Talks Archive
Programme 2020 - 2021
The Wars of 9/11
by General Sir Robert Fry
Date: Tuesday 29 September 2020
An account of the wars started by the 9/11 attacks and their place in history.
Marie Stopes: Her Life and Times 1880-1958
by David Carter
Date: Tuesday 13 October 2020
Marie Stopes known as a birth control pioneer was also a respected paleobotanist and Portland Museum’s founder and first curator.
Creating a ‘Usable’ Past: The Legacy of the 1917 Revolution in Modern Russia
by Dr Matthew Rendle
Date: Tuesday 27 October 2020
This talk explores how Putin’s Russia has attempted a delicate balancing act whilst commemorating the centenary of the 1917 Revolution.
Out of China: How the Chinese ended the era of Western domination.
by Professor Robert Bickers
Date: Tuesday 10 November 2020
This talk explores Why today’s assertive and economically successful China dwells on its past: why does its history matter?
Supermac: The Last Edwardian – a Portrait of Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister
by Andrew Baker
Date: Thursday 18 February 2021
What shaped Macmillan’s character and beliefs; what tragedies beset his personal life; his style, vision, wit and melancholy; his place in history.
Sugar
by Professor James Walvin
Date: Tuesday 24 November 2020
How was sugar transformed from a luxury, to a necessity, then, more recently, to a global health problem – all via the history of slavery?
Chartism and the Plug Plot Riots of 1840’s
by Brent Shore
Date: Thursday 4 February 2021
I will consider the topic with reference to the research and writing of my 2019 novel “Blessed are the Meek”.
A Moral Threesome: Florence Nightingale and the Herberts
by Dr Ruscombe Foster
Date: Tuesday 8 December 2020
One of Britain’s greatest heroines owed much to a now largely forgotten glamourous couple: the Herberts of Wilton House.
Last Supper in Pompeii
by Professor Paul Roberts
Date: Thursday 21 January 2021
Last Supper in Pompeii celebrates the Roman love affair with food and drink
The Making of the Riviera – People and Places
by Julian Halsby
Date: Thursday 4 March 2021
The Riviera became the centre for artists, writers, politicians, musicians and architects as well as the super-rich between 1918 and 1939. I examine their gilded existence
The Anglo-Saxons
by Dr Marc Morris
Date: Thursday 18 March 2021
A discussion on the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons into Britain.
Byzantium and the fall of Constantinople
by Professor Jonathan Harris
Date: Thursday 7 January 2021
The last days of Byzantium as its impregnable capital city was besieged by the Ottoman Sultan in May 1453.
