Upcoming Courses

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DIRTY REALISM – The Short Stories of Richard Ford and Raymond carver

GUEST TUTOR : Paul Marshall

START DATE : 4^th November      WEA  5 wk course ref: Q00022297

This course will provide an introduction to ‘Dirty Realism’ a term coined by Bill Buford, editor of Granta magazine, to define a North American literary movement prevalent during the 1980s.

Books : Richard Ford Rock Springs & Raymond Carver What we talk about when we talk about Love

GUEST SPEAKER : Alison Barker  

TITLE :   Mirror Image: Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun in Paint and Prose

START DATE : 5^th Nov

Learning Circle 5 wks – enrol and pay in class

The Essex Federation are hosting this day school. They invite you to enrol in one of two free talks. In this talk Richard Pusey reveals the London of Samuel Pepys. A light lunch will be provided.

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Samuel Pepys is well known for his diary which he wrote in shorthand from 1660 – 1669. In it, he describes having his bladder stone surgically removed without anaesthetic! He rose to become Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board and lived in the Navy Office in Hart Street with his young wife Elizabeth and their relationship was very interesting!

London changed radically during this time and events such as the Restoration, the Great Plague and the Great Fire took place and these are vividly described in the diary. The City was subsequently rebuilt at great speed.

The talk will outline these events and visit the rebuilt London and look at some of the sites that Pepys would have recognised.

The second talk will look at the medical practitioners and how the medical services (such as they were) were delivered at that time. Why were surgeons called Mr and how did they do amputations in just a few minutes! You will hear all about it but not for the squeamish!!

Richard is a retired surgeon and City of London and Camden Tour Guide specialising in Medical Walks and Talks.

The Essex Federation are hosting this day school. They invite you to enrol in one of two free talks. In this talk art historian Chantal Condron explores the roots, cultural and artistic influences of the Surrealist artists. A light lunch will be provided. Click there to enrol

The Surrealist movement achieved its centenary in 2024, marking the moment that the First Surrealist Manifesto was launched in Paris by André Breton. Aiming to capture what they called the ‘marvellous’, the Surrealist artists of 1920s Paris were drawn to the strange, illogical and irrational, often through the means of unconscious thought or actions and the juxtaposition of unrelated objects and themes. This day course explores its roots, cultural and artistic influences and how the movement responded to the political climate in Europe up to the Second World War. Artists featured include Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, André Masson, René Magritte, Meret Oppenheim, Salvador Dali and Dorothea Tanning.