From the snowy, enigmatic landscapes of Levitan and majestic forests of Shishkin to the moving portraits and epic panoramas of Repin, only hardened cynics will fail to be unmoved by the power of Russian realism artists. 

A senior modern languages teacher in an independent grammar school for many years, I have also enjoyed a successful parallel career since the 1980s as a professional artist and interior designer. Since 2006 I have been regularly appointed to 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 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 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.

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 is 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.

Howard Smith will talk about the birth of documentary films in the 1930s, through the experimental Soviet era to the 129 films produced in seven years by the GPO Film Unit, including 'Night Mail' with poetry by W. H. Auden and music by Benjamin Britten.  He will include clips from Victorian and Edwardian films.

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.

Note that this is a Special Inerest Event, not a normal lecture, but please give us your feedback by clicking on the link at the bottom left of this page of this page.

Many of our historical references for musical instruments can be found in works of art.    The works of great painters including Brueghel, Hogarth and Rigaud feature woodwind instruments and allow us to see what they looked like.  As well as explaining the social context and the development of the instruments, Sophie Matthews lets us hear what they sounded like as she plays her replica instruments.

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 GreenMatthews, 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.

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 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.

In his own words, Guy Rooker says:

I come to The Arts Society not with a background in the arts but from the world of science in general, and surgery in particular. I describe myself as a retired surgeon with a lifelong passion, fascination, and admiration for the work of Leonardo da Vinci. I consider 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.

Timothy Walker studied for a BA degree in Botany at University College, Oxford. From 1980–82, he was a trainee gardener at the Oxford Botanic Garden before studying for a National Certificate in Horticulture at Askham Bryan College in North Yorkshire. After a spell as a trainee gardener at the Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park he was a diploma student at Kew Gardens. From 1986–88 he was General Foreman at the Oxford Botanic Garden then from 1988–2014 he was Horti Praefectus of the Garden before becoming Director.. He has extensive lecturing experience and has won four gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. 

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 gained a 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.

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.

Now working as a freelance lecturer in the History of Art, Lynne originally trained as a fine artist and has taught painting, drawing and printmaking in higher and adult education. She lectured as an art historian for the universities of Sussex and Bristol where she introduced 'Understanding Art' to the Lifelong Learning programme and residential summer schools. 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. She has worked as a professional artist specializing in oil painting and etching. Solo and group shows have included the RWA, British Museum and the Barbican.

London’s Tite Street was one of the most influential artistic quarters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A staggering amount of talent thrived in just this one street in Chelsea, including James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Oscar Wilde, John Singer Sargent, Robert Brough, Glyn Philpot, Augustus John, Romaine Brooks and Gluck. Throughout its turbulent history it remained home to innumerable artists, writers, suffragettes, queers and madmen. Here Whistler was bankrupted, Oscar Wilde imprisoned and Frank Miles went mad. This lecture ties together the private and professional lives of its inhabitants to form a colourful tapestry of art and intrigue.

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 Century Europe?  Artemesia Gentileschi (1593-1654) was by no means the only woman painter of her period, but she was a rarity and she 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 Domenchino in the very male world of the Roman studio.

Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe has an MA in History of Art from Edinburgh, PhD from the Warburg Institute, London University. With 40 years' experience as a lecturer, she 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 and study sessions.

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.

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.

William will cover the topography of the site and the various excavations that have taken place there since 1938.  He will discuss the finds in detail, including the sword, shield, lyre, sceptre, silverware, coins and jewellery including, of course, the iconic helmet from mound 1. He will talk about the Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in 2000 and about the opening of the National Trust's visitor centre, by Seamus Heaney, in 2002.  He will also draw parallels to the Staffordshire Hoard and Prittlewell Burial.

William Forrester has an 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 drawn from 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.”.

Sandy is one of the UK’s most versatile music commentators, enjoying a career that combines broadcasting, performing and lecturing. After studying at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge and working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and in London’s West End, Sandy Burnett spent a decade as one of the core team of presenters on BBC Radio 3. Combining engaging scholarship with hands-on expertise, he devises and leads cultural holidays all over the world, is the author of the Idler Guide to Classical Music, is a highly sought after double bassist on the London jazz scene, and was appointed the Academy of Ancient Music’s Hogwood Fellow for the 2018-19 season.

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?

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. 

Nineteenth Century Scandinavian landscape paintings have helped confirm the difference from Mediterranean culture and shaped national identity.  They are confident affirmations of Northerness.

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 (previously known as NADFAS) and The Art Fund, and presents residential study courses in Britain and Europe.

Below is a list of prominent Scandinavian artists, some of whose works were included in Tim's lecture:

Johan Christian Dahl (Norway)

(Jacob van Ruisdael – Dutch 17th century)

(Allart van Everdingen – Dutch 17th century)

Werner Holmberg (Finland)

Gerhard Munthe (Norway)

Ferdinand von Wright (Finland)

Anders Zorn (Sweden)

Peter Hansen (Denmark)

Otto Hesselbom (Sweden)

Victor Westerholm (Finland)

Lars Hertevig (Norway)

Eugene Jansson (Sweden)

Christian Skredsvig (Norway)

Erik Pavelsen (Denmark)

F. Skjöldebrand (Seden)

Johan Thomas Lundbyer (Denmark)

Martin Rᴓrbye (Denmark)

(Carl Spitzweg – Germany)

C. W. Eckersberg (Norway)

Johannes Flintoe (Norway)

Christian Kᴓbke (Denmark)

Carl Sundt-Hansen (Norway)

Thomas Fearnley (Norway)

(Caspar David Friedrich – Germany)

Adolph Tidemand (Norway)

Hans Gude (Norway)

Kilian Zoll (Sweden)

August Cappelen (Norway)

Marcus Larson (Sweden)

Peder Balke (Norway)

Alfred Wahlberg (Sweden)

Karl Nordström (Sweden)

Carl Larsson (Sweden)

Theodor Philipsen (Denmark)

Otto Sinding (Norway)

Frits Thaulow (Norway)

(Knut Hamsun – Norway; author)

Hans Heyerdahl (Norway)

Oscar Wergeland (Norway)

Gustav Wentzel (Norway)

Knut Bergslien (Norway)

Many of Dickens' characters  - Mr Micawber, Fagin, Abel Magwitch - remain with us long after the books are put down.  The talk is interspersedwith 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. 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, has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled All Aboard. 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 ‘microhistory 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 that this lecture is preceded by the Society's Annual General Meeting which will start at 1.45 pm prompt. 

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 gained a 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.

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 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.

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 is 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.

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. The whole journey can be achieved in a one hour lecture or in a slightly less hectic day of special interest.

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.

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 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.

‘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 was 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 interests and 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. This lecture will be jargon-free with audience engagement, backed by high quality slides. 

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.

John Osborne graduated in Classics at Cambridge University and has taught Classics at Marlborough College for over thirty years. He 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.

Please note that this lecture is preceded by the Society's Annual General Meeting which will start at 1.45 pm prompt. 

Dame Zaha Hadid died on 31st March 2016 at the 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 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 the work of Foster, Hopkins and Grimshaw.

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 exhibition 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 dramatic landscapes of the West for another half century.  A remarkable life and wonderful paintings.

Roger Mitchell studied history at Oxford and Fine Art at Leeds. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to travel and study in the USA and followed an academic career. Now Roger organises and leads Country House study tours and tries to find time to research British and American country houses.

The 17th 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 doll’s 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. 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 is an historian with interests in architecture and the arts.  She was born in the Netherlands where she studied history. 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 marketplaces and their buildings (2008).

Food and Art Through the Ages is 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. Hosted by Food Historian Tasha Marks, this lecture is a treat for those with a sweet tooth, as Marks feels the subject of food and art through the ages is most exciting in the realms of the dessert. Topics covered include; the origins of dessert, the crossover between sugar and art, architecture and dessert (including Renaissance banqueting houses), sugar and spectacle, food as artistic medium, and the future of food. This exploration into the realms of dessert as spectacle includes an accompanying display to illustrate and enhance the historic subject.

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-type 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 cookery authors.

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. There was also 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.

Novelist, broadcaster and critic, Sarah Dunant read History at Cambridge, then worked for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television in such programmes as Kaleidoscope (Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC 2) and Night Waves (BBC Radio 3). She has published 13 novels, taught Renaissance studies at Washington University, St Louis and is a visiting tutor on the MA creative writing course at Oxford Brookes. Her next novel, In the Name of the Family, completes the story of the Borgia family and the remarkable period of Italian history in which they lived.

The story of one of the greatest collaborations of all; Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, whose team of dancers, choreographers and costume and set designers transformed expectations of what a night at the theatre could be and the circumstances behind its most notorious stage work of all time. The lecture examines the build up to The Rite of Spring’s premier 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 studied Music at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge followed by working as music director for the RSC, National Theatre and various West End theatres, also spending a decade as one of the music presenters on BBC Radio 3.

The Angel Roof is one of the most impressive and complex examples of decorative carpentry. The hammerbeam roof is another. In East Anglia the two structures often combine, but rarely elsewhere in the country.

Between 1395 and about 1530, several hundred angel roofs were built in England, most of them in the 1400s which was a centry of usurption, conquest and loss in France, the Wars of the Roses here and the birth of the Tudor dynasty. More than 140 roofs survive today, almost exclusively in churches and predominantly in East Anglia.

This lecture will be followed by a three course lunch and will be held in Lavenham Village Hall. The booking dealine is 16th October and you can download an application and menu by CLICKING HERE.

Edward Frederick Benson, 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, AC Benson was notable as the author of the words of Land of Hope and Glory and of the longest diary in the English Language. EF Benson 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 & Lucia novels are set in ‘Tilling’, Benson’s own loosely disguised home town of Rye and feature sharply drawn satirical portraits of its inhabitants.  Benson’s literary style delivered personal venom and animosity in elegant prose. This lecture explores this enigmatic figure.

Roger Askew MA was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford. He graduated with an honours degree in English. He has combined a teaching career with professional singing. He is President Emeritus of the Stoke Poges Society.

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 history is an age-old motivation, in recent centuries this has been formalised in the Cabinet of Curiosities and then the modern museum. But curiosity itself is not enough (to some) to justify keeping these collections, today they are used to understand how the universe, our world and humans came into being. They can also help us to learn how our planet is changing and what the future holds.

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

Dr Mark Spencer MLS has been fascinated by plants since he was a small boy. Originally a horticulturalist, he later studied botany at university after which he worked as a field botanist for a regional conservationist 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’.

It's art and artifice from costumes and sets to moguls and actors. 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.

Dr Geri Parlby, BA (Hons), MA (Courtauld), PhD, FRSA 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 and she is also principal lecturer on the The Arts Society 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.

Josiah Wedgwood, one of Britain's greatest potters, was commissioned by the Empress of Russia to produce a typical English dinner service for her country estate. Art, patronage and politics were all involved in its production.

Deborah Lambert was a former Curator of the Schroder Collection, a private art collection. She studied for her MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute and worked for many years as an academic director and lecturer for Christie's Education. She makes a regular appearance as a furniture specialist on the Antiques Roadshow.

To say that Rosamund Bartlett is a Russian culture expert is an understatement. She has published a number of books about the period and is generally recognised as a significant authority on the period. Many members will remember her previous visits to us.

Rosamund Bartlett was born in London. She holds a doctorate from Oxford, and spent fifteen years pursuing an academic career, latterly as Reader in Russian at the University of Durham, before becoming a full-time writer, translator and lecturer.  She continues to maintain an active scholarly profile in Russian literature, music and cultural history, and has recently held fellowships at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and the European University Institute in Florence.  She is currently an associate of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford and Honorary Research Associate at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney.  In 2015 she was awarded the Mary Zirin prize by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.

She is the author and editor of several books, including Wagner and Russia, Shostakovich in Context, Chekhov: Scenes from a Life, and Tolstoy: A Russian Life, which was longlisted for the 2011 Samuel Johnson Prize.  She has also received recognition as a translator, having edited the first unexpurgated collection of Chekhov’s letters for Penguin Classics, and produced the first new translation of Anna Karenina for Oxford World’s Classics in 96 years. Her Chekhov anthology About Love and Other Stories was shortlisted for the Weidenfeld Translation Prize. 

She has been travelling regularly to Russia since 1978, and spent a year attached to Moscow State University as a British Council Postgraduate Scholar while doing her doctoral research.  In 2007 she began a campaign to restore Chekhov’s house in Yalta, and remains a Trustee of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, a UK charity set up to preserve and honour the writer’s literary and humanitarian legacy. In 2010 she was awarded the Chekhov 150th Anniversary Medal by the Russian Ministry of Culture in recognition of her educational and charitable work.

Laura Knight was a war artist in both WW1 and WW2. She was the first woman to be elected to the Royal Academy and was made a Dame. Born in 1877, at the height of her fame in the 1930's, she was regarded as a 'character'. She won fame with her colourful circus and ballet scenes which were very popular but which now seem a little corney!

Timothy Wilcox studied Modern Languages before taking a postgraduate degree in History of Art at the Courtauld Institute. A former museum curator, he is now an independent curator and writer; he taught at Brighton and Surrey Universities, and Summer Schools in Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute. His interests range from British watercolours to modern British painting and studio ceramics.

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 is a prize-winning historian, a Classicist, a lecturer on the national circuit, a poet, a father and a wild swimmer with a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering the layers of the past.

A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London (where he immersed himself in the ‘Byzantine’, or medieval Greek Empire), 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, Selborne: Gilbert White’s Village and Sherborne St John and the Vyne in the Time of Jane Austen. His most recent books are Reading and its Contribution to World Culture, an antidote to the vulgarity of modern Reading; and the companion volume – perhaps his greatest challenge to date – Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture.

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.

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. Louise last presented to us in February 2016.

Victorian Houses and their great Studios became centres of patronage for nineteenth-century artists such as Lord Leighton and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

Mark Bills, Director of Giansborough's House, studied at the Slade School of Art and at the universities of Birmingham and Manchester. Formerly Curator of Watts Gallery, and Senior Curator of Paintings, Print and Drawings, Museum of London and Visual Arts Officer at the RussellCotes Art Gallery and Museum. He has written widely including G F Watts Victorian Visionary: Highlights from the Watts Gallery Collection (co-editor and author, Yale University Press 2008), The Art of Satire: London in Caricature (Philip Wilson 2006), and William Powell Frith, (co-editor and author, Yale University Press 2006), as well as Art in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Wealth of Depictions (editor and author) and A Victorian Salon (editor and author) for Lund Humphries.  

Pablo Picasso spent his early years in the hedonistic and bohemian quarter of Paris, amongst both the impoverished and rich, and the soon to be famous artists and writers of the period. She will tell us what really happened in the Bateau Lavoir.

Hilary Guise has lectured extensively in the principal museums of London and in the universities of the United States. She trained as a painter at Central St Martin's and has exhibited in Germany and France. She lives in London and Provence. She has also worked for the Art Fund and taught at Cambridge University.

The Ministry of Fish, Hyderabad illustrates just one of a number of extraordinary buildings around the world included in Sarah's lecture.

Sarah read Art History at Reading University, gaining a first class BA and followed this with an MA in World Art Studies at UEA and a PhD in Architectural History at Reading. The subject of her doctoral thesis was the architect Francesco di Giorgio Martini and Sarah retains active research interests in Italian art and architecture and continues to publish in this field.

Sarah has been teaching and lecturing on a variety of art and architectural subjects since 2001 at Universities and adult education organisations. She is passionate about her subject and believes that learning about it should be both engaging and enjoyable for students.

Built as a final resting place for Mumtaz Mahal, the third and favourite wife of the Mughal emperor, by Shah Jahan. Building started in 1632 and finished around 20 years later.

Oliver Everett is Librarian Emeritus of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle and has fulfilled this role and that of Assistant Keeper of the Royal Collection since 1985. He served in the British Diplomatic Service in India. Much of his research is based on the Islamic manuscript, the Padshahnawa, which is the unique official history of Shah Jahan and the finest Islamic manuscript inthe Royal Library, presented to George III in 1797.

Preceded by the Annual General Meeting at 2.00 pm

Dr Sophie Oosterwijk joins us from Holland to reveal the story of 17th Century Dutch Painter and Storyteller Jan Steen. Dr Oosterwijk studied for her PhD in Art History at Leicester followed by English at Leiden Universities. A Faculty Member at St Andrew’s University, she also leads selected Art tours for Martin Randall Travel.

Jan Steen is known for his witty, domestic scenes of Dutch Life in the Golden Age of Painting, with some moralising thrown in for good measure.

Anna Buruma delivers her lecture ‘Designing Historical Costumes for Film and TV’ in what promises to be an informative and amusing journey through her experiences as a Costume Designer. She will share her involvement in several period productions from 15th Century France to 1840s Hollywood. Tribulations and tantrums may be expected.

Anna’s career has also included work with Liberty of London as a Fabric Archivist.

Today’s lecture is presented by Andy McConnell, familiar to us from the Antiques Roadshow as a specialist in Glass. As a valuer and dealer, every type of glass has passed through his hands and we will benefit from his great experience. With his own shop and gallery in Rye, Andy’s enthusiasm for his subject will be shown in this lecture entitled ‘The Impact of Glass on Everyday Lives’

Peter Warwick discusses the influence of his three extraordinary voyages of discovery on the thoughts, Arts and Sciences in the Age of Enlightenment.

Peter Warwick chairs three organisations: The 1805 Club, The New Waterloo Dispatch and Thames Alive. He is a Trustee of the Queen’s Row Barge ‘Gloriana’.

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.

Dr 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, 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. 

Toby Cspwell

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

The lecture focuses particularly on the story of the wine glass but includes those for other beverages. It will consider the drinking habits of other countries, for instance the fragile Venetian winged glass, German roemer, Dutch flute and the English baluster stemmed glass. Illustrated with fine glasses in scenes of feasting and conviviality.

Jane Gardiner holds an MA in History of Art from the University of London. She trained at the V & A; she continues to lecture at the V & A and also the Art Fund, National Trust, London University and Michigan State University. She was a senior lecturer at Sotheby's Institute for 17 years. She contributed four chapters to The Elements of Style - The Development of Design and Stylistic Elements from Renaissance to the Postmodern era (Mitchell Beazley 2003).

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, Jasper Maskelyne, 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.

But his greatest challenge was this. “The Suez Canal is over 100 miles long and 200 yards wide. We want you to hide it.”  As a result of his creativeness, 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 talk reveals the answer!

Nicholas Reed is an art historian and archaeologist. In the 1980's he became Founder Chairman of the Friends of Shakespeare's Globe. In 2005 he was one of two Lecturer Representatives on the NADFAS Advisory Council and also Vice-Chairman of Folkestone DFAS. He is the author of four books on the impressionists in England and one on the Frost Fairs on the Frozen Thames. His latest book My Father, the Man who never Was features in his latest NADFAS lecture, War Artists, Spies and the Art of Deception.

Caroline Shenton published her book on 'Parliament's forgotten fire' in 2012 and won the Political Book of the Year prize in 2013. She has also won Book of the Year awards from a number of daily papers. Her presentation describes how Parliament's forgotten fire on 16th October 1834 changed the face of Westminster for ever.

Caroline is an archivist, historian and author. She held the position of Director of Parliamentary Archives from 2008 until 2014 and prior to that was a senior archivist at Parliament and The National Archives at Kew.

She is Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Since the mid 19thCentury, modern art has been a popular subject for satire. Constantly changing and often bizarre, it made an irresistible target for a host of cartoonists and humorous writers. Some artists welcomed their attention, in the belief there was no such thing as bad publicity; others were hurt by what they considered an attack on their integrity. An illuminating lecture revealing a sidelong view of 150 years of modern art.

Graduating with an MA in the History of Art (Courtauld), Barry Venning has been an Associate lecturer for the Open University since 1986, teaching advanced courses on Modern Art, Italian Renaissance and "Art and its Histories".He has written and lectured extensively on Turner, and he is the author of books on Constable (1992) and Turner (2003).

The kingdom of Sheba covered what we, today, know as Ethiopia and Yemen. The famous Queen visited Jerusalem almost 3,000 years ago bringing gifts of gold for King Solomon. 

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.

Having been Curator of Greek Bronze Age and Geometric Antiquities in the British Museum for thirteen years, Louise Schofield 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 centre 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 St 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.

Dr. Sally Dormer has been the course tutor for the Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Year Course at the Victoria and Albert Museum since its inception in 1993 and has lectured there since 1984. She is a specialist medieval art historian and lecturer who gained an MA in Medieval Art History and a PH.D on medieval manuscript illumination at the Courtauld Institute, University of London.

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 is a writer, scholar, translator and lecturer who is most recently the author of Tolstoy: A Russian Life and translator of Anna Karenina.  She has also written a biography of Chekhov, and published translations of his short stories and letters.

She has lectured on Russian literature, music and cultural history at universities and public institutions around the world, and has a particular interest in the comparative history of European Modernism, opera, and the intersection between politics, history and the arts.

She is a Trustee of the Anton Chekhov Foundation, for which is she currently overseeing the Early Chekhov Translation Project

Prague remains one of the few European cities to have remained virtually untouched for over 300 years. The Gothic cathedral of St Vitus and the Castle dominate the city's skyline. Douglas Skeggs lecture allows you to breathe the centuries of European culture and the architectural heritage of this great city.

Douglas Skeggs read Fine Art at Magdalene College, Cambridge and since 1980 has been a lecturer on Art history and techniques of painting. He is an Artist, Biographer, Novelist and TV Presenter. He has written many novels and presented numerous TV documentaries, notably the Omnibus programme on Whistler, and the exhibition video on William Morris.

A pictorial tour of London's Street Art and Statues

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.

Annie talks about Mrs Beeton's book of household management in a culinary context 'the art of the table'.

Kandinsky was born in Russia in 1866 but didn't start painting until he was 30, inspired after seeing Monet's paintings.

He moved to Germany and formed the Blue Rider Group with Franz Marc and he and Gabrielle Muenter lived together. He was credited with being the first painter to do abstract and was regarded as an important theorist. Rosalind Whyte will fill in the gaps and complete the story for you.

Ashley was born in Wales and her influence on British fashion, interior design, and furnishings is substantial.

Anne Sebba will explore her life and despite her early death, the considerable influence she has had.

Things that go bump in the night.

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.

Jo's lecture will include items on frost fairs, races for royal yachts, and playgrounds for royalty and common man.

London’s grandest thoroughfare for centuries, the Thames has hosted royal weddings and state funerals, fireworks and pyrotechnics, music and masques, coronations and Lord Mayors’ 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 archeologists. 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 and masques, races for royal yachts and rowing boats, pleasure trips and regattas.

Jo Mabbutt is an artist who specialises in experimental surface decoration. She combines traditional gilding, hand printing and painting to create beautiful contemporary pieces. Inspired by antique lace she translates its delicacy onto paper, textiles and glass. You can find more information about Jo's work by clicking here.

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths support and encourage the development of contemporary silver and is at least in part responsible for the creative vitality of design and craftsmanship today.

If you are interested in this subject, you may also be interested in our Special Interest Morning Gold in the Gilbert Collection. Click here for more information.

Rosemary Ransome Wallis is Curator of Collections at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths and specialises in living designer and artist craftsmen.

Maggie's well illustrated talk is about organic gems and this one has a special slant towards Christmas.

Organic materials can be pearls, hoof, antler, bone, amber, ivory, feathers, seeds and more, all of which have been used as adornment.

The medieval royal chapel built between 1243 - 1248 for Louis IX.

Paintings, diary extracts and letters illustrate the talk.

Leslie Primo BA MA 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 Oxford and Rhodes universities 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.

Jacqueline Hyman gained conservation experience with the North of England Museum Service and later established a freelance studio in 1982. She is listed in ICOM’s Conservation Register and is an accredited conservation-restorer. Jacqueline has lectured and given Study Day Courses to NADFAS, Embroiderer’s Guild, Lace Guild, Antique Collector’s clubs and others. She has appeared on Channel 4, BBC2 and the Discovery Channel. She is Vice President of Bowden & District NADFAS.

Sarah Lenton has written and directed more than twenty shows for the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre, and writes, lectures and broadcasts on Opera. She gave our Christmas lecture All Done on Ginger Beer in 2009.