and his pictures are in private collections all over the world. He has had recent exhibitions in New York, London and Cambridge.

Sarah Lenton read Theology at King's College, London, and has spent most of her working life in the theatre. She regularly writes articles for Royal Opera House programmes, lectures at study days and gives pre-performance talks for both the ROH and English National Opera. She has written and directed more than 20 shows for the ROH Linbury Theatre and gives tours at the London Coliseum. She does live commentary for BBC Radio 3 opera broadcasts and writes scripts for BBC Radio 4. She is also a cartoonist.

This lecture explores gardens through the senses of the Impressionists from three continents – Europe, North America and Australia - enjoying the essentially similar pleasures of the garden, but engaging with the light from their skies in order to create very different sensations. The enclosure of the garden acts like a picture frame showcasing a living canvas that exudes the individuality, vision and taste of its tenants, their family, friends, lifestyles and, in the simple words of the greatest Impressionist and gardener Monet, providing 'motifs to paint'.

Peter Lawrence is a retired member of Royalty and Diplomatic Protection at Scotland Yard. He is a freelance lecturer and tutor as well as an author and broadcaster on London and Essex history.

Nicholas's first book, published in 1987, was on Camille Pissarro's paintings of the Crystal Palace area of South London. His next was on Pissarro in West London. Nicholas started as a classicist and Roman archaeologist, and has degrees in these subjects. He has always been interested in local history, but has specialised in art history since 1984. Nicholas is a lecturer for NADFAS, the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies and he was also Founder-Chairman of the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe 1985-87.