In this lecture we play armchair detective and follow a trail of clues to discover more about the London life of the“Queen of Crime”.  Although Dame Agatha Christie is closely associated with Torquay in Devon, the world’s best selling author left a trail of clues for us to follow all over London. Living in various London properties during her long (and eventful) life, she penned 16 out of 66 novels from one London address alone!

It was at University College London that she further developed her knowledge of her preferred method of murder; poison! We examine the London links to her novels including a hotel that inspired a Miss Marple novel and Agatha’s perhaps lesser known links to The Mesopotamian galleries at the British Museum.

We conclude with a look at Agatha’s personal and professional devotion to the theatre and the extraordinary longevity of The Mousetrap: the longest running theatrical production in the world.  

Simon is a (recovering) actor, lecturer, presenter, Alexander Technique and 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 guiding both public and private tours. He is on the faculty of Ithaca College and also lectures for the Blue Badge Guide training course on the performing arts and English literature. Simon’s specialisms and passions are theatre, literature, fashion and art history.

When it comes to Dutch Flower paintings, the only real expert in the field (often literally) is the insect that lives off the stems and petals. As Harry Berger puts it “the caterpillar is connoisseur”.

From Meat Stalls to Mince Pies, and Bubbles to Bread Rolls, this lecture will help you to discover the enormous symbolism that is conveyed by simple every day objects that have been rendered with breath taking accuracy and convey really satisfying moral meaning.

Examining works by Aertsen, Claesz, Steenwyck, de Heem, van Aelst and Mignon; we shall explore the corruption of abundance, the mutability and ephemerality of life and the inevitability of death.

Dan Evans is an educationalist with a passion for all things Italian. He is a Housemaster and Teacher at Cheltenham College, and was formerly Head of History of Art at Wycombe Abbey School. Dan has been lecturing since 2001, and spent 9 years working as a senior lecturer, tutor and tour guide for Art History Abroad. In 2008 he was voted the British winner of the World Guide of the Year Awards. Alongside his lectures and special interest days he also leads educational study trips for groups of friends to a range of destinations in Italy.

Charles Dickens has often been proclaimed as “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and indeed on hearing that Dickens had died, a cockney barrow-girl said: “Dickens dead? Then will Father Christmas die too?” 

Dickens revived the Christmas traditions with his warm portrayal of Christmas in the domestic setting; with plum pudding, piping hot turkey, games, dancing and family cheer by the hearth. Although he celebrated Christmas in numerous works it is his enduring master piece, ‘A Christmas Carol’ published on 19th December 1843 which immortalises the spirit of Christmas Cheer.

Dickens was a man of extraordinary energy and talent: literary genius, reformer, public speaker, actor and amateur magician. In this lecture, Bertie Pearce reveals a Dickensian Christmas with readings, biographical details and conjuring tricks.

Bertie has a BA (Hons) in Drama from Manchester University, and a Diploma Internationale from the École Internationale du Théatre, Jacques Lecoq. He is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, with Gold Star. Past experience includes lecturing and performing on cruise ships, and to U3A, historical societies, festivals, schools and colleges. In addition, Bertie has toured the world with a magic cabaret show and a one man show entitled 'All Aboard.' He has also written articles for newspapers and magazines on entertainment and theatre.

This lively and interactive lecture looks at how Shakespeare’s company produced the plays in the 16/17 century.

Highlighting the differences between early modern and modern theatre practice, including repertoire constraints on rehearsal, cue scripts, embedded stage direction, visible audience, universal lighting, and touching on textual clues, this lecture will change the way you look at Shakespeare’s texts for ever.

Nick Hutchison is a theatre director, actor and lecturer. He has directed at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Sam Wanamaker Theatre, Wilton’s Music Hall, St James’s Theatre, Cheltenham Everyman, the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, and also in Israel and the United States.

He is an Associate Drama Tutor at RADA, LAMDA and Shakespeare’s Globe, and has directed, lectured, and taught for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Dublin Lir Academy, BADA, Mountview, Rhodes College, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Case Western Reserve University and the NYU.

As an actor Nick worked with the RSC, the National Theatre, the Globe Theatre, the BBC and ITV. 

He lectures worldwide on Shakespeare, is a regular contributor to the National Symposium on Classical Education in Phoenix, Arizona, and contributed to How and Why We Teach Shakespeare and Why The Theatre? 

This lecture gives a fascinating look at how artists have portrayed a powerful woman over 2,000 years.

Cleopatra, the woman for whose love’s sake Antony is imagined to have given up the chance to rule the Roman world, has been inspiring painters, poets and (more recently) film-makers for over two millennia. Their gorgeously voluptuous depictions of her offer insights into changing concepts of beauty, and into the racial and sexual assumptions underlying them.  

Showing images ranging from Roman portrait busts, through medieval illuminations, the glorious works of Renaissance masters like Michelangelo, the splendour of Tiepolo and the exoticism of Gustave Moreau to 20th century film stars (Theda Bara, Claudette Colbert, Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and the Carry On team’s Amanda Barry), this lecture will show how Cleopatra became a screen onto which artists have projected their wildly differing fantasies about exotic danger and erotic bliss.

Lucy Hughes-Hallett's most recent book on the 17th century Duke of Buckingham, The Scapegoat, won the Plutarch Award for Biography of the Year and the Randy Shilts Award for Non-Fiction. Her previous biography, The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio was described in The Sunday Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. It won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her other non-fiction books include Cleopatra and Heroes.  

Lucy also writes fiction. Her novel, Peculiar Ground, which is largely set in the 17th century, was described as 'almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance' and 'full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating detail’.  

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, Lucy is a widely respected critic. In 2021, she was Chair of the Judges for the International Booker Prize. 

A suitable sub-title for this lecture would be ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’ as all three are to be found within Victorian furniture!

The 19th century saw both the production of some of the finest furniture ever made and the commercialised mass production of ‘cheap’ furniture to meet the demands of a rapidly increasing population.

The development and production of Victorian furniture will be examined through exploring what JC Loudon was to describe as the “principal styles”: “the Grecian or modern style…the Gothic or perpendicular style…the Elizabethan style…and the style of the age of Louis 14th, or the florid Italian, which is characterised by curved lines and excess of curvilinear ornament.”

According to Janusz, making sense of these and the various other styles of this period will, if nothing else, be fun! 

Janusz is a freelance lecturer and researcher in English furniture history and also an antique dealer.

In 1997, the Royal Academy of Arts took the world by storm by curating an exhibition of contemporary art. The very first of its kind, the Main Galleries of Burlington House were transformed for this landmark show, 'Sensation'.

Apart from launching the careers of many Young British Artists (the 'YBAs'), the exhibition also gathered much controversy. Many of the works were owned by the advertising mogul, Charles Saatchi and this lecture will assess the impact of this exhibition, the artists and their works.

How did 'Sensation' launch contemporary art in to the mainstream? What has it meant for the careers of certain YBAs? Many of these artists are now household names - Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Marcus Harvey, the Chapman Brothers and Rachel Whiteread. 

Pamela had completed her first year of working permanently at the Royal Academy and like many of her colleagues, had to navigate her way around the controversy; the vandalism of certain works; the resignation of some Royal Academicians and the actual understanding of what this exhibition and its works were all about.

This lecture will not only reveal, first hand, aspects of 'behind-the-scenes' but will also review signature pieces from the exhibition. It will consider the global position of the RA at a time when the artistic image of Great Britain was 'Cool Britannia'. 

So come and celebrate thirty years on from the exhibition and understand its seminal impact.

Pamela Campbell-Johnston has over 30 years of lecturing experience to undergraduates, adult groups, and to Friends and Patrons of the Royal Academy of Arts as part of the RA’s Adult Education Department.

She has also conducted numerous guided tours, residential trips and gallery talks on individual works of art, specialising in British Domestic Architecture and Modern British Art, with a particular love for the 1920s and 1930s. Pamela also enjoyed a permanent career at Royal Academy of Arts for 12 years.

Now a freelance art consultant and lecturer, Pamela is also a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars

This most famous of pre-Colombian cultures had no wheels, no iron, no written language and yet they built an empire in less than 200 years .

Discover how they did it and see examples of their talent for making adornments of gold and other precious materials. This is a story of human ambition at its peak, and what that can achieve.

After a career in finance, Eileen studied Ancient Egypt and in 2012 gained an MA in Egyptology. Since then she has had two books published, become an accredited lecturer for the Arts Society and an Enrichment Lecturer for several cruise lines.
Her scope of interest and research has developed and expanded from Egypt to history in general and indigenous societies in particular.

In recent years Eileen has studied extensively the empires of Central and South America, tribal histories of South Africa, Australian Aboriginals and the Crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries. Eileen loves to share her enthusiasm and specialist knowledge of many of the world’s ancient civilisations. 

This lecture celebrates the remarkable life and career of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, tracing her journey from rural Yorkshire to international acclaim. It begins with her early friendship with fellow sculptor Henry Moore and follows her travels across Europe in the 1930s, when she met Picasso and learned to carve marble in Florence.

The lecture explores Hepworth’s artistic influences and her commitment to abstraction, showing how landscape, family life and place profoundly shaped her sculpture. It examines key works in stone, plaster and bronze, situating them within the contexts of modernism and post-war Britain.

Particular attention is given to Hepworth’s role as a pioneering woman artist and to her enduring relationship with her adopted home of St Ives. The talk also considers her major public commissions of the 1950s and 60s, culminating in her monumental sculpture for the United Nations in New York. Finally, it reflects on Hepworth’s continuing influence on contemporary art today.

Ian Giles studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and is a practising artist. His artworks and films have been shown internationally, including in New York, Amsterdam, and London.

Ian has been a visiting lecturer at Chelsea College of Arts, Cambridge School of Art, Camberwell College of Arts, Birmingham School of Art and the University of Cambridge, Department of Architecture.

His work has been supported by Arts Council England, Art Fund, The Jerwood Foundation, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Press coverage includes features and reviews in The Guardian, Frieze, Artforum, and on BBC radio and television.

Certified Pearl Grader Laurie Wickwire takes you on a journey to the seabed floor in the hunt for the elusive natural pearl - Child of the Sea.

The Golden Age of natural pearling transformed the bedouin city states of Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. Pearling transformed the region, where generations of camel herders and date farmers almost entirely left their way of life, to travel to the coast to become pearl farmers.  

Natural pearls were once the most prized gem in the world, with a single gram of gem quality pearl equivalent to 320 grams of gold. It all sounded too good to last, and it was!

With over 35 years in the diamond industry, Laurie Wickwire represents the industry across all sectors.  

Whether presenting diamond shows on national channels the BBC, ITV and QVC, hosting diamond master classes, filming jubilee specials, or creating the historical jewellery range for both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle gift shops, Laurie’s love of the diamond industry is apparent.  

Laurie is both a certified diamond grader and certified pearl grader. Her industry knowledge has seen her interviewing celebrities at the Cannes Film Festival, publishing articles on Ocean Mining or the British Coronation, guest on numerous internationally streamed podcasts, enrichment lecturer on luxury cruise lines and creating bespoke commissions for the Royal Family. 

Around 1900, some of Finland's most famous painters - joined by the composer Sibelius - settled on the shores of tiny Lake Tuusula with their families and built their country homes. The houses are still standing today.

Lake Tuusula became an artists' community that changed Finland's soul. Not only was this the Golden Age of Finnish painting, but a pivotal moment in the country’s history as it sought independence.

This lecture takes us inside four of these homes to reveal how Jean Sibelius, Pekka Halonen, Eero Järnefelt and Venny Soldan-Brofeldt made such a contribution to Finnish and world culture, and explores what their homes and works reveal about their extraordinary lives and hidden secrets.

James Vaux is a researcher and lecturer specialising in Nordic arts, culture, design and history. He has travelled across the Nordics, visiting and researching the homes and colonies of artists, writers, designers and musicians to provide first hand insights into their lives and works. 

As a managing director of the international bank Rothschild & Co, he set up and ran the bank’s Nordic operations, living and working in Scandinavia and immersing himself in the countries’ arts, culture and history. James then gained an MA (Distinction) at UCL in Scandinavian Studies.

His focus is on placing works in their historical context and sharing inside knowledge from his extensive research trips and visits to artists' homes and colonies across the Nordics.

Lustrous flowing red and auburn hair, full and ripe lips, sumptuous drapery, moral character studies and medieval heroines. These are the images we draw to mind when we think of the women of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. What we less often realise is that beyond being models and wives, many of these women were also exhibited artists in their own right. 

With stunning art works, exquisite techniques and rarely seen pieces, this lecture explores the feminine energy and women’s voices within the Pre-Raphaelite movement. 

We will meet many powerful women and explore the challenges that faced them as Victorian women in their roles as wives and mothers, pursuing independent careers in what was an increasingly industrialised and male dominated society.  We will see how husbands, fellow male and female artists supported these women. We shall explore how the movement was a collective that could nourish or diminish an artist’s development. 

In particular, we will get to know the delicate work of Joanna Boyce Wells and bold work of Maria Spartali Stillman whose roles had until the late 20th century been reduced to wife and model. The lecture invites you to be stunned by the remarkable beauty and sumptuous colours of the work of Evelyn de Morgan, alongside exploring her working relationship with her husband William.

Anna Bianco is a freelance curator, writer, lecturer, tour guide and art historian. She has been an accredited lecturer of The Arts Society for 14 years. Anna has curated exhibitions and displays at The Wallace Collection, The British Museum, The Embankment Galleries and The Southwark Art Collection. She was Director of the Tryon St. Gallery on the Kings Road, and was Associate Curator at Copperfield Gallery, Southwark. She was also Senior Curator for Faith at Auckland Castle in County Durham. She has been a guest lecturer for Christies Education, Durham University, London College of Communication and the Open University. She has also been a tour guide for Context Travel across London.

Anna attended her first Arts Society Study Day aged 7 as the helper of her Grandfather Theophilus Peters who was an Accredited Lecturer. She has been hooked on The Arts Society ever since! 

Image: Evening Star Over The Sea, Evelyn de Morgan, Oil on Canvas

The world of opera is full of remarkable contributors, great game changers who leave the stage in a completely different place from the one they found.

In the 19th century three such men revolutionised the art form; in three very different ways; Verdi, Wagner and Puccini. From the romantic heart-breakers of La Traviata and Rigoletto via the mystery and magic of the The Ring Cycle to the breath-taking melodramatic tear jerkers of Tosca and La Bohème.

Enjoy their remarkable journeys and innovative, dynamic and thrilling theatricality which highlights so much of their work. This lecture will highlight the great opera productions which have graced the worlds opera houses.

After training at RADA Jamie worked as a Stage Manager for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Bristol Old Vic and the BBC. He became an Assistant Director with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Kent Opera and English National Opera and soon began directing productions of his own.

He has directed many new opera productions in the UK whilst other new opera productions overseas include Reykjavik, Malta and Melbourne. Jamie was Associate Director on the original production of the hit musical Miss Saigon in the West End and on Broadway. He has directed productions in all the major UK conservatoires and was Director of Productions for British Youth Opera for over a decade, a company devoted to promoting the talents of our finest young opera singers in the UK.