Professor Niger Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, University of Oxford will deliver a talk on Ethics and Empire. From the 18th century until the years after the Second World War  Britain ruled an enormous  empire. Attitudes to this have changed over the last 100 years, moving from popular pride to doubt and guilt. […]

Professor Alan Smithers, Director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research, University of Buckingham Alan Smithers is a highly regarded national figure who is frequently consulted for his views on a wide range of current issues.  He will talk about the present day state of England’s education, how it got there, what is functioning […]

Talk by Jill Edwards, Member, English-Speaking Union. Jill is going to talk about people she has met and events that have occurred in her lifetime. Educated at Roedean School and the Royal  Central School of Speech and Drama, she was a contemporary of Dame Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave. She has acquired over the years […]

ALL WRAPPED UP: A CHRISTMAS CONFECTION Caroline Bacon, Former Curator of Cecil Higgins, and Manager of Rothsay Education Centre Taking Christmas, Winter and the Nativity as our theme, we will look at a number of artists from Breughel to Damien Hirst and their response to Christmas (or winter) through a variety of art media. An […]

THE RT HON BARONESS D’SOUZA, Former Lord Speaker of the House of Lords Our speaker has had a distinguished career in science – anthropology, brain chemistry and human nutrition. She has, in addition, a wide range of other interests – human rights, development, gender equality. She was created a Life Peer in 2004 and sat […]

PROFESSOR GARY GERSTLE, Professor of American History and Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge Gary Gerstle lives in Cambridge, England, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is primarily an historian of 20th century America with particular expertise in immigration and race issues. He has lectured worldwide, and is frequently consulted for his views on contemporary […]

DR MARK CREES English teacher, author, Chairman of the Rutherford Society. MARK RUTHERFORD’S PEOPLE Hale White was born in Bedford in 1831 and educated at Bedford Modern School. A nonconformist in religion and a civil servant and journalist. For his novels he assumed the pseudonym, Mark Rutherford. Dr Crees’s presentation will partly be a talk […]

‘Churchill: a flawed talent?’ with Allen Packwood (Churchill archives, Churchill College, Cambridge) It has long been accepted that Churchill was one of the great figures in British history. A man of huge talent, a great war leader, an inspiring orator, a prolific writer - but also a man with many flaws, an unpopular political figure, […]