The Pre-Raphaelite Dream – Explore the Victorian avant garde.
Explore the Victorian avant garde. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in 1848, and we will focus on its core members: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt. These artists were notorious for their painting style and their … More details …
Ann Radcliffe to Jane Austen – Female Gothic and Literary Homage
This six week course will provide the opportunity of bringing together two novels that are connected in the minds of many readers. Jane Austen’s heroine, Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, is very fond of reading gothic novels and one novel … More details …
From Tsar to Soviets 1917-1922
This course is now fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list for any cancellations. In this course we will explore the February revolution of 1917, the Provisional Government and Dual Power, … More details …
Poems for Christmas
Poets have approached the theme of Christmas from so many different perspectives, reflecting a wide variety of beliefs. We will read poems about the Annunciation from the Middle Ages, and the birth of Christ, from poets as diverse as Thomas … More details …
Introduction to the Arts and Crafts Movement
This course is fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list for any cancellations. “With the arrogance of youth, I determined to do no less than to transform the world with Beauty. … More details …
Cathedral Windows – a traditional hand-sewing technique
This course is fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be on the waiting list for any cancellations. A manipulated fabric technique which you will use to make a pin cushion and a needle case. This is … More details …
From Seed to Fork
This is a day school in two halves. In the morning we explore the extraordinary 450 million-year evolution of plants and the inventive ways they solved the many problems arising from the move on to dry land – gravity, nutrition, … More details …
Seamus Heaney: poet of place
This course is fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be on the waiting list for any cancellations. Throughout his life, Seamus Heaney derived poetic inspiration from various quarters. However, many of his poems are rooted … More details …
The English Country House, 1600 – 1918
This survey will adopt a chronological approach as we study the changing architectural design and role that the country house played in English culture. Our first session will feature Jacobean properties such as Chastleton House; our second session will examine … More details …
Reading Dr Zhivago – seeing history through a fictional world?
We will be discussing the unabridged version of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak. There are several translations. The three main ones are: Max Hayward and Manya Harari; Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and the most recent, by Nicolas Pasternak Slater. … More details …
Richard Strauss – a first-class second-rate composer
The last of the great German romantic composers, Strauss provides an important bridge between 19th century ideals and early modernism. We’ll discuss his life-story and his guiding philosophical beliefs as well as listening to his tone poems, his operas, his … More details …
Alexander the Great
This course is specifically aimed at students who have heard of Alexander but know very little about him. We will look at his background, his character and his extraordinary achievements. This will be underpinned by an introduction to the main … More details …
The Cult of Gloriana – Elizabeth I and the Elizabethans – a cultural golden age
This course is fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list for any cancellations. Elizabeth I was the most remarkable woman of a remarkable age. Her reign was one of the great … More details …
It’s a sensation!
Sensation fiction was an instant commercial success and took the literary world by storm in the 1860s. With scandalous protagonists and thrilling plots, sensation fiction captured the imagination of readers and outraged many critics. We will consider Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s … More details …
More Mixed Media
This course is now fully booked. Please contact us if you wish to be placed on the waiting list for any cancellations. On the first Mixed Media course we experimented with mixing different art materials. Even more variations still wait … More details …