Mozart – The Soul of a Genius
Mozart stands as the epitome of musical genius, revered and cherished by scholars, critics, performers and listeners alike. The universal allure of his compositions begs the question: what elements make his music so universally captivating? Our exploration today aims to … More details …
‘Life after Life’ by Kate Atkinson – the shaping of history in fictional worlds
This was Kate Atkinson’s ninth novel. A tricky narrative, playing games with story and reader. Is it a family saga? Is it a historical novel? A war novel? Do we need to categorise a work of fiction? As well as … More details …
Shakespeare and History: the real Wars of the Roses
Shakespeare’s earliest plays deal with the most turbulent period in English history, from the loss of France through to the Battle of Bosworth. Along the way he addresses the burning of Joan of Arc, the murder of a king, and … More details …
Film Music in the Modern Era
An exploration of movie scoring from the 1970s to the present day. Following on from Ben’s Film Music course last year, this day course will look at the art of writing music for movies and TV, including examples of music … More details …
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow Four
This course is now fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list in case of any cancellations. Charles Rennie Mackintosh is now lauded as Scotland’s greatest modern architect but sadly his potential … More details …
‘Answering Back’
Contemporary poets were invited to select a poem from our literary heritage and respond to it in any way they wished. “Answering Back” is the resulting anthology. In this day school, we shall be discussing a selection from the anthology, … More details …
The Romanov Tsars – Power and Conflict in Tsarist Russia
This course is now fully booked. Please contact us if you wish to be placed on the waiting list for any cancellations. In this course we will be covering: The origins of Russia and the Romanov Dynasty and the reigns … 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …