2025 Programme

Saturday 18th at 3.00pm:  Professor Peter McCullough

'John Donne: Preacher and Poet'

The Church of St Mary Magdalene.

John Donne is one of English Literature’s best loved poets. However, the myths that have built up about the importance of his Roman Catholic childhood and the autobiographical elements in his love lyrics are difficult to reconcile with his sermons to which he dedicated himself from 1615 to his death in 1631.  This talk will address some of the thrills and risks of encountering the same John Donne in both his poetry and his preaching.

Peter McCullough is Professor of English in the University of Oxford and Sohmer Fellow in English Renaissance Literature at Lincoln College.

Saturday 15th February at 3:00pm:  Professor Jonathan Thacker

'From Stage to Page:  The Literary Journey of Miguel de Cervantes'

Woodstock Town Hall. 

Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) the great Spanish writer best known for inventing the modern novel with his Don Quixote (1605-1616) began his artistic life as a dramatist.  This talk will explore the literary trajectory that took him from budding playwright in the 1580’s to innovative writer of prose fiction in the autumn of his days.  This journey takes in his fractious relationship with Lope de Vega, Spain’s pre-eminent Golden Age playwright.   

Jonathan Thacker is King Alfonso X111 Professor of Spanish Studies in the University of Oxford and Fellow of Exeter College.

Saturday 22nd March at 3.00pm:  Dr Sarah Ogilvie 

'The Dictionary People:  The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary'

St Hugh's Centre, Hensington Road.

What do three murderers, Karl Marx’s daughter, and a vegetarian vicar have in common?  The answer is that they all helped to create the Oxford English Dictionary via a massive Victorian project in crowd-sourcing. Delving deep into the archives of the OUP, Sarah Ogilvie identified the extraordinary stories of hundreds of contributors to the dictionary from around the globe and the result is a vivid social and intellectual history.

Dr Sarah Ogilvie is a linguist, lexicographer and computer scientist.  She has taught at Stamford, Cambridge and the Australian National University, and worked at the OED for many years. She is a Fellow of Campion Hall.

Tuesday 22nd April at 8.00pm:  Dr Laura Varnam 

'New Light on Daphne du Maurier'

St Hugh's Centre, Hensington Road.

Dr Laura Varnam is a leading expert on the life and works of Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989) having appeared on episodes of BBC Radio 4’s 'Open Book' and the podcast 'Backlisted', the 2017 documentary for Arte 'Daphne du Maurier: Sur les Traces de Rebecca' and recently writing a new introduction to 'Rebecca' for Suntup Editions. In this talk, Dr Varnam will show how du Maurier’s versatility and literary experimentation place her beyond the romantic and regional labels with which she is still often associated.

Dr Varnam is the Lecturer in Old and Middle English Literature at University College, Oxford.

Thursday 22nd May at 8.00pm:  Peter Kemp

'Muriel Spark'

St Mary Magdalene Church

(Please note the change in venue to that published in the 2025 Programme) 

Muriel Spark (1918-2006) said that her novels ‘make unusual demands on the mind’s eye’.  This talk - a survey of her vividly original and highly acclaimed literary career - will explore how and why they do so.  Paying particular attention to her finest books such as 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1961) and 'The Girls of Slender Means' (1963) it will examine the continuing appeal and significance of her work.  

Peter Kemp has reviewed fiction for the Sunday Times for more than forty years, and was Fiction Editor from 1995-2010.  His book 'Muriel Spark' (1974) was the first critical study of her work.  His latest book is 'Retroland' (2023) a study of contemporary fiction.

Wednesday 18th June at 8.00pm:  Professor John Holmes

'John Ruskin: A Victorian for Our Time'  

The Church of St Mary Magdalene.

John Ruskin was Victorian England’s most influential writer on society, art and architecture in such works as 'Modern Painters' and 'The Stones of Venice'. He was a passionate advocate of the artist J.M.W.Turner and Venetian Gothic architecture, as well as a profound social critic who saw social fairness and the protection of the natural world as integral to human well-being. This talk will explore the links between his teaching on art and his social and environmental critique to ask, what can we learn from Ruskin today? 

John Holmes is Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham.

Thursday 18th September at 8.00pm:  Philip Gooden

'The Spy, the Novel, and Ourselves'

Woodstock Town Hall.

Spy stories have flourished in the past few decades from the derring-do of James Bond to the cynical office comedies of Mick Herron.  Why are they so popular and what does their success tell us about our history and ourselves?  This talk will examine the rich legacy of spy writing in both the UK and US.   

Philip Gooden is a lecturer and writer specialising in crime fiction.  He is a former president of the Crime Writers Guild.

Friday 17th October at 7.30pm:  

Professor Sos Eltis and the Oxford School of Drama

'Oscar Wilde on Stage' 

The Church of St Mary Magdalene.

Oscar Wilde’s stage plays have always delighted audiences while at the same time, in plays such as 'An Ideal Husband', 'The Importance of Being Earnest', and 'A Woman of No Importance' questioning the social conventions of Victorian England.  Professor Sos Eltis will explore further into Wilde territory with the skilled assistance of drama students from The Oxford School of Drama who return for a third year.  

Sos Eltis is a specialist in 19th and 20th century stage literature, and Fellow of Brasenose College.

Saturday 22nd November at 3.00pm:  Dr Helen Appleton

'The Medieval Christmas in Literature'

St Hugh's Centre, Hensington Road.

Sir Gawain sees King Arthur’s New Year feast interrupted by a gigantic green visitor bearing a bough of holly and an enormous axe: threat or Christmas game?  After all, for medieval courts Christmas was a time of revelry-Edward III even dressed as a pheasant. Through a group of medieval romances with Christmas settings, we join the court for their festive entertainment.  

Dr Helen Appleton is a Departmental Lecturer in Old English at the University of Oxford, and a joint co-ordinator of The Early Britain and Ireland Network and of The Oxford Psalms network.