The remarkable way in which Wodehouse, over his phenomenal career of three-quarters of a century as a published author, populated Mayfair and the West End with scores of characters in one of the most elaborate overlapping fictional worlds ever created. Moreover, this was a locale Wodehouse knew well; living in Mayfair for several years and borrowing the addresses of family, friends and colleagues to root the likes of Uncle Fred, Lord Emsworth, and Psmith (not forgetting Bertie Wooster and Jeeves), in a real world which was vanishing even as he immortalised it. Richard will bring original illustrated magazines featuring Wodehouse's work, and theatre programmes to the lecture. 

Richard took a BA Hons in English Language and Literature from the University of Manchester, followed by an acting diploma at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama. He combines acting, writing and lecturing. He has lectured in many venues including the National Army Museum and the Museum of London, as well as presenting a variety of virtual lectures online. Richard has contributed to, among others, The Journal of Popular Film and Television, The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and the P G Wodehouse journal Wooster Sauce. A specialist in voice work, he has narrated numerous television documentaries and 180 audiobooks.

This lecture tells the story of the revolutionary company which Diaghilev established in Paris in 1909 and led until his death in 1929. Building on the achievements of Tchaikovsky and Petipa, Diaghilev transformed classical ballet into modern dance by inviting modern artists of the calibre of Bakst, Picasso and Matisse to collaborate with composers such as Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel, choreographers such as Fokine and Balanchine, and dancers such as Pavlova, Karsavina and Nijinsky.

Rosamund Bartlett is a writer, lecturer and translator whose work ranges across the arts, and across the cultures of Europe, from Italy to Norway. She began her career as an academic in Slavic studies after completing her doctorate at Oxford, and has held fellowships both in the UK and at the European University Institute in Florence. In 2024 she became a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford. 

The author of several books, including biographies of Chekhov and Tolstoy, and a study of Wagner's influence in Russia, she is also well known as a translator - her publications include acclaimed editions of Anna Karenina and Chekhov's stories for Oxford World’s Classics. She has written on music and literature for institutions including the Royal Opera House, the National Theatre and the Salzburg Festival, and about art for Apollo and The Burlington Magazine. She is currently writing a book about the revolution in the arts which took place in early 20th-century Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Odesa, and its connection to modernist developments in Paris, Munich and Milan. 

She has led art, architecture, design and music tours throughout Europe, and contributes regularly to Proms events and opera broadcasts on the BBC. Her lecturing work has taken her from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford where she lives, to the V&A in London, and to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney.  

The foods we eat at Christmas have a long, curious and visually spectacular history. This lecture narrates and illustrates that history from Medieval boar’s head and brawn, by way of highly decorated seventeenth century mince pies to the almost forgotten Twelfth Night Cake. Medieval illuminated manuscripts, paintings and prints from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, and illustrations from cookery books provide us with images of some of the lost glories of the British Christmas feast.

Peter Ross has a BA in the History of Art, an MA in London History, and a PhD in the cultural history of the early eighteenth-century criminal, Jack Sheppard. Until 2023, he was the Principal Librarian at the City of London’s Guildhall Library. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. Peter has appeared on television and radio as a consultant on crime in eighteenth-century London, the history of English food, and Shakespeare’s First Folio. Peter’s The Curious Cookbook, Viper Soup, Badger Ham, Stewed Sparrows, and a Hundred more Historic Recipes was published in 2012 by the British Library and subsequently published in the US, China and Taiwan. Peter is currently engaged in writing a book - Insatiable Appetites: Eating Out in Georgian London to be published by Bodleian Library  in May 2026.

The modest city of Ravenna, situated near the Adriatic coast in north-eastern Italy, hides an illustrious past filled with glittering treasures. In 402 A.D. Honorius, the Roman Emperor, moved the capital of the Western Roman empire from Milan to Ravenna, and furnished the city with churches clad in glistening mosaics and coloured marbles. Ravenna flourished after the demise of the Western Roman Empire under King Theodoric as capital of the Ostrogothic kingdom, who enriched it with further splendid mosaic-filled monuments. In 540 the Byzantine Emperor Justinian conquered Italy and chose Ravenna as the western capital of his Byzantine empire instigating yet another lavish period of patronage. The Lombards assumed control in 751 and decline followed, but ironically this ensured the survival of Ravenna’s glorious heritage. J.R.R. Tolkein and Oscar Wilde were inspired by Ravenna’s Early Christian and Byzantine monuments; their beauty, and complex layers of meaning continue to captivate today.

Sally is a Lecturer and tutor for the Early Medieval Year Course at V&A. Dean of 'European Studies' for 2 US Universities. Freelance lecturer for The Art Fund. Study tours, cruises and tour groups. BA (History) University of Durham; PhD (Medieval Manuscript illumination) and MA (Medieval History of Art) Courtauld Institute.

Lowry produced some of the country’s most original and distinctive paintings, creating a social document of a now bygone industrial age. This lecture features many of those well-known industrial scenes, alongside seascapes and portraits; works that are less readily associated with him. The lecture explores his life in and around Salford, his attitudes and his healthy disregard for the trappings of fame and fortune that were eventually to be his. An exploration of a life and a body of work full of surprises and contradictions.

Rosalind has a BA and MA from Goldsmith’s College, and an MA (distinction) from Birkbeck College. She is an experienced guide at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Royal Academy and Greenwich. She lectures at the Tate, to independent art societies and on cruises.

For the series and film Downton Abbey, Andrew was commissioned to make many jewels for the main characters and this inspired him to create a talk based on this unique period. Jewellery and Fashion are often seen as two entirely separate and distinct fields of design, but this is very far from the case. In his talk, Andrew guides you through the extraordinary decades and events between 1890 and 1929, where the great couturiers collaborated with the finest of jewellers to produce jewels and clothes of outstanding quality and glittering opulence. Along with this, he illustrates the clients and patrons who commissioned the jewels and shows how they were worn with their sumptuous gowns.

Andrew Prince has had a passion for jewellery since he was a small child.

 Andrew started work in London’s Bond Street, working for The Antiques Roadshow expert Ian Harris. Under his guidance, Andrew developed an appreciation for jewels that were valued for their quality of design and craftsmanship, rather than for how much the stones in the piece were worth. He then joined the renowned contemporary jeweller Elizabeth Gage and worked with her on the design and production side. Through her and her private collection, Andrew was able to see and handle rare and extraordinary stones with names such as Sphene, Andalusite, Spinel and Dioptase, many of which are far rarer than diamonds. 

In 2012, he was chosen by the creators of Downton Abbey to supply a large collection of jewellery for the third series. The characters played by Maggie Smith, Shirley Maclaine, Elizabeth McGovern and Michelle Dockery were all adorned with elegant tiaras, combs, earrings and necklaces designed and created by Andrew Prince.