The Messiah G.F. Handel
Handel’s Messiah is a work that transcends, genre, and even time – it is the greatest choral work ever created and a piece that to this day brings joy to the world. Our day course will explore the origins of … More details …
More Patchwork and Quilting
Make a lap-sized Sampler quilt whilst learning many different hand sewing patchwork techniques. Then quilt and assemble using a Quilt-As-You-Go method. Ideal for beginner and experienced sewers alike. Although a continuation of the previous 5 week course, all the basics … More details …
Anthony Trollope’s The Last Chronicle of Barset
The sixth and final novel in Trollope’s Barsetshire Chronicles reunites us with a cast of characters we have come to know over the previous novels in the series and introduces us to a few new ones. The novel moves between … More details …
Reading 1936 part 2: Discussing The Weather in the Streets, by Rosamond Lehmann
Virago Modern Classics described this novel as ‘years ahead of its time’. It was an instant best-seller, in Britain and France. Is it still a satisfying read? Lehmann presents us with characters who inhabit a different sphere of society to … More details …
Reading 1936 part 3: Discussing South Riding, by Winifred Holtby
This much-loved novel has been adapted for screen four times. The first was completed in 1938. It’s also been dramatised for radio several times. What is it about this story that keeps writers and directors returning to it? Published posthumously, … More details …
The Life and Art of Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch is known throughout the world for his iconic picture ‘The Scream’, but this great artist produced art of the highest quality for some sixty years. He depicted all stages of life in a colourful, varied and expressive way, … More details …
Reading 1936 part 1: Discussing Greengates, by RC Sherriff
Has this novel been undervalued in the past? RC Sherriff’s name is more commonly linked to his 1928 play, Journey’s End, a WWI drama, or with some of the Hollywood film scripts he wrote. He opens this novel on the … More details …
Reading 1960: Barstow, Reid-Banks & Amis
Join us in discussing three short novels published in 1960. We’ll begin with The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid-Banks, a novel that looks back to the 1950s. For the second session we’ll consider Take a Girl Like You, by Kingsley Amis. For the … More details …
Liberalism to Fascism: Mussolini’s Italy 1922-43
This course is fully booked. Please contact us if you would like to be placed on the waiting list for any cancellations. In this course we will be looking at the history and politics surrounding Mussolini’s fascist regime from 1922 to … More details …
Philip Larkin, The Early Years (A Centenary Celebration)
2022 marks the centenary of Philip Larkin’s birth. This dayschool offers a chance to explore and possibly reassess some of his earlier poetry, most notably in the volume that brought him to the attention of a wider audience, The Less … More details …
The Creation: JF Haydn
Spend a day with some of the most joyous and delightful music in the classical repertoire – Haydn’s beautiful Creation. Composed as a response to Handel’s Messiah, this great work is rightly considered an essential piece for all lovers of … More details …
History of Architecture in Britain – Medieval to Neoclassical
This Study Day will examine the development of architecture in England during a period of great change. The gothic style of the medieval period was beginning to be superseded by Renaissance ideas, which although not fully understood at the time … More details …
1922 – a year of challenge and change
A hundred years ago saw the publication of Ulysses by James Joyce, and T S Eliot’s The Waste Land. It was also a year when modernist poets such as Rilke, Paul Valery and Wallace Stevens produced important works. Both among … More details …
Christmas Card Workshop
Prepare for Christmas by designing and making your own unique cards. There will be ribbons, textured papers, fabric, sequins etc for you to choose from. Envelopes will be provided for your finished pieces. No stitching required, just scissors, glue and … More details …
Edith Wharton – selected novels
This six week course will look at two novels by the American novelist Edith Wharton. We will start with her 1913 novel The Custom of the Country (1913) with its depiction of the social climbing Undine Spragg (weeks 1 – … More details …