The Virgin and The Gypsy, Vile Bodies &, Mapp & Lucia – Portraits of the nineteen twenties?
Do these novels by DH Lawrence, Evelyn Waugh and EF Benson seem an eclectic selection? They’re three titles you might have bought in the years 1930 and 1931. Are they still relevant today? What kind of reader would you be? … More details …
The Natural World: owls and birdsong
Part 1 Owls: Their natural history and conservation. This 3 week course looks at Owls with British focus, as we look at their evolution, special adaptations, habitats, and individual species breakdown. We will also look at conservation of Owls. After … More details …
Art and architecture along the Silk Road
This course will take us on a journey in the footsteps of the merchants who travelled the Silk Road, studying some of the sites they would have seen in the first millenium when mercantile activity was at its height. We … More details …
Modern Scottish Poetry
In this course we will explore the range of locations and contexts that have inspired the rich tradition of poetry in Scotland. From the islands of Orkney to urban Edinburgh and Glasgow, both male and female poets from very diverse … More details …
Paris 1925: The Birth of Art Deco and Modernism
This course is fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on a waiting list for any cancellations. A thoroughly French affair, the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale Des Arts Decoratifs et Industrials Moderne was dominated by … More details …
Reading Paintings
Explore the links between art and literature, from the Mona Lisa to The Lady of Shalott. We will begin by reading a single painting in detail, William Holman Hunt’s The Awakening Conscience (1853). We then broaden our focus to other … More details …
Virgil’s “Aeneid” (Sarah Ruden verse translation)
In our reading and discussion of the “Aeneid”, we shall be looking at the mythology of the fall of Troy, the themes of fate and destiny, the importance of ‘pietas’ and ‘virtus’ in relation to the character of Aeneas. We … More details …
Lionheart and Lackland – the reigns of King Richard and King John
In this course we will explore the reigns of the Plantagenet kings Richard and John. The course will cover the Third Crusade, the Angevin wars with France, the First Barons War and Magna Carta. Over six weeks we will consider … More details …
Florence and the Dawn of the Renaissance
Why did the renaissance start in Florence? Florentine art and history at the time of Fra Angelico, Uccello, Botticelli and others. What was it about 15th century Florence that provided the ingredients for an apparent explosion of art and culture? … More details …
Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and the Fin de Siècle
Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula provides a fascinating look at late nineteenth-century concerns. This is a novel about so much more than vampires dealing with race, empire, the new woman, sexuality, religion, science and medicine. Dracula is a fascinating novel … More details …
Fierce Tears: A Day with Dylan Thomas
Original, intuitive and imaginative, Dylan Thomas brought his obsession with words and imagery into all his work: his poetry, stories, plays and radio broadcasts. But he also fostered a scandalous reputation as a hard-living, drunken, doomed poet who compromised his … More details …
Pools, Piers and Pleasure: Architecture at the Seaside
This day school explores the distinctive architectural heritage of Britain’s seaside resorts. Starting in the Georgian era, it will cover the evolving range of building types that provided first for health tourists, then for pleasure seekers. Cast iron was the … More details …
The Art of Cornwall – Newlyn and Lamorna
This day-school will examine how the foundations of modern painting developed in Cornwall in the late 1880s to the 1920s. We see how Newlyn and Lamorna became important in the evolution of modern British painting.
More details ...Be Still My Beating Heart: Unenviable Proposals in Fiction
This study day will look at marriage proposals across a range of nineteenth-century fiction. Whilst there will be a light-hearted consideration of the many unenviable proposals that appear in fiction from this period. We will also consider the more serious … More details …
Mixed Media Returns
Drawing, Painting, Printing and Collage. Have a go at all these media in an encouraging and stimulating group. You will produce artworks that may surprise and even delight you.
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