 'Saki, the Master Story-Teller' in Woodstock Town Hall Saki (the pen name of H.H.Munro) the master of the short story is famed for his black humour. His work is undergoing a major revival and will be discussed along with some of his contemporaries such as John Buchan and Rudyard Kipling. Professor Sandie Byrne has written a book on Saki and contributed to a TV film. She is a Fellow of Kellogg College at the University of Oxford and the Director of Studies in English Literature at OUDCE.
 Seamus Heaney in Woodstock Town Hall Roy
Foster’s
reflection
upon
the impact
and legacy
of Seamus
Heaney will be forthcoming
from
Princeton
University
Press
in the acclaimed
Writers
on
Writers
series
in 2018. Professor
Roy
Foster
is Emeritus
Professor
of Irish
History at the University
of Oxford
and Fellow
of Hertford
College. Among
his many
publications
is his celebrated
two-volume
biography
of
W.B.Yeats,
and
Vivid
Faces:
the Revolutionary
Generation
in Ireland
1880-1923.  Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in Woodstock Library 2018 marks the bi-centenary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Romantic masterpiece which queried the direction of Romanticism. The cultural impact of this work cannot be over-stated: it inspired science fiction and many films and other works of art. Professor Nora Crook, Professor Emerita of Ruskin Anglia University, is a world-leading expert on the Shelley circle whose researches have led to the discovery of significant Shelley papers.  The
Memory
of Trees in Woodstock Town Hall This talk will be based on the widely-acclaimed study of trees in European art, literature, and folklore written by Professor Stafford which formed the basis for her BBC Radio3 series in 2014. Fiona Stafford is Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford and the editor of Wordsworth's 'Lyrical Ballads OUP 2013'.
 Thursday
17th
May
at
8:00pm: Dr Daniel Tyler The Uncommercial Traveller: Stories by Charles Dickens in The Church of St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock
At
the pinnacle of his career,
at
the same time that
he was
writing 'Great
Expectations' and 'Our
Mutual
Friend',
Dickens penned a miscellaneous
series
of sketches
that
he gathered
together as 'The
Uncommercial
Traveller'.
Less
well
known
than his major novels,
these tales are
nevertheless
exemplary
of the humour,
social criticism
and lively
writing
for
which Dickens is famous.
This
talk explores
the blend of personal recollection,
travelogue,
and imaginative fiction
that
makes this late
work
by
Dickens so distinctive. Dr Tyler will also discuss the thematic links between these sketches and the great novels which were contemporaneous with them Daniel Tyler is a Tutor and Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge. He is currently editing 'Bleak House' for the Clarendon Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens. His edition of 'The Uncommercial Traveller' has recently been published.  'Cluedo to Cadavers' in The Church of St Mary Magdalene, Woodstock The
detective story-
famously said to
have
enjoyed a
golden age in the 1920’s
and 30’s-remains
an enormously
popular genre.
What
gives
detective
fiction
its
enduring
appeal? When
did it begin
and how
did it develop?
What
are
its distinctive
features
and who are
its chief exponents?
This
talk will look at
the genre
from
its origins
with Edgar
Allan Poe
and Conan
Doyle
through
P.D.
James and Ruth Rendell
to
contemporary
writers. Peter Kemp is Chief Fiction Reviewer for The Sunday Times and its former Fiction Editor. He is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has published books on Muriel Spark, H.G.Wells, and Edith Wharton and edited 'The Oxford Book of Literary Quotations'.  Marilynne Robinson in Woodstock Library
An introduction to the novels of this contemporary great American writer, whose novels set in the American Midwest in the middle of the 20th Century have won many prizes including the Pulitzer and Orange prizes. Dr Rowan Williams has written of her work: “Robinson’s is a voice we urgently need to attend to …” Dr Roynon will discuss Robinson’s triptych: 'Gilead', 'Lila', and 'Home' with a focus on the latter. Dr Tessa Roynon is a Teaching and Research Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute in the University of Oxford. Please note this change to the programme Saturday 27th October at 3:00pm: Mark Bostridge Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth in Woodstock Town Hall November 2018 will mark the centenary of the armistice which brought peace at the end of the First World War. It therefore seems to be a timely occasion to hear an account of one of the most powerful and moving books written about that conflict: Vera Brittain's 'Testament of Youth' (1933) which was instantly seen as speaking for the war generation. Brittain wrote her memoir as a former nurse, who lost her brother, fiance, and close friends in the conflict. Our speaker researched in the Brittain archives for many years and has written her biography. This talk echoes the talk we presented in 2014 to mark the start of the war in that both talks highlight the new roles of women at this time.  Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary: the great European Novel?' in Woodstock Town Hall The title of this talk says it all: this era-defining novel will be discussed as a work in translation for all readers. Dr Grylls is a Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford and a former Director of Studies in Literature at OUDCE. His many books and articles include 'Guardians and Angels: Parents and Children in Victorian Literature'; 'The Paradox of Gissing'; and 'The Savage Subtext of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' in Sherlock Holmes in Context' (2017). He reviews books for the Sunday Times. |