Our Events in 2011
We began 2011 with a unique series of events each presented by direct descendants of famous authors
January
Friday January 21st
An Evening With Virginia Nicholson
Great niece of Virginia Woolf , daughter of Quentin Bell and granddaughter of artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, Virginia talks about her acclaimed novel Among the Bohemians. With her ancestors,
all prominent members of The Bloomsbury Group and being all too familiar with the family home of Charleston where she spent most of her school holidays. Virginia describes the life and times.of the artistic
community in the early twentieth century with incredible accuracy and insight. Eccentric and flamboyant, they rejected the Victorian life-style, sent their children to co-educational schools, explored free-love
and open marriage, were often drunk and broke, sometimes hungry but full of rebellious spirit.
February
Thursday February 17th
(See Blog)
Testament of Youth. The story behind the book
The long awaited evening with politician and author Shirley Williams who talks about her mother, Vera Brittain's novel Testament of Youth. An autobiography of her 1914 -18 wartime experiences as a nurse and her personal agony in losing all the young men she loved. '
'She was haunted by the men she had lost, men she was determined to make immortal through her writing' says Shirley. ' Her memories of the first World War were never far away. As a child I realised her biggest commitment was to her writing, them to my brother, and the to me.'
March
Darwin: A Life in Poems. An evening with author and poet Ruth Padel.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and great, great, granddaughter of Charles Darwin, Ruth talks and reads from her highly acclaimed bestselling anthology. Venue to be decided.
April
Thackeray vs Dickens at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, Fleet Street
To coincide with Thackeray's bi-centenary, acclaimed Thackeray biographer DJ Taylor and Charles Dickens's great-great granddaughter Lucinda Dickens Hawksley (author of 'Katey') talk about the lives and works of the two authors and the literary flair up of the decade - The Garrick Club Affair of 1858. This dispute lasted most of Thackeray's remaining writing life, reconciled with a handshake at an unplanned meeting just a few months prior to his death in 1864.
May
Meet the Author EM Forster
At the real Howard's End in Hertfordshire. We have been offered a really unique opportunity to host an event at the boyhood home of EM Forster. He lived there from the ages 4 to 14 and it held many happy childhood memories. He openly acknowledged it as the real 'Howard's End' in the book of the same name. The house is now in private ownership and is not open to the public. Our event is held by special invitation.
June
Austen's Women
Celebrated actress Rebecca Vaughan has toured world-wide with her highly acclaimed one woman play. It's always been her dream to perform it at Jane Austen's former home.in Chawton, Rebecca effectively explores the plight of women as they have to constrain their mores in Austen's era, and delightfully modernises the easily deniable woes that women still face today, from love to social etiquette or lack thereof. Join us for this very special occasion.
July
Sunday July 10th from 3:45pm
I’ve taken my fun where I found it – Kipling’s Life and Verse
Rudyard Kipling, author, poet, military enthusiast and friend of Royalty, lived for a short while in London’s Villiers Street, just a stones throw from the aptly named Royal Horseguards Hotel, which is our meeting point for today’s theatrical event. Following a full afternoon tea served in the beautiful River Room, actor Colin Pinney will be presenting his one-man play
‘I’ve taken my fun where I found it – Kipling’s Life and Verse’. Afternoon tea from 4pm. Performance 5:30pm approx.
August
Sunday August 7th at 11:30am
A visit to Knebworth House – the ancestral home of Edward Bulwer Lytton
Statesman and politician, Edward Bulwer Lytton (the first Baron Lytton) also became a celebrated novelist and playwright. ‘The pen is mightier than the sword.’ He lived in some splendour at Knebworth House, which has been the ancestral home of the Lytton family for 19 generations. Today, we have the privilege of meeting the current owner and occupant Henry Lytton Cobbold who will be conducting us on a private tour of the House. Charles Dickens and Churchill were familiar faces at Knebworth.
11.30am tour followed by Sunday lunch in the restaurant. Guests will have unlimited access to the house and gardens.
September
Sunday September 11th
Analyse This - Freud Museum,Hampstead
Sigmund Freud (1856-1839) revolutionised the way we think about ourselves. Freud developed psychoanalysis as a an accepted general psychology. His work and that of his daughter Anna
lives on at their former home in Hampstead which is now a museum. Private visit, talk and conducted tour by historian Anne Hollinger brings us closer to their world and their groundbreaking work in psychoanalysis.
Freud's study is the centrepiece of the house, and among the countless antiquities, his original , now iconic, psychoanalytical couch. Drinks and canapés served in the lovely garden. Optional dinner.
October
Sunday October 9th from 5:15pm
The Scandalous World of RB Sheridan
Actor Tim Heath brings Richard Brinsley Sheridan to life in his biographical romp Sheridaniania. Meet a host of favourite characters from The School for Scandal, The Rivals and other well-known plays. Includes a private tour
of Polesden Lacey, his beautiful former country residence in Surrey, which houses many artistic treasures and focuses on his happy time there away from the hurly burly of London, where he also shone in parliament and at the
Drury Lane theatre as dramatist and theatre manager. Dinner follows at the luxury Burford Bridge Hotel nearby.
November
Sunday November 6th
The Kings Speech - the story behind it
Anyone who has seen the film will have been riveted by King George V1's voice coach Lionel Logue and how his unconventional methods cured the King of his crippling stammer and ended up his life-long friend We are fortunate to have
his grandson Mark, author of the book of the same name talk to us on this fascinating subject. Evening will be held at the stunning Montague on the Gardens Hotel in Bloomsbury. Drinks reception and dinner.
December
Saturday December 10th
Nicholas Nickleby and Friends
The London Apprentice, which Charles Dickens used to frequent and has a history dating back to Tudor times, provides the perfect venue for this year’s Christmas celebrations. Complete with scrumptious
festive fayre, this quaint riverside pub in Isleworth is said to have been patronised by English royalty, as well as other literary greats. Prepare to be transported into the true spirit of Dickens with
Mansel David’s entertaining one-man adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, ‘Crummles.’ Having trained at the Bristol Old Vic in the 1970s, Mansel David has enjoyed a prominent career on both stage and television
- ‘Crummles’ has been highly acclaimed in the USA, Germany and Canada.
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