talks programme january-APRIL 2019
January 2nd David Oates How to Look at Heraldry
David has been interested in the study of Heraldry ever since he was introduced to it as a 10 year old schoolboy. These days his talks are popular across the country and he recently gave a specialised talk on Devon Hatchments to the Heraldry Society at the Society of Antiquaries in London. He has also contributed to the Devon section of the definitive reference work "Hatchments of Britain."
His talk will show some colourful examples of coats of arms and a wide variety of heraldic devices, drawn from across the country. Emphasis will be placed on how to describe them and what their significance is. It is intended as a guide to the interpretation of what you might come across in everyday life and visits - from Pub Signs to the Arms of Royalty.
Of especial significance is when the arms can be identified as those of a particular individual, enabling a very personal insight into the lives of those who have formed our history over the centuries.
_______________________________________________________________________
January 9th Members' Annual Lunch
_______________________________________________________________________
January 16th Prof. Brian Kirby A Lighthearted Look at Longevity
In his presentation Brian will use cartoons and diagrams from his book How to Live to 110 to illustrate the attitudes people have had to ageing. He will review briefly the increase in the population’s age that has accelerated from the late 20th century - and is still doing so. He will then point out that it is not so much ‘old age’ that causes most deaths and disability but these arise more from the problems individuals inflict on themselves by their life-style and personal habits. Growing old can, and should, be joyful in spite of the inevitable wear and tear therefore the aim is to show what we can do for ourselves and, equally importantly, the encouragement we can and should be giving to the young. Even small changes can improve things greatly for everyone. By doing so resources could be released to help others less fortunate in their health.
It is a serious subject but the aim is to look at it light-heartedly.
Professor Brian Kirby qualified at Leeds Medical School in 1960 and after initial House Appointments there moved to London first to the Central Middlesex Hospital and later the Hammersmith Hospital & Royal Postgraduate Medical School. He went to the Commonwealth of Virginia University in the United States before returning to the post of Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed in 1974 to the then Postgraduate Medical School of the University of Exeter and Consultant Physician to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
He has been particularly interested in treating and researching heart and lung disease, especially coronary heart disease. Throughout his career he has been involved in the prevention of disease. These researches resulted in over 200 publications and numerous lectures.
He was appointed to governmental committees dealing with the regulation of new and old medicines. After retirement he chaired a General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practise panel. He was Chair of the Coronary Prevention Group and locally Chair of South-West Action on Smoking and Health. Later he became a Trustee of the UK Health Forum – a consortium of more than 80 organisations concerned with promoting health.
He was appointed OBE in 1998 and was co-recipient of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in the following year.
_______________________________________________________________________
January 23rd Alison Hernandez The Work of the Police and Crime Commissioner
Alison Hernandez is the elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
PCCs have been elected by the public to hold chief constables and the force to account, effectively making the police answerable to the communities they serve.
The Police and Crime Plan, which has been co-produced with the Chief Constable, sets out the strategic priorities for policing in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for 2017-2020. It is the result of the biggest consultation into police issues ever held in Devon and Cornwall.
Alison's aim is to have excellent policing, co-ordinated wider public services and resilient self-supporting communities. In that way we can all play our part in keeping each other safe.
If you want to read the full Plan then you can do so here.
If you want to see a summary of the Plan you can do so here.
If you want an easy read version of the Plan you can see it here.
You might also be interested in plans for commissioning over £5m of services this year.
You can read the full plan for commissioning here.
Alison is paid a salary of £86,700 per year. This figure is set by the Home Secretary.
Prior to her election Alison predominantly worked in public service except for a four year stint running her own management consultancy, working internationally helping companies with business improvement, particularly in the housing and transport industry.
Her public service work in the UK has mainly focused on tackling poverty and crime in the south west. Her first role in public office was as an elected councillor in Torquay where she won a national award for her efforts to involve and engage constituents online.
She grew up in Torquay and attended Torquay Girls Grammar School before going on to secure a BSC Hons in Sociology at Kingston University and post-graduate studies in marketing at Plymouth business school. She still lives in South Devon with her young daughter.
_______________________________________________________________________
January 30th Ciaran Stoker A Great and Desperate Venture:
University of Exeter Belgian Refugees in Devon in the First World War
Devon gave sanctuary to thousands of people fleeing Belgium during the First World War. In this talk researcher Ciaran Stoker will explore the stories of the refugees who came here, the hosts who welcomed them into their homes, and the workers who organised the humanitarian effort across the county.
Born and educated in Devon, Ciaran Stoker read History at the University of Exeter from 2012-15. Following this, Ciaran developed an interest in medieval history and completed his MA Medieval Studies in 2016. After graduation, he joined the Devon Remembers Heritage Project, based in the Devon Heritage Centre, where he worked as a researcher on the Belgian Refugees microproject.
_______________________________________________________________________
February 6th Nick Earle IKEA Comes to Exeter
IKEA Exeter Store Manager
Nick Earle is the Store Manager of IKEA, Exeter and will be describing his role in setting up such a large store. When the opportunity arose to open a new store in Exeter, from his personal point of view, he felt that it was almost too good to be true! As a child his family used to regularly visit his grandparents in Braunton for their school holidays and then as he has grown up and had a family of his own he has continued to visit the South West annually and now he and his family live here. He feels that professionally the journey has created stretch and growth for him and for his team. They are all very proud of the part they have played in bringing IKEA closer to many more people and in creating such a major retail asset in the region.
_______________________________________________________________________
February 13th Donna Kehoe A View of the Economy
Agent, Bank of England
Donna was appointed as a Bank of England Agent for the South West of England in June 2016 and is based in Exeter. She joined the Bank of England in 1986 and was a Business Relationship Manager within the Bank’s Technology department. She has held a number of positions within the Bank in Banking, Financial Stability and Technology.
The Bank of England is the UK's central bank, with a mission of promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial security. It achieves this by regulating other banks, issuing banknotes, setting monetary policy and taking action to ensure financial stability.
The Bank has agents operating from 12 agencies across the UK. Up to four agents are based at each agency and they are supported by small administrative teams.
Agents have one-to-one confidential conversations with businesses and community organisations in their area, gathering insight into all sectors of the economy. Eight times a year the Bank publishes a summary of agent's reports.
If you would like to find out more about the Bank of England they have a very informative web site at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/ , which in addition to topics such as Financial Stability, Monetary Policy, Research and Statistics and Weekly Reports, it also has full details of the Bank of England Museum which has free admission Monday - Friday and amongst many other things will give you an opportunity to see how it feels picking up a gold bar !
_______________________________________________________________________
February 20th Emma Laws Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic
Emma Laws was a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum for over 20 years. She specialised in the art and design of the book and the golden age of illustration, particularly the work of Beatrix Potter. Her exhibitions include 'Peter Rabbit: the tale of The Tale' in 2010 and the headline V&A exhibition, 'Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic', which ran for 5 months up to April 2018, exploring over 90 years of history of the beloved bear and the relationship between Milne's humorous use of language and Shepard's enduring illustrations. She has published widely, most recently as co-author of a major new work on Winnie-the-Pooh 'Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic: The World of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard' which was published in 2018 .
Previously, Emma read English Literature at Durham University and has Masters Degrees in Library and Information Studies (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) and in The History of the Book (University of London).
Her first professional post was as a rare book cataloguer at the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
_______________________________________________________________________
February 27th Prof. Christopher Southgate Rethinking the Relationship between Science
Exeter University and Religion
Christopher is Professor of Christian Theodicy in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter.
Since 1993 Chris has lectured on the relationship between science and religious faith and the application of Christian theology to the environmental crisis. In 2014 he gave the Sarum Lectures on the theme of ‘Glory and Longing’.
Publications
Chris has published eight books of poetry, most recently Rain Falling by the River (Canterbury Press, 2017), and was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 1999.
He is the author of The Groaning of Creation (WJK, 2008), a seminal book on evolution and the problem of evil, and also Theology in a Suffering World: Glory and Longing (CUP, 2018). He co-authored Greening Paul: Re-reading the Apostle in a Time of Ecological Crisis (Baylor University Press 2010).
He is also the principal author and coordinating editor of:
God, Humanity and the Cosmos (T&T Clark, 3rd ed. 2011)
_______________________________________________________________________
March 6th Prof. Martin Sorrell Writing a Memoir: "Paulette. French Emeritus Professor, by Birth, English by Chance"
Exeter University
Martin will recount the eventful life of his French mother, a life that began in 1916 in an Auvergne village and ended 93 years later in... Weston-super-Mare. He will illustrate his talk with readings from his memoir 'Paulette: French by birth, English by chance'.
Martin Sorrell is Emeritus Professor of French at Exeter University, whose full-time staff he joined in 1970. He grew up in Sussex, and briefly in France. After grammar school, he studied at the Universities of Oxford and then Kent. He was a school teacher for a short while before moving into academia. He and his wife still live in Exeter.
_______________________________________________________________________
March 13th Dr Julia Neville, The Learned and Literary Ladies of Exeter's
Hon Research Fellow, Suffrage Movement
Exeter University
Dr Julia Neville is a community historian with an interest in the history of social change in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Her talk today is based on research done as part of a Devon History Society project to commemorate the centenary of the grant of the parliamentary vote to women. It looks not at well-known national figures such as Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Fawcett, but at the ordinary women from Exeter who campaigned locally for the vote.
_______________________________________________________________________
March 20th Cathie Hartigan Postcard Stories
Postcards were once bought, written and delivered in their millions. Each one telling a tiny story of its own.
Having a lovely time.
I’ll be arriving on the 6.42.
Weather terrible.
These are the most common messages we see, but some provide unexpected glimpses into the lives, not only of the senders, but the recipients as well.
We will be looking at Cathie’s collection of old postcards and considering the situation that prompted the message. Members will be encouraged, although it is not compulsory, to respond with a postcard story of their own. Postcards will be provided but please bring a pen or pencil.
Cathie is a Londoner by birth, but having left home to study in Devon many decades ago, the pull of the sea, the red soil and a teaching job meant she never went back.
She taught the piano at Exeter School for many years, but a series of short story competition successes led to swapping keyboards and taking a life-long love of writing more seriously. She co-authored the Amazon best-selling The Creative Writing Student’s Handbook and The Short Story Writer’s Workbook.
Her debut novel, Secret of the Song, reached No 35 overall in Kindle UK and was shortlisted for the Dorchester Literary Festival Prize.
Cathie founded CreativeWritingMatters, with novelists, Margaret James and Sophie Duffy. They offer author services, writing workshops, and run literary competitions, including the Exeter Novel Prize, which is in its sixth year. Cathie is the Creative Director of the 2019 Exeter Literary Festival.
_______________________________________________________________________
March 27th Frances Grigorey History of Fire Prevention in Exeter
Historian
In 1003 the Vikings burnt Exeter to the ground – even St Peter’s, not yet a cathedral - and hundreds perished. Why ? Could this have been prevented ?
In 1886 Exeter’s Theatre Royal was destroyed by fire and 187 died. What caused this fire and why did so many people die ? Could their deaths have been prevented ?
In November 2017 we lost the Clarence Hotel. This time no one died – why ? But could the devastation have been prevented ?
Find out the answers on 27th March.
Mark Quick from the Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service will augment Frances' talk with comments about Fire Security in the Home.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 3rd Mike Rendell Robinson Crusoe and the story behind the story
“Robinson Crusoe" is one of the most popular works of fiction, written by Daniel Defoe and first published in 1719, but it was based on real life experiences.
Who was the real life Robinson Crusoe ?
Where was he marooned ?
How did he come to be marooned ?
How did he survive ?
How did he get off the island ?
Were there any similar real-life stories ?
All will be revealed on 3rd April !
Mike Rendell has written many books about life in the Georgian period and has always been fascinated by the history of England in the Eighteenth Century. Mike has an excellent web site containing information relating to the Georgian period and details of his books, and this can be accessed at the following address :
http://mikerendell.com/
Mike may have some of his books available for purchase at the meeting.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 10th Clare Maudling Phoenix Rising: The Rebuilding of Exeter after the Blitz
The story of Exeter’s blitz is well known, but the story of the city’s recovery and rebuilding remains hidden. This talk will uncover the challenges in rebuilding tackled by the city and how the new face of Exeter was created and built.
Born in Exeter, Clare’s interest in history was inherited from her father, who used to take her on walks around the city’s historical landmarks. She has spent 20 years working in libraries and archives, finding time in between this to complete a degree, masters and PhD in history. She has recently completed her PhD on post-war reconstruction in the South Western cities of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth. She currently works for the Devon and Exeter Institution as a library assistant and for Exeter University as a researcher on a project investigating the structure of government.
_______________________________________________________________________
David has been interested in the study of Heraldry ever since he was introduced to it as a 10 year old schoolboy. These days his talks are popular across the country and he recently gave a specialised talk on Devon Hatchments to the Heraldry Society at the Society of Antiquaries in London. He has also contributed to the Devon section of the definitive reference work "Hatchments of Britain."
His talk will show some colourful examples of coats of arms and a wide variety of heraldic devices, drawn from across the country. Emphasis will be placed on how to describe them and what their significance is. It is intended as a guide to the interpretation of what you might come across in everyday life and visits - from Pub Signs to the Arms of Royalty.
Of especial significance is when the arms can be identified as those of a particular individual, enabling a very personal insight into the lives of those who have formed our history over the centuries.
_______________________________________________________________________
January 9th Members' Annual Lunch
_______________________________________________________________________
January 16th Prof. Brian Kirby A Lighthearted Look at Longevity
In his presentation Brian will use cartoons and diagrams from his book How to Live to 110 to illustrate the attitudes people have had to ageing. He will review briefly the increase in the population’s age that has accelerated from the late 20th century - and is still doing so. He will then point out that it is not so much ‘old age’ that causes most deaths and disability but these arise more from the problems individuals inflict on themselves by their life-style and personal habits. Growing old can, and should, be joyful in spite of the inevitable wear and tear therefore the aim is to show what we can do for ourselves and, equally importantly, the encouragement we can and should be giving to the young. Even small changes can improve things greatly for everyone. By doing so resources could be released to help others less fortunate in their health.
It is a serious subject but the aim is to look at it light-heartedly.
Professor Brian Kirby qualified at Leeds Medical School in 1960 and after initial House Appointments there moved to London first to the Central Middlesex Hospital and later the Hammersmith Hospital & Royal Postgraduate Medical School. He went to the Commonwealth of Virginia University in the United States before returning to the post of Lecturer in Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was appointed in 1974 to the then Postgraduate Medical School of the University of Exeter and Consultant Physician to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
He has been particularly interested in treating and researching heart and lung disease, especially coronary heart disease. Throughout his career he has been involved in the prevention of disease. These researches resulted in over 200 publications and numerous lectures.
He was appointed to governmental committees dealing with the regulation of new and old medicines. After retirement he chaired a General Medical Council’s Fitness to Practise panel. He was Chair of the Coronary Prevention Group and locally Chair of South-West Action on Smoking and Health. Later he became a Trustee of the UK Health Forum – a consortium of more than 80 organisations concerned with promoting health.
He was appointed OBE in 1998 and was co-recipient of the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in the following year.
_______________________________________________________________________
January 23rd Alison Hernandez The Work of the Police and Crime Commissioner
Alison Hernandez is the elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
PCCs have been elected by the public to hold chief constables and the force to account, effectively making the police answerable to the communities they serve.
The Police and Crime Plan, which has been co-produced with the Chief Constable, sets out the strategic priorities for policing in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for 2017-2020. It is the result of the biggest consultation into police issues ever held in Devon and Cornwall.
Alison's aim is to have excellent policing, co-ordinated wider public services and resilient self-supporting communities. In that way we can all play our part in keeping each other safe.
If you want to read the full Plan then you can do so here.
If you want to see a summary of the Plan you can do so here.
If you want an easy read version of the Plan you can see it here.
You might also be interested in plans for commissioning over £5m of services this year.
You can read the full plan for commissioning here.
Alison is paid a salary of £86,700 per year. This figure is set by the Home Secretary.
Prior to her election Alison predominantly worked in public service except for a four year stint running her own management consultancy, working internationally helping companies with business improvement, particularly in the housing and transport industry.
Her public service work in the UK has mainly focused on tackling poverty and crime in the south west. Her first role in public office was as an elected councillor in Torquay where she won a national award for her efforts to involve and engage constituents online.
She grew up in Torquay and attended Torquay Girls Grammar School before going on to secure a BSC Hons in Sociology at Kingston University and post-graduate studies in marketing at Plymouth business school. She still lives in South Devon with her young daughter.
_______________________________________________________________________
January 30th Ciaran Stoker A Great and Desperate Venture:
University of Exeter Belgian Refugees in Devon in the First World War
Devon gave sanctuary to thousands of people fleeing Belgium during the First World War. In this talk researcher Ciaran Stoker will explore the stories of the refugees who came here, the hosts who welcomed them into their homes, and the workers who organised the humanitarian effort across the county.
Born and educated in Devon, Ciaran Stoker read History at the University of Exeter from 2012-15. Following this, Ciaran developed an interest in medieval history and completed his MA Medieval Studies in 2016. After graduation, he joined the Devon Remembers Heritage Project, based in the Devon Heritage Centre, where he worked as a researcher on the Belgian Refugees microproject.
_______________________________________________________________________
February 6th Nick Earle IKEA Comes to Exeter
IKEA Exeter Store Manager
Nick Earle is the Store Manager of IKEA, Exeter and will be describing his role in setting up such a large store. When the opportunity arose to open a new store in Exeter, from his personal point of view, he felt that it was almost too good to be true! As a child his family used to regularly visit his grandparents in Braunton for their school holidays and then as he has grown up and had a family of his own he has continued to visit the South West annually and now he and his family live here. He feels that professionally the journey has created stretch and growth for him and for his team. They are all very proud of the part they have played in bringing IKEA closer to many more people and in creating such a major retail asset in the region.
_______________________________________________________________________
February 13th Donna Kehoe A View of the Economy
Agent, Bank of England
Donna was appointed as a Bank of England Agent for the South West of England in June 2016 and is based in Exeter. She joined the Bank of England in 1986 and was a Business Relationship Manager within the Bank’s Technology department. She has held a number of positions within the Bank in Banking, Financial Stability and Technology.
The Bank of England is the UK's central bank, with a mission of promoting the good of the people of the United Kingdom by maintaining monetary and financial security. It achieves this by regulating other banks, issuing banknotes, setting monetary policy and taking action to ensure financial stability.
The Bank has agents operating from 12 agencies across the UK. Up to four agents are based at each agency and they are supported by small administrative teams.
Agents have one-to-one confidential conversations with businesses and community organisations in their area, gathering insight into all sectors of the economy. Eight times a year the Bank publishes a summary of agent's reports.
If you would like to find out more about the Bank of England they have a very informative web site at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/ , which in addition to topics such as Financial Stability, Monetary Policy, Research and Statistics and Weekly Reports, it also has full details of the Bank of England Museum which has free admission Monday - Friday and amongst many other things will give you an opportunity to see how it feels picking up a gold bar !
_______________________________________________________________________
February 20th Emma Laws Winnie the Pooh: Exploring a Classic
Emma Laws was a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum for over 20 years. She specialised in the art and design of the book and the golden age of illustration, particularly the work of Beatrix Potter. Her exhibitions include 'Peter Rabbit: the tale of The Tale' in 2010 and the headline V&A exhibition, 'Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic', which ran for 5 months up to April 2018, exploring over 90 years of history of the beloved bear and the relationship between Milne's humorous use of language and Shepard's enduring illustrations. She has published widely, most recently as co-author of a major new work on Winnie-the-Pooh 'Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic: The World of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard' which was published in 2018 .
Previously, Emma read English Literature at Durham University and has Masters Degrees in Library and Information Studies (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) and in The History of the Book (University of London).
Her first professional post was as a rare book cataloguer at the Royal Library, Windsor Castle.
_______________________________________________________________________
February 27th Prof. Christopher Southgate Rethinking the Relationship between Science
Exeter University and Religion
Christopher is Professor of Christian Theodicy in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter.
Since 1993 Chris has lectured on the relationship between science and religious faith and the application of Christian theology to the environmental crisis. In 2014 he gave the Sarum Lectures on the theme of ‘Glory and Longing’.
Publications
Chris has published eight books of poetry, most recently Rain Falling by the River (Canterbury Press, 2017), and was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 1999.
He is the author of The Groaning of Creation (WJK, 2008), a seminal book on evolution and the problem of evil, and also Theology in a Suffering World: Glory and Longing (CUP, 2018). He co-authored Greening Paul: Re-reading the Apostle in a Time of Ecological Crisis (Baylor University Press 2010).
He is also the principal author and coordinating editor of:
God, Humanity and the Cosmos (T&T Clark, 3rd ed. 2011)
_______________________________________________________________________
March 6th Prof. Martin Sorrell Writing a Memoir: "Paulette. French Emeritus Professor, by Birth, English by Chance"
Exeter University
Martin will recount the eventful life of his French mother, a life that began in 1916 in an Auvergne village and ended 93 years later in... Weston-super-Mare. He will illustrate his talk with readings from his memoir 'Paulette: French by birth, English by chance'.
Martin Sorrell is Emeritus Professor of French at Exeter University, whose full-time staff he joined in 1970. He grew up in Sussex, and briefly in France. After grammar school, he studied at the Universities of Oxford and then Kent. He was a school teacher for a short while before moving into academia. He and his wife still live in Exeter.
_______________________________________________________________________
March 13th Dr Julia Neville, The Learned and Literary Ladies of Exeter's
Hon Research Fellow, Suffrage Movement
Exeter University
Dr Julia Neville is a community historian with an interest in the history of social change in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Her talk today is based on research done as part of a Devon History Society project to commemorate the centenary of the grant of the parliamentary vote to women. It looks not at well-known national figures such as Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Fawcett, but at the ordinary women from Exeter who campaigned locally for the vote.
_______________________________________________________________________
March 20th Cathie Hartigan Postcard Stories
Postcards were once bought, written and delivered in their millions. Each one telling a tiny story of its own.
Having a lovely time.
I’ll be arriving on the 6.42.
Weather terrible.
These are the most common messages we see, but some provide unexpected glimpses into the lives, not only of the senders, but the recipients as well.
We will be looking at Cathie’s collection of old postcards and considering the situation that prompted the message. Members will be encouraged, although it is not compulsory, to respond with a postcard story of their own. Postcards will be provided but please bring a pen or pencil.
Cathie is a Londoner by birth, but having left home to study in Devon many decades ago, the pull of the sea, the red soil and a teaching job meant she never went back.
She taught the piano at Exeter School for many years, but a series of short story competition successes led to swapping keyboards and taking a life-long love of writing more seriously. She co-authored the Amazon best-selling The Creative Writing Student’s Handbook and The Short Story Writer’s Workbook.
Her debut novel, Secret of the Song, reached No 35 overall in Kindle UK and was shortlisted for the Dorchester Literary Festival Prize.
Cathie founded CreativeWritingMatters, with novelists, Margaret James and Sophie Duffy. They offer author services, writing workshops, and run literary competitions, including the Exeter Novel Prize, which is in its sixth year. Cathie is the Creative Director of the 2019 Exeter Literary Festival.
_______________________________________________________________________
March 27th Frances Grigorey History of Fire Prevention in Exeter
Historian
In 1003 the Vikings burnt Exeter to the ground – even St Peter’s, not yet a cathedral - and hundreds perished. Why ? Could this have been prevented ?
In 1886 Exeter’s Theatre Royal was destroyed by fire and 187 died. What caused this fire and why did so many people die ? Could their deaths have been prevented ?
In November 2017 we lost the Clarence Hotel. This time no one died – why ? But could the devastation have been prevented ?
Find out the answers on 27th March.
Mark Quick from the Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service will augment Frances' talk with comments about Fire Security in the Home.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 3rd Mike Rendell Robinson Crusoe and the story behind the story
“Robinson Crusoe" is one of the most popular works of fiction, written by Daniel Defoe and first published in 1719, but it was based on real life experiences.
Who was the real life Robinson Crusoe ?
Where was he marooned ?
How did he come to be marooned ?
How did he survive ?
How did he get off the island ?
Were there any similar real-life stories ?
All will be revealed on 3rd April !
Mike Rendell has written many books about life in the Georgian period and has always been fascinated by the history of England in the Eighteenth Century. Mike has an excellent web site containing information relating to the Georgian period and details of his books, and this can be accessed at the following address :
http://mikerendell.com/
Mike may have some of his books available for purchase at the meeting.
_______________________________________________________________________
April 10th Clare Maudling Phoenix Rising: The Rebuilding of Exeter after the Blitz
The story of Exeter’s blitz is well known, but the story of the city’s recovery and rebuilding remains hidden. This talk will uncover the challenges in rebuilding tackled by the city and how the new face of Exeter was created and built.
Born in Exeter, Clare’s interest in history was inherited from her father, who used to take her on walks around the city’s historical landmarks. She has spent 20 years working in libraries and archives, finding time in between this to complete a degree, masters and PhD in history. She has recently completed her PhD on post-war reconstruction in the South Western cities of Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth. She currently works for the Devon and Exeter Institution as a library assistant and for Exeter University as a researcher on a project investigating the structure of government.
_______________________________________________________________________
