2010/11 Programme
PROGRAMME 2010/11 FLYER
To provide a good overview of the Wells Evening Society lectures for the 2010/11 season please click on the picture to the right in order to download an A4 PDF flyer that lists all the lectures.
This Flyer has been displayed in over 60 places in the local region to help promote the new seasons lectures for the Wells Evening Society.
It would be very helpful if Wells Evening Society members could print copies of this Flyer, best results obtained using 160 gram card, and distribute them in their local areas. We have already covered the towns fairly well - Wells, Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury, Street and Cheddar - so we need better cover in the villages.
Thanks for your help.
PROGRAMME 2010
7th October Thursday 7.30 pm
Dr David Bostwick
The Green Man in Art and Myth
David Bostwick is a lecturer and consultant in the cultural history of the Medieval, Tudor and Stuart periods. Former keeper of the social History Collections at Sheffield City Museums, Consultant to the National Trust, English Heritage and Historic Scotland and visiting lecturer at the University of Glasgow.
Although adopted by Christianity, with diverse images and pictures spreading widely in churches, the origin of 'the Green Man' (a name coined by Lady Raglan in 1939) dates back to Classical Rome.
Suppressed during the Reformation, images began to reappear on Scottish gravestones in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and subsequently featured in Victorian church restorations. The meaning of the variety of Green Man depictions is shrouded in a fascinating web of mystery.
4th November Thursday 7.30 pm
Prof Anthony Slinn
Guernica – The greatest painting of the 20th Century
Anthony Slinn is a professional artist who has over the years developed a series of lectures to share his enthusiasm for painting. Years of meticulous research involving travel to Europe and North America have made possible his unique presentations on the lives and works of famous artists.
Anthony will discuss the background of Picasso’s famous painting and how it came to be. He will give us a description of the town of Guernica together with an eye witness account of its savage bombing. The talk will explain the significance of the painting’s complex imagery and we will be shown unique images of the work in progress.
2nd December Thursday 7.30 pm
Nigel Rees
'I told you I was sick'
LECTURE CANCELLED DUE TO BAD WEATHER
WE ARE TRYING TO RE-SCHEDULE IT FOR LATER IN THE YEAR
Nigel Rees is an author and presenter who was at 32 was the youngest ever regular presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme. He has been involved in broadcasting all his working life but is perhaps best known for devising and hosting the long running (since 1976) Radio 4 panel game Quote... Unquote. He is the author of more than fifty books of reference, humour and fiction.
The title – taken from a gravestone – gives a flavour of the humorous talk that Nigel will give on the odd and often eccentric epitaphs found in churchyards. Illustrated with images taken by Nigel over the years, we will see and hear about many examples of the quirky eloquence of these memorials.
PROGRAMME 2011
6th January Thursday 7.30 p.m
Christopher Lewis
The Making of the Antique Road Show
Christopher Lewis joined the BBC as a researcher in 1968 and during his 35 years career in broadcasting he directed and produced a wide variety of programmes: from news and current affairs to documentaries, arts programmes and quizzes - including Animal Magic with Johnny Morris. Until he retired in 2003, he was the long-serving executive producer of the BBC's flagship programme Antiques Roadshow and oversaw its expansion to be one of the UK’s favourite television shows. He now gives fascinating and amusing talks about his experiences when working on the programme.
How is the Road Show set up, planned and operated? What are the problems that can arise? They range from rain on the garden shows, to elderly visitors whose health fails them at the crucial moment, to an outbreak of fleas at one of the experts' tables. And how does all that furniture get to the show?
Christopher Lewis, who has been associated with the famous BBC series since its early days, explains all. He will talk about the unexpected problems that can arise in the making of the programme and the unusual and often surprising anecdotes behind the many amazing finds.
3rd February Thursday 7.30 pm
Anthony Burton
'Appointed to direct the Art of the Country': Henry Cole, Victorian cultural impresario
Anthony Burton has been for most of his working life employed by the Victoria and Albert Museum. During this time, he has been Assistant Keeper of the library and Head of the V & A’s branch museum- the Bethany Green Museum of Childhood. He is a trustee of the Charles Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury and the author of several books including one about the V & A’s founding director: Henry Cole.
Henry Cole (1808-82) had a genius for agitation and propaganda. During his lifetime he helped to establish the Penny Post, was the lynchpin of the Great Exhibition of 1851, set up a nationwide art education system and founded the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Cole was personally interested in industrial design, and under the pseudonym Felix Summerly designed a number of items which went into production, including a prize-winning teapot manufactured by Minton. As Felix Summerly, he also wrote a series of children's books, including 'A book of stories from The Home Treasury'.
His many interventions in the life of his time (music, sewage disposal, cookery!) show boundless energy and irrepressible mischief.
17th February Thursday 7.30 pm Re-scheduled Lecture
Nigel Rees
'I told you I was sick' humorous talk on eccentric epitaphs
Nigel Rees is an author and presenter who was at 32 was the youngest ever regular presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme. He has been involved in broadcasting all his working life but is perhaps best known for devising and hosting the long running (since 1976) Radio 4 panel game Quote... Unquote. He is the author of more than fifty books of reference, humour and fiction.
The title – taken from a gravestone – gives a flavour of the humorous talk that Nigel will give on the odd and often eccentric epitaphs found in churchyards. Illustrated with images taken by Nigel over the years, we will see and hear about many examples of the quirky eloquence of these memorials.
3rd March Thursday 7.30 pm
Dr Adrian Tinniswood
The Moderne Movement: Art Deco and Avant-Garde Homes of the 20s and 30s
Adrian Tinniswood lives locally. He has been a lecturer at several universities in both the United Kingdom and United States, including the University of Oxford and the University of California, Berkeley. He has acted for many years as a consultant to the National Trust, and with the Heritage Lottery Fund. He is the author of fourteen books on social and architectural history, including The Art Deco House.
A brave new world? Or a momentary aberration? Decide for yourself, as Adrian discusses the rise and fall of Art Deco and its role in producing some of the most challenging and exciting architecture ever seen.
Art Deco was a popular international art design movement from 1925 until the 1940s, affecting every aspect of art and design: architecture, interior and industrial design, fashion, painting, the graphic arts and film. At the time, this style was seen as elegant, glamorous, functional and modern.
7th April Thursday 7.30 p.m
Oliver Everett
Windsor castle, its History and Royal Occupants
Oliver Everett worked for the Foreign Office in India and Spain before becoming in turn private secretary to the Prince of Wales and Diana Princess of Wales. Subsequently he was Librarian in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and Assistant Keeper of the Royal Archives. Following his retirement in 2002 he is now Librarian Emeritus. He wrote the official guidebook and audio tour on Windsor Castle, and lectures widely in Britain and abroad.
Windsor Castle is the oldest and largest continuously occupied castle in the world. The lecture will show how today's castle has grown from its 11th century origins as an impregnable fortress into the royal country residence of today – the Queen's favourite home. (We hope to arrange a day trip to Windsor Castle shortly after this lecture so that we can see for ourselves impact of history on the castle.)
28th April Thursday 7.30 pm
ADDITIONAL LECTURE
Dr Elizabeth Johnson
The Fifth Kingdom – Fungi Friend or Foe?
Dr Elizabeth Johnson is Director of the Health Protection Agency Mycology Reference Laboratory in Bristol and past President of the British Society for Medical Mycology. She is the author and co-author of several books and a frequent speaker both in the UK and overseas on issues involving the effects of fungal infections on human health
The Fifth Kingdom embraces a truly vast number of organisms that range from the highly visible common mushroom and a great variety of other toadstools through to huge numbers of yeasts that are barely visible to the naked eye or are truly microscopic. The talk will be illustrated with rarely seen and colourful pictures from the hidden world revealed by the microscope.
The microscopic appearance of the trumpet-shaped sporangium of Saksenae vasiformis, a beautiful but fast growing and rapidly invasive fungus that can cause devastating infections of wounds.