Dates for your Diary 1st of May - 31st December 2008
May
Saturday May 10th
The Real Rudyard Kipling
We bring Rudyard Kipling to life with a carefully crafted theatrical performance in his study at Bateman’s, Kipling’s cherished former home Nr Burwash in E. Sussex where he lived with his American wife Carrie for over 30 years. The private visit also includes afternoon tea, guided tour of the house and gardens and supper.
Saturday May 31st
Meet the Brontës
The first in our series of top literary performances at the Calder Bookshop and Theatre, The Cut Waterloo.
Professional actor Colin Pinney performs his own one-man play ‘Patrick, Father of the Brontës’, which focuses on the lives of sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne and their unfortunate brother Branwell. A private evening for our members at the bookshop’s private theatre, a literary haven close to the Old Vic Theatre. Drinks reception, theatrical performance and dinner. A preamble to a future weekend visit to Haworth later in the year.
June
Sunday June 29th
An Evening with George Bernard Shaw
A visit to the Shaw’s former home in Ayot St Lawrence in Hertfordshire. Katherine, the curator will give members a private talk before we tour the house and grounds. With many personal belongings and items of Shaw’s clothing casually left around the house. Wardrobe left open, bed pulled back, it would appear that Shaw has just popped out for a walk and could return at any moment. Theatrical performance by professional actor Michael Howarth followed by supper.
July
Saturday July 19th
Virginia Woolf and the Bloomsbury Group
A visit to Monk’s House, the former home of Virginia Woolf in Lewes E. Sussex. to be followed by a private evening visit and guided tour of nearby Charleston, the atmospheric and colourful country house where writers, painters and intellectuals known as The Bloomsbury Group (which, of course, included Woolf) met and shared their creative thoughts and passions. Private drinks’ reception, guided tour of the house and gardens, extensive buffet supper with wine followed by theatrical perfornace with actress Karin Fernald as Virginia Woolf.
August
Saturday August 2nd
A Portrait of George Orwell
The Theatre Bookshop, Waterloo
A one-man play written and performed by top professional actor Michael McEvoy.
A fascinating portrayal of the extraordinary life of the journalist and writer who gave us Nineteen Eighty-Four, Big Brother, Room 101, Thoughtcrime, Newspeak and Doublethink. The man who wrote the beautiful, multi-layered fable, Animal Farm. He used his rare talent for simple, clear writing to bring public attention to social wrongs. He was also deeply involved in the Spanish Civil War.
Drinks' reception, performance followed by supper.
Saturday August 16th
A special tribute to Charles Darwin as we approach his bi-centenary
Meet the man who 150 years ago rocked society and the worlds of science and religion with the publication of his controversial works ‘On the Origin of the Species’. 2009 will be celebrated world wide, but join us ahead of time with a private visit to the house (and botanical gardens) where he lived with his family for 40 years. This is followed by a unique theatrical experience with Shakespearean actor Christopher Robbie. Robbie, who bears an uncanny natural resemblance to Darwin, has the luxury of his own private theatre, which he has today made available for our members’ exclusive use to enjoy his performance of his one-man play, Beyond Paradise. His virtuoso performance has received critical acclaim wherever it has been performed. Our visit includes afternoon tea, private tour of Down House and botanical gardens and dinner with wine
September
Sunday September 7th
An Evening with Daphne du Maurier
Celebrated author Justine Picardie has written Daphne, a fascinating novel on the troubled life of Daphne du Maurier. The book covers, not only du Maurier’s time in Cornwall but also the lesser-known periods of her life in and around Hampstead. Justine also reveals the du Maurier family’s close friendships with many of the well-known authors of the day such as Henry James and J.M Barrie of Peter Pan fame. The evening takes place in a private room at the historic Flask pub, which is the haunt of Hampstead’s many writers, artists and actors. It is also directly opposite Keith Fawkes in Flask Walk the well know antiquarian bookshop.
Saturday September 27th
Meet Charles Dickens at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.
Join us for an evening in a private room at Dickens’s favourite haunt, the famous pub and eatery where he and his literary friends frequently dined. Professional actor John Tallents will treat you to animated readings of his novels. Looking the very reincarnation of Dickens with a flair for changing his voice to suit the characters, Tallents is a worthy successor to Dickens in his prime. Join us for a memorable evening dining and drinking in this true Dickensian eatery where the literary greats dined two or three centuries earlier.
October
Saturday October 11th
A True Dickensian Detective Story
Dickens House, Doughty Street, London
In The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, this year’s winner of the Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction, Kate Summerscale uncovers a gruesome Country House murder mystery, (The Murder at Road Hill House,) with the help of Jack Whicher, a friend and colleague of Charles Dickens and one of the earliest and most celebrated Scotland Yard detectives of the day.
This true British murder case set in the 1860s inspired a generation of writers such as Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle and even Agatha Christie, by exposing the dark secrets o f the Victorian middle-class home. The book has been nominated for the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction and Kate will tell us how she came to write and research it. Drinks at the house, supper with wine afterwards at a nearby restaurant.
Sunday October 26th
Three Men in a Boat
The Beetle and Wedge Restaurant at Moulsford on Thames is known to be the very boathouse which inspired Jerome K Jerome’s comic masterpiece.
Actor Peter Marinker is an exceedingly funny Jerome as he chronicles with perfect dramatic timing the hilarious escapades of the three friends and their dog on the River Thames. Restaurant dining with top quality cuisine and fine wine.
November
Saturday November 8th
The Importance of Being Oscar (Wilde)
Theatre Bookshop, The Cut Waterloo
Actor Michael David cleverly portrays Oscar Wilde giving an insight into the writer’s personality and creative genius, the highs and lows laughter and tears.
The show is a gentle wander through his life and times beginning with a sonnet, taking in snippets of the tales, encompassing ‘Importance’ – in the |Lady Bracknell scene in which David plays all the characters. Drinks reception prior to the performance, Supper with wine follows at a nearby restaurant.
Saturday November 29th
The Secret Life of William Shakespeare.
The Shakespeare Room at The Anchor Tavern, Bankside.
Situated on the bank of the River Thames, this historic pub was frequented by great writers such as the diarist Samuel Pepys and Dr Johnson. With the Globe just a short distance away, Shakespeare must have surely been a regular visitor. The elegant Shakespeare Room with its 18th century pine panelling is the perfect setting for actor Michael McEvoy to perform his own play ‘An Act of Will’ which has received critical acclaim.
The year is 1613. William Shakespeare arrives home in Stratford-upon-Avon to begin his retirement after a glittering career in London. It is a provocative portrait of the literary genius who has both personal and professional “secrets”. Two course buffet supper with wine and coffee at The Anchor follows the performance.
December
Sunday December 14th
Black Tie Christmas Party.
A Christmas Carol at Dickens House
Join in our Christmas festivities, surrounded by the ghosts of Christmas past at Dickens’s former home in London’s Doughty Street. Actor Jim McManus who is currently performing on the West End stage performs Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol for Living Literature members.
What better ambience than Dickens House to see this Christmas classic performed? Lots of delicious seasonal food and drink. Cocktail wear for ladies, Black tie for men.
EVENTS PLANNED FOR EARLY 2009.
Feel free to register your interest now
Saturday January 10th
'Dante and the Lobster'
A Samuel Becket play produced and presented by John Calder at The Theatre Bookshop Waterloo
We begin 2009 with an intriguing and humorous autobiographical Becket play, produced by John Calder in the bookshop he founded. Calder was a close friend and confidant of Becket and published many of his works. Tonight he has agreed to introduce the piece to us. Drinks reception: 7:15pm, dinner follows at The Paradiso restaurant next door.
Saturday January 24th
Pepys and the Playhouse
at The Anchor Tavern Bankside
Our actor as the great diarist who in 1666 witnessed the awesome destruction of the Great Fire of London from this very tavern gives a frank picture of the intrigues and affairs (including his own) of the 166O’s. How he wrestles with his conscience – and sometimes his wife- as he follows the drama of the Restoration playhouse in the age of plague, fire – and Nell Gwyn.
My Friend Lord Beaverbrook
Rudyard Kipling hosts an evening at Cherkely Court, the beautiful Surrey mansion and former home of Lord Beaverbrook
Rudyard Kipling raises his glass to his close friend and newspaper tycoon, Lord Beaverbrook. It was after all the Kiplings who influenced him most in the purchase of Cherkley Court . Among his other frequent guests were Bonar Law, Asquith, Macmillan, and Winston Churchill.
Set in 400 acres of beautiful park and woodlands, Cherkley Court in Leatherhead is one of the most stunning houses in England. It was the beloved retreat of Max Aitken who became the first Lord Beaverbrook between 1910 and 1964. Dinner parties gave him the perfect opportunity to entertain his many important guests.
Actor Colin Pinney steps into Rudyard Kipling’s shoes and talks about his close relationship with the newspaper tycoon; how his wife Emma helped furnish and decorate this splendid home and how flattered he was that Beaverbrook had agreed to become Godfather to his son Jack. Although not officially open to the public, The Living Literature Society will have it for its exclusive use. Watch the performance in the Rudyard Kipling Room; dine in style in the magnificent dining room. Black tie.
At home in Chelsea with the Carlyles –
Learn more about Thomas Carlyle the forgotten literary genius
Thomas and Jane Carlyle were Chelsea’s first literary celebrity couple. Thomas Carlyle, writer, historian and sage is best known for his book on the French Revolution which Dickens is reported to have read many times over and was his inspiration for The Tale of Two Cities.
Built exactly 300 years ago in 1708, their house became well-known as a literary temple during the 19th century. Among the admirers and visitors to the house were George Eliot, Elisabeth Barrett Browning, Tennyson, Thackeray, Ruskin, Darwin and Frederick Chopin who played the Carlyle’s piano in 1848.
Today it remains little changed from the house the Carlisle’s lived in , cherished and entertained their celebrity friends. Yet the Carlyles lived a comparatively modest domestic life.
Lord Gawain Douglas on his great uncle Bosie, poet and lover of Oscar Wilde
Lord Gawain Douglas poet and descendent of “Bosie” Douglas gives a literary talk on Oscar Wilde and the ‘Black Douglas’ in Lord Douglas’s home town of Deal in Kent. Alfred Douglas known to his friends as Bosie - was he really the bad influence, the wicked boy who brought about the downfall of the great writer? Lord Gawain Douglas tells the story from the other side, the family’s perspective.
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