Lectures

Simon is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique, voice teacher and award winning London Blue Badge guide. He has worked as a guide lecturer in house at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Royal Opera House, the BBC and the National Gallery. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course. Simon’s passions are theatre, literature, fashion and art history but whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it.

Tyler Butterworth grew up in a theatrical family. His father was Peter Butterworth  of Carry On fame and his mother was Janet Brown, famous for her impersonations  of Margaret Thatcher. Tyler spent twenty five years as an actor working extensively in film, television, theatre and radio. He then worked as a development producer in television documentaries. Now, he produces walking audio guides to cities across Europe for private clients. He lives in Sussex where he likes to walk on the South Coast and the Downs.

Timothy Wilcox is a writer, lecturer, exhibition curator and fluent French speaker with special interests in British art, landscape and watercolour painting. He was a museum curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, following positions at the V&A, in Liverpool and Hove. He brings a lifetime’s interest in Anglo-French relations to bear on a famous object set to become even more celebrated as it enters its next, surprising chapter, returning to English shores nearly 1,000 years after it was made.

A freelance lecturer, writer and exhibition organiser, Monica Bohm-Duchen has lectured for Tate, the National Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, the Open University, Sotheby's Institute of Art, the Courtauld Institute of Art and Birkbeck, University of London, and has led many art tours. Publications include Understanding Modern Art (1991), Chagall (1998/2001), The Private Life of a Masterpiece (2001), The Art and Life of Josef Herman (2009) and Art and the Second World War (2013).

Dr John Stevens is head of the London Bangla Academy, an online school that teaches the Bengali language to students across the world. He gained his PhD in History from UCL, before going on to teach British Imperial History, Indian History and Bengali Language at SOAS, University of London. His biography of the Indian guru Keshab Chandra Sen – Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet – was published by Hurst and Oxford University Press. He is a regular visitor to India and Bangladesh and has lectured at numerous Indian universities. He also works as a consultant on Indian affairs. He has appeared many times in the Indian media, and was a guest on BBC Radio Four’s In Our Time, discussing the poet and artist Rabindranath Tagore.

Mark Meredith’s area of special interest is America – its great collectors, collections, its social history, and its architecture. He is a regular speaker in Europe and the USA at the New-York Historical Society etc., and is the founder of ‘AmericanAristocracy.com’. Rather than just talk at an audience, he likes to tell a story. His lectures are richly illustrated, laced with humour, and by the end, his aim is to leave his listeners buzzing with thought and opinion.

Ian Keable gained a First Class degree from Oxford University, qualified as a Chartered Accountant and then became a professional Magician. In 2014 he published Charles Dickens Magician: Conjuring in Life, Letters & Literature. His latest book is The Century of Deception: The Birth of the Hoax in Eighteenth-Century England. He now divides his time between performing magic, giving talks and researching and writing. He is a Member of The Inner Magic Circle and in 2024 was appointed the Archivist of The Magic Circle.

Fiona Rose has been lecturing on topics she feels passionately about since 2010 including William Morris and his artisan-designer daughter May, art worker David Parr, Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. With a background in Social Psychology she always includes the human stories behind the artistic endeavours of her subjects. After an early career in public health Fiona founded and still runs a home interiors business featuring the work of the great C19th designers such as Morris, Dearle, Voysey and Mackintosh. Fiona is a member of the Museum Collections Committee for The William Morris Society and a former Trustee serving as Chair of their Communications group. She is also a regular contributor to the Society’s magazine and a book reviewer for the Journal of William Morris Studies. Fiona is a volunteer House Guide and specialist lecturer for the David Parr House in Cambridge.

 

Rosalind Whyte 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 and also lectures at Tate to independent art societies and on cruise ships.

Mark studied History of Art & Architecture (BA Hons), and began his career as a porter and Junior Cataloguer at Bonhams, before moving to Sotheby’s where he was a Specialist in the Collectors’ Department. He was co-author of the internationally published Collectables Price Guide with Judith Miller from 2002-17, founded his own publishing company in 2005 and has published over 15 books on emerging specialist subjects in the decorative arts. A Miscellaneous expert on the BBC ‘Antiques Roadshow’ since 2007 and an expert on the BBC's ‘Antiques Road Trip’, he has also co-presented five primetime TV series on antiques and collecting for BBC2. Mark is a member of the British Antiques Dealers’ Association (BADA), a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars and a Freeman of the City of London.

Gillian gained a BA (Hons) in Latin and Ancient History from Exeter University, and then branched out into archaeology. Ex-BBC, lecturer for British Museum and York University, she is an award winning writer and author who specialises in relating the ancient world to our modern lives, in person, in the field, online and in the media (most recently on BBC News Channel, Radio 4 Today programme and BBC World Service). She teaches adult education courses in Latin, archaeology and ancient history and has publicly lectured widely and passionately, on cruise ships and tours and for museums such as the British Museum & Ashmolean, national press, universities, literary festivals, and diverse societies including Classical Associations, the U3A and the National Trust.