Talks

An exploration of the persistence of the Marcher identity, 500 years since its official abolition. Mike is the author of All the Wide Border: Wales, England and the Places Between, named by Waterstones as one of the best ten travel books of the year. Mike Parker was born in England and has lived in Wales...

Bertie Pearce: A Dickens of a Christmas - and God bless us everyone! Charles Dickens has often been proclaimed as “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and indeed on hearing that Dickens had died, a cockney barrow-girl said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?” Dickens revived the Christmas traditions with his warm portrayal of Christmas...

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe. Recognise the Artist ? When we receive a letter or a Christmas card from someone we know, we often recognise the handwriting straight away, and know who it’s from without even opening the envelope. Recognising the hand of an artist can be like that – an instant certainty that the painting must be...

Gavin Plumley: John Singer Sargent - The Private Radical Whether drawing duchesses or portraying princes, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was high society’s leading portraitist. Flaunting a consummate technique, his luxurious canvases mirrored his subjects’ wealth. Yet beneath the dazzling veneer of works such as Madame X, The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Lady Agnew of Lochnaw...

2025-02-21 19:30 -

Ian Gledhill: Art and Illusion of Theatre Stage Design The story of stage scenery from Sophocles to Spiderman! Western style theatre was invented by the Greeks from the 5th century BC onwards, and this talk illustrates the way in which theatre has developed over the last two and a half thousand years, and in particular how...

Justin Reay: Light and Shade - the Persian Paradise Garden The formal ‘paradise gardens’ of Persia (Iran) are noted for their tranquillity and the respite they offer from the summer heat of the region, combining architectural and arboreal shade with running water in a long tradition. Adopted by Arab traders and rulers, such garden designs became central...

David Worthington: Sculpture and Architecture It is likely that the first architects were the stonemasons who built the temples and cathedrals. So sculptors were the architects. In the ancient world the building was a plinth for a sculpture such as the golden Athena on the Parthenon. Over time sculpture became decoration before being stripped by the...

Steve Kershaw: The Minoans of Crete - the first Europeans At the start of the 20th century Arthur Evans unearthed an entire civilisation on the island of Crete. Its impressive public buildings, advanced social structures and political institutions, centred on the vast complex which he dubbed the 'Palace of Minos', showed that European civilisation was as...