Up-Coming Events:
Past Events:

The BP exhibition
Troy
myth and reality
Exhibition / 21 Nov 2019 - 8 Mar 2020
@ The British Museum.

July - August 2019
The Deanery, St Albans Cathedral,
St Albans, Hertfordshire
Latin Summer School

6th July 2019
St Albans Cathedral, St Albans, Hertfordshire
Latin Literature in a Day @ St Albans Cathedral

Tuesday 21st May 2019
Birkbeck College,
University of London's Arts Week 2019:
Irish Times: Myles na gCopaleen's Cruiskeen Lawn
"The Irish comic writer Flann O'Brien was far better known in his lifetime as the irascible Myles na gCopaleen, under which pen-name he published the 'Cruiskeen Lawn' column in the Irish Times between 1940 and 1966. A keystone of Dublin's intellectual life in its heyday, the column is now largely known through the Best of Myles anthology (1968) which introduces modern readers to its most famous sketches and characters. In this workshop, join Birkbeck's Tobias Harris and Joseph Brooker as they tread deeper into Myles's elaborate multilingual labyrinth, exploring a work of anarchic humour and devastating satire concocted at the intersection of modernist experimentation and mass culture."
Birkbeck College,
University of London's Arts Week 2019:
Irish Times: Myles na gCopaleen's Cruiskeen Lawn
"The Irish comic writer Flann O'Brien was far better known in his lifetime as the irascible Myles na gCopaleen, under which pen-name he published the 'Cruiskeen Lawn' column in the Irish Times between 1940 and 1966. A keystone of Dublin's intellectual life in its heyday, the column is now largely known through the Best of Myles anthology (1968) which introduces modern readers to its most famous sketches and characters. In this workshop, join Birkbeck's Tobias Harris and Joseph Brooker as they tread deeper into Myles's elaborate multilingual labyrinth, exploring a work of anarchic humour and devastating satire concocted at the intersection of modernist experimentation and mass culture."

Saturday 23rd March 2019
A Royal Court Theatre and Abbey Theatre production
Cyprus Avenue
by David Ireland
Directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, original cast member Stephen Rea will reprise the role of Eric Miller, for which he won Best Actor at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2017.
Cyprus Avenue won Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards and James Tait Black Prize for Drama in 2017.
(Read an Interview with David Ireland in The Guardian here).
A Royal Court Theatre and Abbey Theatre production
Cyprus Avenue
by David Ireland
Directed by Royal Court Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone, original cast member Stephen Rea will reprise the role of Eric Miller, for which he won Best Actor at the Irish Times Theatre Awards in 2017.
Cyprus Avenue won Best New Play at the Irish Times Theatre Awards and James Tait Black Prize for Drama in 2017.
(Read an Interview with David Ireland in The Guardian here).

'Dalloway Day'
A Royal Society of Literature 'event' held @ The British Library, Euston Road on 20th June 2018
'Places and Paces: Walking with Mrs Dalloway'
Alexandra Harris and Hermione Lee, and
'Explore Mrs Dalloway's continuing legacy and influence.'
Sarah Churchwell, Alan Hollinghurst, Hermione Lee and Elaine Showalter
(Apparently this was the first of what is planned to be an annual 'event' intended to establish a Dalloway Day to compete with Joyce's 'Bloomsday' (about whom and which Lee and Showalter in particular were sweepingly disparaging). Good luck with that. The best thing I can say is that their comments about Joyce motivated me to purchase the annotated Ulysses. And for that I am forever in their debt).
A Royal Society of Literature 'event' held @ The British Library, Euston Road on 20th June 2018
'Places and Paces: Walking with Mrs Dalloway'
Alexandra Harris and Hermione Lee, and
'Explore Mrs Dalloway's continuing legacy and influence.'
Sarah Churchwell, Alan Hollinghurst, Hermione Lee and Elaine Showalter
(Apparently this was the first of what is planned to be an annual 'event' intended to establish a Dalloway Day to compete with Joyce's 'Bloomsday' (about whom and which Lee and Showalter in particular were sweepingly disparaging). Good luck with that. The best thing I can say is that their comments about Joyce motivated me to purchase the annotated Ulysses. And for that I am forever in their debt).
Birkbeck School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square
15th May 2018: 'Gaelic Hardship: Flann O'Brien's The Poor Mouth' 'The Irish comic writer Flann O'Brien's third major work was An Béal Bocht (1941): a slim novel parodying peasant memoirs of the West of Ireland, published under the name Myles na gCopaleen. Forty-five years ago, Patrick C. Power produced what remains the only full English translation of this work. In this workshop, Birkbeck’s Tobias Harris, Joseph Brooker and guest speaker Eoin Byrne (Galway) lead an exploration of the novel, using Power's English text. Surveying the fantastical landscape of Myles's West of Ireland, we can expect to encounter Gaelic revivalists, linguistic colonialism, driving rain, and a sly humour directed at myths of Ireland in the first decades of independence.' |
![]() St. George's Church, Hanover Square, Mayfair
22nd March 2018: 'Where genius, wit, and humour sleep with Sterne?' An evening of music and readings to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the funeral of Laurence Sterne in the church where the original service took place. * A splendid review of a splendid evening in commemoration of the death of Laurence Sterne can be read here: Golden and blue |
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British Museum, Great Russell Street
14th September 2017 – 14th January 2018
Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia
'2,500 years ago groups of formidable warriors roamed the vast open plains of Siberia. Feared, loathed, admired – but over time forgotten… Until now.
This major exhibition explores the story of the Scythians – nomadic tribes and masters of mounted warfare, who flourished between 900 and 200 BC. Their encounters with the Greeks, Assyrians and Persians were written into history but for centuries all trace of their culture was lost – buried beneath the ice.'
14th September 2017 – 14th January 2018
Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia
'2,500 years ago groups of formidable warriors roamed the vast open plains of Siberia. Feared, loathed, admired – but over time forgotten… Until now.
This major exhibition explores the story of the Scythians – nomadic tribes and masters of mounted warfare, who flourished between 900 and 200 BC. Their encounters with the Greeks, Assyrians and Persians were written into history but for centuries all trace of their culture was lost – buried beneath the ice.'

British Library, Euston Road
28th April - 29th August 2017
Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths
'From the fall of Russia’s last Tsar to the rise of the first communist state, this definitive exhibition takes a fresh look at the Russian Revolution 100 years on. With rarely seen items from both sides of the conflict – from a first edition of the Communist Manifesto to anti-Bolshevik propaganda – this is a unique chance to understand the lesser-known personal stories behind the events that changed the world.'
28th April - 29th August 2017
Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths
'From the fall of Russia’s last Tsar to the rise of the first communist state, this definitive exhibition takes a fresh look at the Russian Revolution 100 years on. With rarely seen items from both sides of the conflict – from a first edition of the Communist Manifesto to anti-Bolshevik propaganda – this is a unique chance to understand the lesser-known personal stories behind the events that changed the world.'

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly
25th February — 4th June 2017
America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s
'These 45 truly iconic works paint an electrifying portrait of this transformative period. These are works which have rarely been seen together, by artists ranging from Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper to Thomas Hart Benton, Philip Guston and more. Perhaps the most celebrated work of them all, Grant Wood’s iconic American Gothic (1930), has never left North American shores before.'

Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly
11th February — 17th April 2017
Revolution: Russian Art 1917–1932
'One hundred years on from the Russian Revolution, this powerful exhibition explores one of the most momentous periods in modern world history through the lens of its groundbreaking art.'