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Colin is a BAFTA award winning screenplay writer as well as a lecturer in the History of Film, author and producer of TV series such as Lovejoy and Wish Me luck. Illustrated with film clips from the period, he described how small film companies gravitated to California because of its perfect backdrop of sun, sea, mountains and desert. The first studios were controlled by creative ...

Christopher Bradley, writer, photographer, film producer and expert on the Middle East and North Africa took us on a very interesting journey from the origins of St Nicholas through to the present day’s Father Christmas, amply illustrated with photos of art and architecture of the times. Born over 1700 years ago in 270 AD to a wealthy family of Greek Christians, Nicholas lived all his ...

The first Virtual Tour of the season was both fascinating and extremely moving. Lecturer and Blue Badge Guide Ruth Polling gave an illuminating and poignant account of the Final Journey of the Unknown Warrior and tied together many key aspects of Remembrance in Britain today along the way. The funeral procession itself started at Victoria Station on the 11th November 1920 and thousands of people ...

In November, writer, journalist and broadcaster Sarah Dunant gave the most interesting and exciting lecture on The Borgias: The Most Infamous Family in History? Sarah has worked  for many years as a cultural journalist in radio and television on such programmes as Kaleidoscope (BBC Radio 4), The Late Show (BBC2), and Night Waves (BBC Radio 3). She is also a renowned English writer having written thirteen novels, her last five being set ...

After 6 years in the organising, 53 members of our Society finally made their way to Westminster Abbey for a musical tour led by the Purcell Club. The Purcell Club’s members are mainly former Choristers of Westminster Abbey. There are about ten tours a year which offer a unique opportunity to see the Abbey in the quiet of the evening, and raise thousands of pounds ...

This special interest day consisted of a series of three lectures, the first lecture covered the first two millennia of Chinese cultural history up to 1000 AD, the Second from 1000 AD to 1644 and the end of the Ming Dynasty, while the third continued from 1644 Qing Dynasty up to 1911. Lecture 1  China from earliest times to 1000 AD China was known  as ...

Who was Pieter Bruegel the Elder? Where was he born? In what year? We don’t know the exact answer to these questions according to Clare Ford-Wille, Art Historian and lecturer, who gave a fascinating account of Bruegel’s life and art. Research has put Bruegel’s birth between 1525 – 1530 at Breda in the Netherlands. What we do know is that he became one of the ...

Members thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the London home of the Duke of Northumberland. Syon House is right under the flight path to Heathrow Airport but this fails to spoil viewing the beautiful Park and Great Conservatory, and the grand Robert Adam interior. Syon takes its name from Syon Abbey, a monastery established in the early 15C which occupied the site until the reign of ...

The Arts Society was very lucky to have artist, designer and lecturer Richard Whincop to step in with his lecture “Pomp, and Feast, and Revelry :The Medieval Year in Art”. This was to replace Dr Paul Roberts’ talk on Pompeii, who was unwell. Life was tough in Medieval Europe, with a lot of hard work and little entertainment for a mainly illiterate general population. However, ...

Members of the society were taken on a trip down Memory Lane when, after two postponements due to Covid, Tony Rawlins came to give his excellent and entertaining talk “Baroque on a Roll’, to an extremely appreciative audience. Reminding us of the immense power music has to influence mood, Tony began by saying that 60% of under 35 year olds listen to Classical Music and ...

On a sunny June day, we set off by coach to Banbury for Broughton Castle. Welcomed with coffee, homemade shortbread and chocolate cookies, we then had the luxury of having the visit to the Castle all to ourselves. Divided into two groups with two excellent guides, we learned about this beautiful and ancient moated castle which originally dated back to the 1300s and which has ...

Peter Medhurst, lecturer, musician and singer gave a stimulating and enthusiastic lecture on J.S Bach.  Demonstrating his deep knowledge and understanding of the music by playing and singing excerpts to illustrate his points, Peter showed why for many Bach is considered the greatest of all composers. Born in 1685 in Eisenbach the same year as Scarlatti and Handel; all three were key composers of the Baroque ...