Talks Archive
Programme 2009 - 2010
A Great and Glorious Victory: Nelson and Trafalgar
by Peter Warwick
Date: Sunday 29 September 2024
Peter is chairman of The 1805 Club, a charity whose object is the restoration and maintenance of graves, monuments, memorials of the Georgian sailing navy. He is also chairman of Thames Alive and chairman of the International Committee of Waterloo 200, which is planning the commemorations in 2015.
William Beckford and his Tower in Bath
by Amy Frost
Date: Sunday 13 October 2024
Amy Frost has been Curator of Beckfords Tower and Museum in Bath since 2002. She is also the Archivist for the Bath Preservation Trust and Curator of the Building of Bath Collection. She is currently researching the life of Henry Edmund Goodridge the architect who designed BeckfordsTower.
John Ruskin – a flawed genius
by Julian Halsby
Date: Sunday 27 October 2024
Julian Halsby studied at Cambridge University and later became Senior Lecturer and Head of Department in a London art college. He has written 7 books and literally hundreds of articles on art history and criticism. He is a member of the Critics Circle and the International Association of Art Critics.
The Monmouth Rebellion
by Major General Barry Lane
Date: Sunday 10 November 2024
Barry Lane was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry; his last appointment was GOC of the Army in the South West of England. He then spent 5 years as the first Chief Executive of Cardiff Bay Development Corporation. Every summer since 1994 he has arranged an annual tour, setting out the background to and events of the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 and its sad climax at the Battle of Sedgemoor.
Names and the Search for Order in the Natural World
by Anna Pavord
Date: Sunday 24 November 2024
Anna Pavord, one of the most distinguished writers on gardens today, admired for her meticulous research and knowledge of plants, garden history and design, follows up the theme of her recent book “The Naming of Names”, which is a history of the search for order in the world of plants. The story begins in Athens in the era of Aristotle. An earlier best seller was “The Tulip”. Anna recently received the Gold Veitch medal from the RHS. She is a member of English Heritage Parks and Gardens Panel and for the last five years has been Chairman of the National Trusts Garden Panel
Ha Ha Hardy
by Tim Laycock
Date: Sunday 8 December 2024
Tim Laycock, the son of a Dorset folk musician, is an actor and writer particulary interested in Dorset’s folk culture. He gives concerts based on the history and traditions of the county, including the life and works of William Barnes.
Colin Thompson is an expert on traditional English fiddle music and also plays the viola and guitar.
The North West Frontier in History and Today
by Jules Stewart
Date: Sunday 7 January 2024
Jules Stewart began his career as an academic, lecturing in Spanish language and literature at two U.S. universities before moving to Madrid where he spent 20 years as a journalist before joining Reuters and relocating to London. He has been a freelance reporter since 1994, specialising in finance. Recently he has produced four books on the history of the British on the North-West Frontier and Afghanistan
The Other Lyon: William Hector Lyon, 1868-1907
by Canon Eric Woods
Date: Sunday 21 January 2024
Eric Woods read Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford, and later the Theology Tripos at Trinity College Cambridge. He was ordained in 1978. From 1983 to 1993 he was Vicar of Wroughton in the Bristol Diocese and a part-time lecturer in Bristol University’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies. He became Vicar of Sherborne in 1993 and a non-residentiary Canon of Salisbury Cathedral in 1998. He currently lectures on the University of Surrey’s Certificate of Higher Education in Theology course at Sarum College Salisbury
Paddy Ashdown’s Third Law: or why the world will never be the same again and what we should do about it
by Paddy Ashdown
Date: Sunday 4 February 2024
The Rt. Hon. Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG., KBE. (Paddy Ashdown) was a Royal Marine 1959-72, Liberal MP for Yeovil 1975-2001, Leader of the Liberal Democrats 1988-99 and High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina 2002-06. A gifted polygot, he is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and other languages
Samuel Palmer
by Professor William Vaughan
Date: Sunday 18 February 2024
William Vaughan is Professor Emeritus in History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He organised the exhibition on Samuel Palmer held at the British Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2005-6. He is currently completing a study of Samuel Palmer’s life and career.
Julius Caesar and the Fall of the Roman Republic
by Adrian Goldsworthy
Date: Monday 4 March 2024
Dr Adrian Goldsworthy.
Acclaimed author of 'Roman Warfare'. 'Caesar. The Life of a Colossus' and 'The Death of the Roman Superpower', Dr Goldsworthy appears regularly on TV and Radio. Formerly Assistant Professor at the University of Notre-Dame, he lectures at Birkbeck, Kings College (London), Yale and Berkeley. One of a new generation of classical scholars.
Frome Arrives in Sherborne – the coming of the railway in 1860
by Alec Oxford OBE
Date: Monday 18 March 2024
Alec Oxford was born in Sherborne and educated at Foster's School. He served as a Fleet Air Arm pilot '43 - '47. Qualifying in youth leadership at Bristol University, he did youth work in Sherborne and south-east London and was deputy director of National Youth Bureau from '71 - 82. Made an MBE in 1982.
