Selected novels of Thomas Hardy
This six week course will look at two novels by Thomas Hardy. Starting with The Mayor of Casterbridge (1866) we will consider concepts including ideas of tradition and modernity, time and history, the urban and the rural and ideas of … More details …
Reading Paintings: Genre Pictures
From Jan Steen to Johannes Vermeer, some great artists painted genre scenes (pictures of everyday life). This course analyses some of the finest examples, including tavern scenes, brothel scenes, and servants at work. These paintings tell us an enormous amount … More details …
Rebellion and disorder under the Tudors 1485 -1603
In this course we will explore the dramatic clashes which peppered Tudor England, including dynastic challenges and violent social, economic and religious rebellions. We will investigate the evolving relationship between the monarchy, nobility, and people of England, and how disorder … More details …
North (1975) Seamus Heaney
“North”, published in 1975 is divided into two parts. The first contains poems which are more symbolic in nature, taking themes such as the myth of Hercules and Antaeus, the bog bodies of Northern Europe, the Vikings and other historical … More details …
Should I take an umbrella?
Suppose you decide to leave your brolly at home and it rains. Were you unlucky? Did you check the forecast? We shall look at how data can help us deal with uncertainty, chance, luck and risk.
More details ...An Introduction to Artists’ Books
Making an Artist Book combines craft with art and is an art form started in France in the early 1900s. We will look at some examples, then make a Pocket Accordion with separate cover. This book can be used to … More details …
Emile Galle and Louis Majorelle: Masters of French Art Nouveau
2026 marks the centenary of the death of the designer Louis Majorelle who collaborated with Emile Galle, famed for his glass, in launching L’Ecole de Nancy. Nancy, capital of Lorraine, was transformed into a Ville d’Art as houses, banks, shops and restaurants in … More details …
Early Dickens – Sketches by Boz
Sketches by Boz were the first published sketches by Charles Dickens. This course will look at a range of these sketches over three weeks and consider what themes are raised, discuss them in the wider context of the Dickens canon and … More details …
Origins of Us: Why we think how we do
Have you ever wondered why we think in the way we do? This course aims to trace the changes in ideas, culture and mental patterning that have marked our journey from the Stone Age to the Age of AI. We’ll … More details …
More Chekhov Short Stories
Chekhov wrote and sold short stories and vignettes of Russian life from 1880 to 1903, the year before his death from tuberculosis aged forty-four. During those twenty-three years, while he was also studying and practicing medicine, he produced at least … More details …
More Trolloping – Orley Farm
This stand-alone novel, Orley Farm, by prolific nineteenth-century novelist Anthony Trollope is a tale of family relationships, inheritance and suspected property fraud. It provides us with a window into Victorian society and the ideas that underpinned it.
More details ...Vikram Seth’s The Golden Gate
Vikram Seth is the global bestselling author of A Suitable Boy and An Equal Music. His first novel is an unrivalled triumph of both imagination and craft: an eloquent, thrilling soap opera set in 1980s San Francisco, featuring a politicised … More details …
Diego and Frida
Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the iconic Mexican artists whose passionate, volatile yet enduring relationship created numerous great works of art. They shared a deep artistic and political bond which helped create some of the most iconic paintings of the … More details …
Neo-classicism: Art in the age of revolution & Napoleon
This short course uses paintings, prints and architecture to shed light on the exciting and colourful period around the time of the French revolution. At the time of the French revolution and Napoleon there was also a revolution in the … More details …
Making Paradise on the French Riviera
“The French Riviera is the playground of the rich, the famous, and those who appreciate the finer things in life.” Monet, Renoir, and Cézanne were attracted from the 1870s onwards by the scenery and the light of the French Riviera. … More details …