Hampstead & Northwest London Branch Programme
All meetings are held on Thursdays at 8 pm at Fellowship House, 136A Willifield Way, London NW11. Visitors welcome: £3.00, Members of Fellowship House 50p.
There is no problem with parking. For directions see next page.
2008
16 October. The Afghan Wars, Dr John Peaty (Kings College London). Dr Peaty is well known for his 'British Army Manpower Crisis, 1944' (2000) and his daring 'Haig: A Reappraisal 70 Years On', in which he confronts the Earl's denigrators. As one of the world's leading experts on the Afghan Wars, it will be interesting to see how he rates our present adventures in Afghanistan in the context of the mainly unsuccessful invasions in the past.
20 November. From "Never Again" to inevitable war:
Britain, France and the coming of the Second World War in Europe. Mr Philip Bell. Mr Bell has written many illuminating works on international relations in the twentieth century, notably between France and Britain and between Britain and Russia, 'John Bull and the Bear', 1990. Many of his ideas are brought together in his remarkably wide-ranging, 'The Origins of the Second World War in Europe', which appeared in a new edition in 2007 and which is the subject of his talk.
2009
22 January. Visions of heaven and hell: the medieval travel experience
according to the monks (illustrated). Professor Jane E Sayers (University College London). Professor Sayers has written very extensively on the Middle Ages, notably the definitive biography of Innocent 111 (1994). She has a special gift for describing everyday life in monasteries, as in 'The Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds', while 'At the time of Geoffrey Chaucer' social life and customs between 1066 and 1485 are illumined in vivid detail.
12 February. 7.30 pm HA Members Annual General Meeting followed by:-
8.00 pm Gladstone's ever shifting reputation (illustrated). Dr Michael Partridge. Dr Partridge is the author of a recent biography, 'Gladstone', (2003), in which he delights in exploring the many controversies about this statesman, praised and reviled by his contemporaries, and still a subject of dissension among historians today.
12 March. Was Madame de Pompadour a better influence on
Art than on Politics? (illustrated). Professor Julian Swann (Birkbeck College). Professor Swann has been foremost in exploring the relationship between French elites and the absolutist monarchy during the decades before the Revolution. Other historians have looked at one or other side in this conflict, but few have examined the crucial interaction between the two - the dilemma facing the royal administration: to buy off or oppose the opposition, in the elegant metaphor of President Johnson, to have the opponents in the tent pissing outwards, rather than on the outside pissing in. On this general theme Professor Swann has written some much acclaimed books, 'Politics and the Parlement of Paris, 1754-1774' (1995) and 'Provincial Power and Absolute Monarchy: the Estates General of Burgundy, 1661-1790', (2003), besides a host of articles, notably on the neglected subject of Political Disgrace during the ancien régime.
23 April. Churchill as seen through his art, (illustrated). Mrs Josephine Cole. Mrs Cole has long been intrigued by the many surprising ways in which art illumines history. Her fifteen years of experience as a journalist to the Splash Team, which involved working on daily newspapers, radio and television, has helped her to become one of the leading communicators in the subject.
Fellowship House - 136A Willifield Way NW11 - How to get there.
Tube to Golders Green. Take bus nos. 82, 102, or 460 north on Finchley Road. Go past Waitrose, WH Smith and M & S and get off at next stop outside DANIELS and PLATTERS. Cross road and proceed for a few minutes along Willifield Way. On the right is a Green, on the left 136A is clearly marked. A red telephone box is in front of the entrance. This is a few yards before the crossroads with Asmuns Hill.
Hugh Hamilton, Secretary. 2 Wild Hatch, NW11 7LD. Tel 020 8455 8318