Free Public Lectures 2017–2018 Message from the Provost Professor Sir Richard Evans FBA

I am delighted to present our programme of free public lectures for the academic year 2017-18. At the core of the programme are the series of six lectures delivered in the subjects represented by the original seven professorships established by Sir Thomas Gresham in the sixteenth century and the Mercers’ School Memorial Professorship of Commerce. Alongside these, we also have series of lectures given by the holders of our sponsored chairs, by our visiting professors, and by the many leading scholars and scientists who will be presenting lectures on a huge variety of topics.

Our lectures are delivered by distinguished scholars, many of them leaders in their field. Many of them teach and research at Britain's leading universities. They are appointed and selected not only for their subject expertise but also for their ability to engage with the general public. Our lectures are famous for addressing a very wide audience, both specialists and non-specialists alike, and are accessible to those who attend in person in London and to anyone who wants to access lectures world- wide via the internet. The College does not have any registered students, it does not set any examinations or assesments and it does not award any degrees. What it does offer is the opportunity to acquire learning straight from some of the world's leading experts, entirely free of charge.

Founded in 1597, Gresham College was the first and for a long time the only Higher Education Institution in London. As well as our continuing Gresham Professors of Astronomy, Divinity, Geometry, Law, Music, Physic, and Commerce, we are delighted to welcome Sir Jonathan Bate, FBA as the new Professor of Rhetoric. A leading authority on Shakespeare and on Romanticism, he is Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford.

We are most grateful to the Frank Jackson Foundation for their continued funding of Carolyn Roberts as Professor of the Environment, and to the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists for again sponsoring Martyn Thomas as Professor of IT. A number of Visiting Professors continue their appointments since last year, and some new appointments in humanities subjects have also been made for 2017-18. At a time when open-access learning is continuing to gain in popularity, Sir Thomas Gresham's original approach shows him to have been far ahead of his time.

We are very grateful to our sponsors, the City of London Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers for their continuing support, and to the many other individuals and institutions whose backing continues to be crucial to the College's success. Sir Thomas Gresham’s heraldic device of a ‘golden grasshopper’, pictured above, was and still is well-known in the City of London. Contents Preface Inside front cover The Gresham Lectures 2 Sir Thomas Gresham and his Will 3 Gresham College 4 The College Today 5 Gresham Online 6 Additional Lectures and Events 7 Programme of Events 8 The Gresham Professors 53 Visiting Professors 63 Lecture Series 70 Our People 71 How to Find Us 72 Maps Fold-over cover Index of Events Inside back cover 2 The Gresham Lectures ̥̥ are available free and open to all, either to attend in London in person or online at www.gresham.ac.uk. The lecture theatre will open approximately 30 minutes before each lecture begins.

̥̥ last for one hour including questions, except for special events such as symposia.

̥̥ are available on a ‘first come first served’ basis, unless the need for reservations is specified.

̥̥ are sometimes ticketed (via Eventbrite). To ensure a full house, we issue more tickets than spaces. Ticket-holders must be seated ten minutes prior to the start time or seats will be released to those without tickets.

̥̥ are recorded and made available without charge on our website in video, audio and transcript formats. Attendees accept that they may appear in a video as an audience member. There are over 2000 lectures on our website, dating back to 1984.

Please note that it is not possible to save seats for friends or colleagues when the venue is full. We cannot guarantee admission to latecomers, since this may disturb those already seated.

Please contact the College if you need information, wish to make a reservation or would like to receive our newsletter:

Gresham College Barnard’s Inn Hall Holborn, EC1N 2HH 020 7831 0575 [email protected] 3 Sir Thomas Gresham Gresham College is named after Sir Thomas Gresham (1519- 1579), an English merchant and financier who worked for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth I. Descended from a prominent, old Norfolk family, Thomas Gresham studied at Cambridge before being apprenticed as a merchant, and admitted to the Mercers’ Company in 1542. Based in the Low Countries, he operated as a merchant and acted in financial matters on behalf of the Tudor Monarchs. Married to Anne Ferneley in 1544, he spent much of his life in Antwerp, where he succeeded as a merchant and became a principal adviser to the crown. He was so successful as agent of the crown - negotiating loans and procuring funds, goods and munitions to defend the realm - that his advice was continually sought on financial issues and in diplomatic missions. From 1566, Gresham built the Royal Exchange at his own expense, modelled on the Antwerp Bourse. The Exchange was of immense benefit to the merchants of London, and also to Sir Thomas personally since he received the rentals from the shops. Gresham also acted as ambassador (in Spain), and was well rewarded for all his work with money, lands and a knighthood, becoming one of the richest men in England.

The Will of Sir Thomas Gresham Sadly, Sir Thomas’ only son and legitimate heir died in 1564. As a result, apart from some sums left to various charities, in his Will of 1575 Gresham bequeathed his estate to his widow, specifying that, after her death, his house in Bishopsgate Street and the rents from the Royal Exchange should be vested in the Corporation of London and the Mercers’ Company, in order to found a College in London. Seven Professors were appointed to read lectures daily - in Divinity, Astronomy, Music, Geometry, Law, Physic and Rhetoric. (The permanent Chair of Commerce, sponsored by the Mercers’ School Memorial Trust, was added in 1985; The Frank Jackson Foundation Chair of The Environment was added in 2014; and the IT Livery Company Chair in Information Technology in 2015.) 4 Gresham College

Sir Thomas’s mansion in Bishopsgate was the first home of Gresham College, until 1768, and saw the appointment of many distinguished Professors, a tradition that has continued up to the present day. Lectures were later given in various locations until a new College opened in Gresham Street in 1842. It was at Gresham College that the Royal Society was founded in 1660 by a group of Gresham Professors, amongst them Sir Christopher Wren.

Barnard’s Inn Hall The College has been based at Barnard’s Inn Hall since 1991. Barnard’s Inn, built on land recorded from 1252, was established as an Inn of Chancery associated with Gray’s Inn in 1542. It is described by Charles Dickens in Great Expectations (1861). In 1892 it was bought by the Mercers’ Company and housed the Mercers’ School until 1959.

The Hall itself dates from the late 14th-century, and was described as ‘new’ in 1439. The linenfold panelling was added in 1525 and further restoration took place in the 1930s. The chalk and tile foundation that is preserved in the wall of the Council Chamber below the Hall is much older, probably dating from the late Saxon or early medieval period. 5 The College Today

Gresham College, established as the first institution of higher education in London, provides free education in accordance with its mission and objectives:

̥̥ To continue to provide free public lectures of the highest possible standard, focussed on the maintaining of Gresham Professorships in an extensive range of academic disciplines, in accordance with the Vision of Sir Thomas Gresham as expressed in his Will of 1575

̥̥ To provide free and open access to new learning of contemporary relevance and interest in the widest possible international sense

̥̥ To contribute to society through the provision of stimulating free education, learning and debate, linked to the core values of freedom of thought and expression.

The College receives no government funding. It continues to expand, supported through the legacy of Sir Thomas Gresham, administered by its sponsors: the Worshipful Company of Mercers and the City of London Corporation.

Further information about Sir Thomas Gresham and Gresham College is available on the Gresham College website www.gresham.ac.uk and in the following publications:

Chartres, Richard and Vermont, David (1998) A Brief History of Gresham College 1597–1997, Edmundsbury Press.

Shrimplin, Valerie (2017) Sir Thomas Gresham and His Vision for Gresham College, Pitkin Publishing. 6 Videos and Recordings

Gresham College lectures are recorded and made available on the College website, www.gresham.ac.uk. Over 2000 Gresham College lectures can be watched and downloaded, as well as an increasing number of shorter talks and extracts. Live Streaming

During 2017-18, we will begin broadcasting a live-stream of our lectures on the internet. This will make them even more accessible to a wide audience. Links to the live-stream will be available on the Gresham website and on social media. Monthly Newsletter

You can sign up to the monthly newsletter on the Gresham College website. Social Media

The latest updates news, facts, quotes, illustrations and videos are also accessible via social media:

Website: www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: www.facebook.com/GreshamCollege

YouTube: www.youtube.com/GreshamCollege

Plans for 2019

The year 2019 will mark 500 years since the birth of Sir Thomas Gresham (in 1519). Several special events, lec- tures, exhibitions and publications are being planned, in order to celebrate the life of our benefactor. 7 Additional Lectures and Events

Lectures and events are sometimes added to the programme during the year, for example where it has not been possible to confirm a date by the time of going to press or where current or topical events result in additions to the programme. Information about extra events and any updates or alterations is given on the Gresham College website www.gresham.ac.uk and in our electronic newsletter.

The date of the Lord Mayor’s Event, for example, cannot be confirmed until the new appointment is made and the Mayoral diary finalised in the autumn. Outline information is given below. Please consult the website for further details when these become known, or telephone the College for further information. This will be a ticketed event.

Date and venue to be announced THE LORD MAYOR’S ANNUAL GRESHAM EVENT Trust-Busting or Trust-Building: How Can the City Earn Trust? The Lord Mayor of the City of London In recent years, the reputation of the financial services and related professional services industries has been corroded by a series of scandals. In 2017 the largest-ever decline in trust across the institutions of government, business, media and NGOs was reported (Edelman Trust Barometer). In the light of the 2016 Brexit vote, it is clear that trust amongst society and commerce is more important than ever. The City has a responsibility to regain the trust of the society it is here to serve. This lecture will explore the fundamentals of trust, why companies lower standards at their peril, and what, other than pious words, can be done to restore confidence that society has appropriate levels of commercial trust. The event will include some panel discussion.

Please consult the website for details and dates of this and other events that will be arranged during the year. 8 Programme of Lectures September 2017 – July 2018 September 2017

Wednesday 13 September 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London From Royal Highway to Common Sewer: The River Thames and Its Architecture Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment The Thames is the reason that London is where it is and the river has had a decisive influence on the growth of the city since Roman times. For 500 years it was the only reliable way to move about but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries changes came that were to alter the face of London and transform our relationship with the river. This lecture forms part of the City of London 2017 Thames Festival. See page 63

Wednesday 20 September 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London How Were the Stars Formed? Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy The Milky Way galaxy was once ablaze with bright young stars. Today, star formation has calmed down, but we glimpse intense pockets of gas that are forming massive stars, testifying to the brilliant past. Stars form in clouds of interstellar gas that orbit their host galaxy. The clouds acquire more mass as gas accumulates, and the gaseous nebulae are soon massive enough to become unstable, due to the pull of their own gravity. As the clouds collapse, their central regions fragment into dense clumps of cold gas that eventually form stars. Dust particles are the key ingredients that eventually coalesce to form a disk-like structure with rocky cores that orbit the forming sun and agglomerate into planets. The entire solar system was formed out of interstellar grit. See page 53 9

Thursday 21 September 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Productivity Puzzle Jagjit Chadha, Gresham Professor of Commerce Productivity growth in the UK economy has lagged behind that of our major trading partners. With little or no growth in labour or total factor productivity, there can be no solution to our economic problems and a return to what we have come to consider as normal times. We will examine a number of possible explanations ranging from the role of finance to the employment of physical and human capital. See page 54

Monday 25 September 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Multimedia 1900: Experience and Entertainment in Everyday Life Ian Christie, Visiting Professor History of Film and Media We know a great deal about media gadgetry in retrospect, but much less about how it was perceived and experienced by early users. Historians at the end of the 19th century have traditionally paid little attention to ‘new media’ experiences, even though media historians would claim that this was the moment when the new media of communication and entertainment were already exercising their fascination. Suppose we try to imagine a ‘day in the life’ of some Londoners in 1900, what would we find? See page 66

Tuesday 26 September 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London The Conservative Party Vernon Bogdanor, Visiting Professor of Political History The Conservative Party is the oldest and one of the most successful political parties in the democratic world. It has been, for many years, the natural party of government. During the 20th century it was in government, alone or in coalition, for 67 years. What is the secret of the party’s extraordinary longevity and electoral success? See page 68 10

Wednesday 27 September 2017 1 pm at Museum of London Discovering the Port of Roman London Dr Gustav Milne, University College London Roman London was founded on the banks of the Thames to take advantage of the tidal river for traffic trade and communications. But precisely where were the bridge and the harbour, and what did they look like? The remains of Roman vessels had been found at County Hall, in Southwark and at Blackfriars, but no sign of the port itself. Then, from 1973 onwards, in a long series of major archaeological excavations within the City, the ancient harbour was gradually revealed, often where it was least expected.

Thursday 28 September 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Cleaning Up the Thames: Success or Failure? Carolyn Roberts, Jackson Professor of the Environment The Thames is often hailed as an international success story. Engineering works solved 19th century sewage problems, improving Londoners’ health. Salmon, otters and birdlife are now reported to be flourishing along the Thames and the waterfront has been reinvigorated with new buildings. On the other hand, Thames Water PLC has been heavily fined for environmental offences that compromised human health, contaminated land and affected ecosystems. Levels of chemicals in river water are high. Will the Thames Tideway tunnel solve flooding and pollution? See page 56

October 2017

Tuesday 3 October 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London Are Science and Faith At War? Alister McGrath, Gresham Professor of Divinity Science and religious faith are two of the most important elements of western culture. Yet the authority of both is under threat in our pragmatic culture, which emphasises relevance over truth. So what is their relationship? Are they permanently locked in warfare? Or are there ways of encouraging a positive and enriching dialogue? Drawing on the latest scholarship in the field, Professor McGrath moves us on from many of the outdated stereotypes to open up some new possibilities. See page 55 11

Tuesday 3 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Tales from Television: Bringing the Natural World into Your Home Dr George McGavin, Hon Research Associate, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford New camera technology can help make stunning footage for natural history programmes but the key to success is down to a lot of hard work, planning and a bit of luck. In this lecture we take a ‘behind the scenes’ look at some of the highs and lows of making television natural history documentaries. See page 25

Thursday 5 October 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Women Lawyers: Equals at the Bar? Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law The times they are a-changing - or are they? Do female lawyers need to be Superwoman to survive? Is motherhood welcomed, tolerated or rejected at the Bar? What makes for a successful advocate? Is gender relevant? What about career progression? Are women fairly represented on the Bench and in its most senior courts? Is there practice or appointment discrimination and if so what is being done about it? This lecture will explore the reality of life at the Bar and why vocation matters. See page 59

Tuesday 10 October 2017 1 pm at Museum of London Roman London’s First Voices Dr Roger Tomlin, Wolfson College, Oxford Excavations have recently uncovered much evidence of Roman London, including fragments of 405 waxed stylus writing- tablets that can be dated to AD 50–90. Roger Tomlin explains how he deciphered the tablets and what can be learned from them. They include the City’s first financial document, dated 8 January 57; a contract for the transport of provisions from Verulamium (St Albans); business letters; complaints; and loans. 92 of London’s earliest residents are named, including businessmen, merchants, brewers and soldiers. 12

Wednesday 11 October 2017 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct The Guitar in Tudor London Christopher Page, Gresham Professor of Music Few people now remember that the guitar was popular in England during the age of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare, and yet it was played everywhere from the royal court to the common tavern. In 1559 Queen Elizabeth herself received a case of three guitars as a New-Year’s day present. This opening lecture of the series, with musical illustrations, will use documents, poetry and images to bring the instrument to life, with a particular focus on the autobiography of the beguiling Tudor musician Thomas Whythorne. See page 60

Wednesday 11 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London The History of Pain Joanna Bourke, Visiting Professor of History Pain is often seen as universal and timeless, but how have people’s understandings of pain changed over time? Did the invention of more effective analgesics and anaesthetics really revolutionise medical practices and human relationships to suffering? Pain forces sufferers to ‘pay attention’ to their bodies. The way people-in-pain communicate their suffering has a profound effect on the type and quality of care they receive. See page 67

Tuesday 17 October 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London How Maths Can Save your Life Christopher Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry Many of us have been in a medical scanner and benefited from its use in medical diagnostics. But how many of us have considered how it works? The maths behind modern medical imaging (showing how CAT, MRI and Ultrasound scanners work) will be explained, showing how mathematics done in 1915 is now saving countless numbers of lives. Recent advances in mathematics are leading to much better images for doctors to use for their diagnoses; and similar methods and ideas are used in diverse applications such as remote sensing, oil prospecting, crime detection, studying bees and saving the whales. See page 57 13

Tuesday 17 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s London and Ancient Rome Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric William Shakespeare spent his schooldays learning Latin. When he arrived in London and became an actor and playwright, he discovered a city and a culture that modelled itself on ancient Rome. Jonathan Bate tells the story of how and why Shakespeare was steeped in the classics, from his earliest plays such as Titus Andronicus and The Comedy of Errors to his dramatisations of the stories of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. See page 62

Wednesday 18 October 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London Are We Alone in the Universe? Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy The question of whether we are alone in the Milky Way (or in the universe) is one of the most intriguing questions in science and astronomy. Our solar system formed half way through the history of the universe, and many sun-like stars that host planetary systems are billions of years older than our Sun. The odds of finding evidence for life are unknown, but the search continues as astronomers observe the nearby universe for earth-like planets and seek signs of life on exoplanets that resemble the earth in terms of atmosphere, composition and climate. The answer to ‘are we alone?’ affects our claim for being special in the cosmos, and we shall never know unless we search. See page 53

Wednesday 18 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London What is Value in Healthcare? Martin Elliott, Gresham Professor of Physic Value is the importance, worth or usefulness of something. In healthcare, it has been argued that the only value that matters is that to the patient. This lecture considers this hypothesis and the relationship between clinical outcome and cost of treatment. See page 61 14

Thursday 19 October 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Justice for All Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Emeritus Gresham Professor of Law During his tenure as Gresham Professor of Law (2012–2016), Geoffrey Nice tackled subjects as diverse as genocide, the law’s role in sexual conduct, and whether lawyers really are scoundrels. To mark the publication of these lectures, Sir Geoffrey will be revisiting some of his key themes in the light of some changes that have taken place across the world since - and to offer his personal view. His book – Justice for All, and How to Achieve it – will be available for the first time at the event.

Tuesday 24 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Is Society Ready for Driverless Cars? Martyn Thomas, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology Driverless cars will affect us all profoundly. They will save many lives, destroy many livelihoods and change our behaviour in unexpected ways. What are the barriers to achieving the benefits of this new technology and how can they be overcome? What new risks will be created? When will the technology be mature and will society be ready? See page 58

Wednesday 25 October 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London English Landscape: The Picturesque Professor Malcolm Andrews, University of Kent The late eighteenth and early nineteenth- century vogue for the Picturesque and for forging an English landscaping tradition (with frameable landscape scenery and managed wildness) will be the starting point for discussion. Proponents of the Picturesque, preferring to explore British scenery rather than go on the European Grand Tour, explicitly cultivated notions of Englishness and stress the native elements in landscape scenery, such as castle or abbey ruins (real or folly) in grand gardens, not classical temples. See page 70 15

Wednesday 25 October 2017 4 pm at the Museum of London GRESHAM COLLEGE WITH THE BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS Mathematical Constants and Their Beautiful Relationship Professor Robin Wilson, Emeritus Professor of Geometry Professor John D Barrow, Emeritus Professor of Geometry and of Astronomy Professor Raymond Flood, Emeritus Professor of Geometry This year’s event will focus on the beauty of Mathematical Relationships. The main speaker, Professor Robin Wilson will discuss Pi and e, and the most beautiful theorem in mathematics, preceded by shorter presentations by Professor John Barrow on Zero is a Hero and by Professor Raymond Flood on Just Imagine: The Tale of i. eiπ +1=0 There will be a short break at 5.30 pm during which refreshments can be purchased from the Museum Cafeteria. Ends at 7 pm.

Thursday 26 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY / GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL COLIN MATTHEW MEMORIAL LECTURE How to Spot a Roman Emperor Professor Mary Beard FSA FBA, University of Cambridge Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Newnham College, and Royal Academy of Arts Professor of Ancient Literature - who is also well-known for her media appearances - will speak on the fascinating topic of images of Roman Emperors. As well as being the Annual Royal Historical Society’s Colin Matthew Lecture, the talk is also linked to the City of London’s Roman Festival in autumn 2017. 16

Monday 30 October 2017 7 pm at Mercers’ Hall, Ironmonger Lane RESERVATIONS REQUIRED THE PETER NAILOR MEMORIAL LECTURE ON DEFENCE Defence in an Unstable World Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chief of Defence Staff Sir Stuart’s career has included commanding NATO Air Forces in Kosovo, Chief of Defence Intelligence, Chief of Joint Operations, and the first Commander of Joint Forces Command. Now Chief of Defence Staff, the United Kingdom’s senior military commander. Sir Stuart will consider the evolving challenges facing defence in a fast-moving and ever more unstable world. Hosted by the Mercers’ Company Please note 7pm start time

Tuesday 31 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Jane Austen: Patriotism and Prejudice Professor Janet Todd, Newnham College Cambridge Professor Todd will be discussing patriotism in Austen’s time and her particular attitude to it; her sense of what Englishness is, materially and politically, and how it manifests itself in daily life; what aspects should be a source of both pride and prejudice; her possibly ironic treatment of the characters embodying her apparent attitudes; and how her views change over her lifetime as war gives way to peace.

November 2017

Wednesday 1 November 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London English Landscape: Constable and Clare Professor Malcolm Andrews, University of Kent Constable’s Stour landscapes of the Regency period, during and just after the War with France, and his publication English Landscape Scenery, champion local and low-key rural England. John Clare’s vernacular poetry in the same period celebrates the kind of rural scenery that escapes the notice of those for whom the paintings of Claude or Poussin are the ideal of landscape. Both Constable’s and Clare’s localism springs from a very powerful emotional connection with the idea of ‘home’. See page 70 17

Wednesday 1 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Martin Luther and his Crusade Against the Pope Professor Lyndal Roper, Oriel College Oxford When Luther was close to death he reportedly exclaimed: ‘Living I was your plague O Pope, Dead I will be your Death.’ This lecture marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his famous 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. It will focus on the passions that drove Luther throughout his life, including the use of images by the artist Lucas Cranach to create a distinctive visual style to convey his message.

Tuesday 7 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London The 2016 US Presidential Election - One Year On Vernon Bogdanor, Visiting Professor of Political History One year ago, Donald Trump won the American presidency - the first president in modern times to be elected without any previous political experience. Few predicted his election. Indeed, he entered the Republican primaries as a rank outsider. How is his electoral success to be explained? The US has a long history of populism, but no populist has won the nomination of a major party since William Jennings Bryan in 1896. In the past, populist insurgencies have heralded party realignment. Will the election of Trump do the same? See page 68

Wednesday 8 November 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London English Landscape: Samuel Palmer and the Pastoral Professor Malcolm Andrews, University of Kent Samuel Palmer, in his Shoreham period in the 1820s and 30s, seized on the long tradition of classical pastoral landscapes, and wrested it into an English idiom. He effectively ‘naturalised’ a foreign import, bringing an idyll to life in a Kentish valley, with sheep, shepherds and cornfields under a harvest moon, and the village church nestling in the fold of the hills. See page 70 18

Wednesday 8 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Lenin and the Russian Revolution Professor Catherine Merridale FBA Why did Lenin’s Bolsheviks take power in October 1917? The earlier (February) revolution and the hopes it raised, the complex realities of power, and the political and social history of Russia leading up to the coup will be explored, asking why liberal or parliamentary government already appeared unrealistic. Why was Lenin’s role so crucial? Who were his supporters, and what did they make of his plans? How, as a Marxist, did he justify the seizure of power and would the October Revolution have been possible without him? How in this centenary year, are these events being commemorated in Putin’s Russia? See page 70

Thursday 9 November 2017 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Mobilising Savings for Investment Jagjit Chadha, Gresham Professor of Commerce We will carefully outline the categories of savings held by households and link that to the operation of financial intermediaries in providing loanable funds. We shall ask whether the allocation of savings and the availability of funds provides the right mix of short and long term loans for households and firms. See page 54

Thursday 9 November 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Organic Food: Rooted in Lies? Carolyn Roberts, Jackson Professor of the Environment Organic food production is environmentally benign, better for animal welfare, has human health benefits and tastes better - or so say its proponents. Conversely, detractors allege that the rising global population cannot be fed without using artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, that the environmental impact is slight and manageable, and that ‘organic’ consumers are being duped by farmers. With a global market approaching £70 billion, there’s a lot at stake. Including some ‘blind taste tests’, the environmental science evidence behind organic farming will be reviewed, exploring facts and debunking a few myths. See page 56 19

Tuesday 14 November 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London Maths Goes into Space Christopher Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry Space science is one of HM Government’s ‘eight great technologies’. In this lecture I will explain the mathematics behind satellites, showing how they are controlled, how they are sent to distant planets and how they transmit and receive data over vast distances. I will also explain how GPS systems work and show how General Relativity plays a vital role in making GPS systems so accurate. I will finish by showing a link between space science and Origami. See page 57

Wednesday 15 November 2017 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct Buying, Selling and Owning Guitars in Elizabethan England Christopher Page, Gresham Professor of Music What kind of people owned a guitar in the London of Elizabeth I and where did they go shopping for one? It is possible to assemble a remarkably full picture of the instrument’s place in the social life and trade and trade of Tudor England. Guitars were an imported luxury from abroad that came with looking glasses, perfumed gloves and many other luxuries on a scale probably unknown, in many cases, to the purchaser’s grandparents. See page 60

Wednesday 15 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Diabetes: A Rising Tide Christopher Whitty, Visiting Professor of Public Health Diabetes is an increasingly common disease causing raised blood sugar with serious long-term consequences. Type 1 diabetes was almost always fatal until the discovery of insulin, and causes serious medical consequences. Type 2 diabetes, where the body does not fully respond to insulin is often associated with obesity. This lecture will consider the treatment, prevention and recent advances in the science of diabetes. See page 69 20

Monday 20 November 2017 1 pm at Museum of London China: New Nation, New Art, 1911-1932 Craig Clunas, Visiting Professor of Chinese Art As the imperial system collapsed in China, the ‘New Culture Movement’ focused debate on new categories of ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’. For artists, it posed the questions of what it meant to be both modern and Chinese – challenging them to show how ancient techniques could remain relevant. Artists began to travel abroad (to France, Japan, Germany, Britain and the USA) and become part of an increasingly international ‘art world’. The 1920s in China saw both the political chaos of warlordism, but also a flowering of creativity which drew on the keen awareness by many of China’s potential as part of a global modernism. See page 64

Tuesday 21 November 2017 1 pm at Museum of London Watching the Heavens: Astronomy and the Meaning of Life Alister McGrath, Gresham Professor of Divinity What did the sky-watchers of the ancient world think about the night sky, and its implications for human existence? Moving on to the great discoveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, we will consider the basic science and ask about the deeper significance of these discoveries – for God, and the meaning of life. Looking at important recent scholarly interpretations, we will discuss the religious issues at stake. What does this tell us about human beings? Or about the authority of science? See page 55

Wednesday 22 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London A Global History of Sexual Violence Joanna Bourke, Visiting Professor of History In England and Wales today, 11 people are raped every hour. 85,000 women and 12,000 men are affected annually. Another half a million adults are sexually assaulted – not including large numbers of women, men, and children who never report being attacked to the police. The lecture will explore what we know (and don’t know) about sexual violence from a global perspective. How have people in different periods of history and in a variety of countries understood and responded to assaults? What can be done to reduce, if not eradicate, such violence? See page 67 21

Thursday 23 November 2017 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Homer’s Iliad via the Movie Troy (2004) Edith Hall, Visiting Professor of Classics Homer’s Iliad, the earliest Greek poem, narrates the archetypal war between ‘Europeans’ and ‘Asiatics’ divided by the Hellespont. Looking at Wolfgang Peterson’s blockbuster Troy (2004), the lecture describes the genesis of the Iliad between the Mycenaean Late Bronze Age and the 8th century, when it was first written down with the aid of the new, phonetic script adapted from the Phoenician civilisation of the Levant. It explores the poem’s plot, tragic perspective on the human condition, and the despair caused by untimely death on an immense scale. See page 65

Tuesday 28 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Heroes Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric What do we mean by a hero and where does our understanding of the ‘heroic’ idiom come from? In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will show how Shakespeare’s idea of the hero was shaped by the classical tradition, going back to the ancient tale of Troy and Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid. But in Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida we meet a Shakespeare who was profoundly sceptical about the heroic ideal. See page 62

Wednesday 29 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Half a Century of Heart Transplantation Martin Elliott, Gresham Professor of Physic This week marks the 50th anniversary of the first human heart transplant. This talk will celebrate that achievement and consider what we have learned over those 50 years and what is to happen in the future. See page 61 22

Thursday 30 November 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall What Do Judges Do in the Family Court? Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law What do judges do in the Family Court? Follow me through a virtual week as a Roving Judge. Learn what goes on behind the scenes: how the family court room works and who is needed to make it work. A judge’s approach to a case can fundamentally affect the way the parties perceive the trial as fair. What makes for a good judge? What training do they have? Do they properly reflect society’s make- up? Is diversity left at the red baize door and kept outside the corridors of power? See page 59

December 2017

Tuesday 5 December 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall RESERVATIONS REQUIRED NOW That’s What I Call Carols: 1582! Jeremy Summerly, St Peter’s College Oxford Some of the world’s most influential carol tunes were published in 1582. These Pious Songs’ were collected by a student of Danish parentage, who was born in Finland, grew up in the Russian Federation, studied in Germany, worked in Sweden, and died in Poland. Without one of Queen Victoria’s ambassadors who rescued the collection from obscurity, the English-speaking world would never have known ‘Good King Wenceslas’ or ‘Gaudete’. Jeremy Summerly unwraps this Nordic Christmas gift, accompanied by the St Luke’s Carollers.

Wednesday 6 December 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London How Special is Our Universe? Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy If the fundamental constants of nature differed from their measured values, life as we know it would not have emerged. Stars are witness to the forces of electromagnetism and gravity - displace this equilibrium and the existence of nuclear-burning stars is at risk. In such a universe, stars would never have formed, or might have collapsed to black holes. Theories of the multiverse suggest that life-containing universes are incredibly rare. We live in one of these, whether by cosmological natural selection or by the consequences of a theory yet to be formulated. See page 53 23

Wednesday 6 December 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London House, Shop and Wardrobe in London’s Merchant Community Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment During the Middle Ages, London was home to one of the largest and richest merchant communities in the world. These men and their families invested heavily in fine architecture both for business and pleasure. In the first of two lectures with the theme ‘Merchants, Money and Megalomania’, Simon Thurley will unearth the lost mercantile buildings of medieval London and show how influential they were. See page 63

Tuesday 12 December 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London The Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats Vernon Bogdanor, Visiting Professor of Political History The Liberal Party was formed in the 1850s and was the dominant force in British politics for the next 30 years. But, after the First World War, it fell into decline, and it was almost extinguished in the 1950s. Since then, however, the Liberals and their successor party, the Liberal Democrats, have enjoyed a revival, and they re-entered government in 2010 for the first time since 1945. What is the explanation for the decline and subsequent revival of the party? See page 68

Christmas and New Year Break, 22 December 2017 - 2 January 2018

January 2018

Thursday 4 January 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Happily Ever After: The Romance Story Dr Catherine M. Roach, Professor of Gender and Culture Studies, University of Alabama This talk delves into one of the most powerful and omnipresent cultural storylines: Find your one true love and live happily ever after. How does this narrative function in popular culture and especially in the massive global market of women-oriented romantic fiction? Catherine Roach uncovers what we learn from the romance story about today’s changing norms for gender and sexuality and about the nature of happiness and love. 24

Tuesday 9 January 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Maths is Coded in Your Genes Christopher Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry We live in an information age, with vast amounts of data constantly sent around the world. This lecture will introduce you to the mathematics of information. I will explain how data is transmitted and received over vast distances by using carefully designed codes, and how work by a young French mathematician in the 19th century plays a vital role in this. I will then show how a huge amount of information is encoded in your genes and how maths can make sense of it. See page 57

Tuesday 9 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Will Bitcoin and the Block Chain Change the Way We Live and Work? Martyn Thomas, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology The block chain is the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that underlies the successful Bitcoin cybercurrency. What is it, how does it work, and why does a Government report say that DLTs have the potential to be radically disruptive to financial services, healthcare, real estate, public services and much more? See page 58

Wednesday 10 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Your Own Care Pathway Martin Elliott, Gresham Professor of Physic Personalised care pathways describe the process of care you can expect for a given condition. Usually successful, they are not used everywhere and are often poorly monitored. This lecture considers the risks and benefits of such an approach. See page 61 25

Tuesday 16 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The eXcrement Factor: The Natural History of Dung Dr George McGavin, Hon Research Associate, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford Getting rid of waste products is the one thing that all animals do almost from the instant they are born until they die. On the surface of the Earth a truly enormous amount of excrement is deposited every single day. The question is, where does it all go? How did dung change world history and what can we learn from studying animal droppings? See page 11

Wednesday 17 January 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct The Guitar in the Age of Charles I Christopher Page, Gresham Professor of Music The courts of James I and his son Charles I were more cosmopolitan than their Elizabethan forebears. Many courtiers had now visited the Continent in early adulthood with a tutor, mostly after a period of residence at a university. The guitar at the English court entered a new and very lively phase, as sketched in a scenery design by Inigo Jones and played in a masque by a leading court musician. On the verge of the Civil War, the guitar rapidly became the fashionable instrument of elite London from Covent Garden to Westminster. See page 60

Wednesday 17 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London London Merchants and Their Residences Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment During the Middle Ages London was home to one of the largest and richest merchant communities in the world. These men and their families invested heavily in fine architecture both for business and pleasure. Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment unearths the lost mercantile buildings of medieval London and shows how influential they were. See page 63 26

Thursday 18 January 2018 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Age of Tyrants: Sappho via Gounod’s Opera Edith Hall, Visiting Professor of Classics The heroine of Charles Gounod’s French opera Sapho (1851) sings her last aria O My Immortal Lyre on a Greek cliff before plunging to her death. Sappho, the most famous poet of the ‘Lyric Age’ of Greece, in the 7th to 6th centuries BC, addressed passionate love poems to women. This lecture uncovers what we know about the ‘real Sappho’, an aristocrat who lived between 630 and 570 BCE on the island of Lesbos and socialised in the lavish courts of upstart tyrants. This historical context in no way diminishes her songs’ astonishing immediacy and erotic power. See page 65

Thursday 18 January 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Ecotowns or EgoTowns? Carolyn Roberts, Jackson Professor of the Environment A sustainable solution to the UK’s housing crisis, or a flimsy excuse for high-profile, profitable construction activity in the green belt? Architects may love them, but most ecologists are sceptical. Ecotown proposals have attracted controversy, with local residents alleging that their environment will be irrevocably damaged with the arrival of sprawling new estates, thousands of cars and the loss of important wildlife habitats. Drawing upon live audience opinion, the lecture will weigh up the evidence for and against ‘ecotowns’. See page 56

Tuesday 23 January 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The Clockwork God: Isaac Newton and the Mechanical Universe Alister McGrath, Gresham Professor of Divinity Isaac Newton saw his demonstration of the regularity of the universe as having great religious significance. Newton’s ideas were initially seen as very supportive of religion; yet within 50 years, they were being seen in a very different light. So what are the religious, aesthetic, and scientific implications of Newton’s approach? The latest scholarship will be considered in order to unpack some of the deep questions that are raised by the scientific approach to nature. See page 55 27

Tuesday 23 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Lovers Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric William Shakespeare made his name as a poet before he became famous as a playwright. His erotic poem Venus and Adonis was the most popular work of literature of the Elizabethan Age, while its dark companion piece The Rape of Lucrece set the mould for Shakespeare’s exploration of the tragic consequences of sexual desire turning to violence. Jonathan Bate will show how Shakespeare developed these themes from his reading of the great Roman poet Ovid. See page 62

Wednesday 24 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Here Comes the Sun: Sunshine and Its Effects on Health, Sleep and Memory Steve Jones, Visiting Professor of Genetics Professor Steve Jones will consider sunshine and its effects on health, on sleep, on memory and more: and why today’s twilight world of tablets and smart-phones is taking us back to the middle ages.

Thursday 25 January 2018 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Housing Market Jagjit Chadha, Gresham Professor of Commerce Housing represents the main asset class held by UK households and we shall try to understand why it is held as such a large share of assets. We shall then outline whether this choice has other knock on effects in the economy such as labour and social mobility. And what the case is for changes the tax treatment of housing. See page 54 Note that this winter lecture will take place at 1 pm 28

Tuesday 30 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Labour Party Vernon Bogdanor, Visiting Professor of Political History The Labour Party was formed in 1900 as a coalition between trade unions and socialist intellectuals with the aim of securing representation for the working class in parliament. During the First World War, Labour was transformed from a pressure group to a party of government, and in 1945 it formed its first majority government, which carried out an extensive programme of social reform. Today, however, like other social democratic parties in Western Europe, the party finds itself in retreat. What is the explanation for the rise and decline of social democracy? See page 68

Wednesday 31 January 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The High Energy Universe Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy View the sky through an x-ray telescope and the conception of the universe changes dramatically. Black holes are best seen in x-rays, because impinging gas collides with the black hole at near light speed, resulting in intense x-ray and gamma ray emission. Optical light also plays a role in discovering black holes since the most luminous objects in the universe emit bursts of gamma radiation which only lasts minutes, but leaves an optical afterglow. See page 53

Wednesday 31 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Fate of the October Revolution Under Stalin Professor Bob Service, St Antony’s College, Oxford When Lenin died in 1924, he had effected a temporary stabilisation of the Soviet order. But many political, economic, social and international trends grew more worrisome to Bolsheviks who still wished to preserve ‘the gains of October’. The solution that the Politburo adopted at Stalin’s suggestion was a comprehensive revolutionary offensive. It increased the powers of the state over society, but this was never wholly acceptable in the communist central leadership, and tensions contributed to Stalin’s Great Terror. The USSR became a great European power and helped defeat Nazi Germany but had ‘October’ been saved or its foundations been destroyed? See page 70 29

February 2018

Thursday 1 February 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Vulnerable Clients and The Family Justice System Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law Do the courts respect diversity or punish it when it comes to parenthood? What disabilities does it encounter? How can the learning disabled parent ensure their voice is heard in court? What to do when the wish to parent might not be matched by an ability to parent? What does the justice system do to protect the rights of the disabled person to be a parent, and of the child to be adequately parented? Does a disability prevent someone from being a good parent? See page 59

Monday 5 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Votes for Women: A Centenary Celebration Elizabeth Crawford, Writer and Historian The campaign to achieve the parliamentary vote for women (6 February 1918) took 52 years, from 1866 to 1918. During that time women and their male supporters employed both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary tactics, ranging from the presentation of petitions to the detonation of bombs. The campaign will be examined, concentrating on the work of the constitutional suffragists as well as on the more notorious suffragettes. Although the latter group steals the headlines, it was the efforts of the former that slowly eroded the deep-seated prejudice that had characterised women, as Keats put it, as ‘milk-white lambs, bleating for man’s protection’ - a phrase deeply scorned by the suffragists. The lecture will discuss which of the groups was more successful in achieving ‘Votes for Women’.

Tuesday 6 February 2018 1pm at Museum of London Computer Bugs in Hospitals: A New Killer Martyn Thomas, Professor of IT and Harold Thimbleby, Emeritus Professor of Geometry Computer bugs, reported in heart pacemaker software and many other devices, are but one example of the risks that IT systems can create for patients. The extent of the problem of software bugs in the medical arena, and elsewhere, suggest an increasing number of avoidable deaths and injuries in UK hospitals. 30

Tuesday 6 February 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall How Energy Flow Shapes the Evolution of Life Dr Nick Lane, University College London Despite the explosion of genetic information in recent years, we have surprisingly little insight into the peculiar history of life on our planet. Most genetic variation – natural experiments in evolution – is found in simple bacteria, yet they have barely changed over four billion years. No complex animals or plants are composed of bacterial cells. Why not? Why did complex cells only arise once in the history of life? And why are we complex beings so alike, with humans and mushrooms and trees all plotting for sex? Nick Lane will explore the importance of energy flow in shaping life from its very origins to the flamboyant complexity around us, and ask whether energy flow would direct evolution down a similar path on other planets.

Wednesday 7 February 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct An Englishman (with a Guitar) Abroad Christopher Page, Gresham Professor of Music In 1643 an English landowner, Sir Ralph Verney, fled to France in the depths of the Civil War. He settled in Blois and, while there, amassed a vast archive that is still unpublished. The letters Verney kept, and his financial accounts, show that almost every member of his family learned the guitar. These records provide a wealth of information about the music they played, the guitars they bought and their reasons for cultivating a light and fashionable instruments far from home. See page 60

Wednesday 7 February 2018 6 pm at St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, EC2 THE ANNUAL BOYLE LECTURE 2018 will be delivered by Dr Mark Harris, University of Edinburgh with a response by Professor John Hedley Brooke The Boyle Lectures address topics which explore the relationship between Christianity and our understanding of the natural world, and are supported by Gresham College. 31

Thursday 8 February 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall National Parks and National Park Cities Carolyn Roberts, Jackson Professor of the Environment National Parks were designated to protect some of the world’s most loved landscapes from being eaten away by industrial and housing development. But Britain’s National Parks are exploited by intensive agriculture and sucked dry of their water for neighbouring cities. They sustain non-native invasive species and unlike National Parks elsewhere in the world, they are not ‘natural parks’. A movement is emerging with the aim of developing Greater London as the world’s first National Park City. But is there any significant environmental advantage to this and would London benefit from becoming one? See page 56

Tuesday 13 February 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Is a Mathematician a Robot? Christopher Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry Robotics is another of HM Government’s ‘eight great technologies’. Is it possible that in a few years we might have machines with artificial intelligence? In this lecture I will describe the mathematics of machine learning and explain its applications to robotics. In particular I will show how the modern ideas of deep learning allow a robot to make sense of the world it exists in, including the ideas behind speech and face recognition. I will also address the important (at least to mathematicians!) question of whether a robot will ever replace a mathematician. See page 57

Tuesday 13 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Should We Vote Online? Martyn Thomas, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology Online voting in local and national elections could be more convenient, greatly increase voter turnout and deliver results within a few minutes of the polls closing. Some countries have adopted online voting and some have regarded it as extremely dangerous for democracy. What are the facts? See page 58 32

Wednesday 14 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Does a Good Bedside Manner Matter? Professor Martin Elliott, Gresham Professor of Physic There is an apparent conflict between the increase in technology in medicine and the importance of a relationship between patient and doctor. This Valentine’s Day lecture, considers the importance of that relationship. See page 61

Thursday 15 February 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Euler’s Equation: ‘The Most Beautiful Theorem in Mathematics’ Robin Wilson, Emeritus Gresham Professor of Geometry Euler’s pioneering equation, the ‘most beautiful equation in mathematics’, links the five most important constants in the subject: 1, 0, π, e and i. Central to both mathematics and physics, it has also featured in a criminal court case, on a postage stamp, and appeared twice in The Simpsons. So what is this equation – and why is it pioneering?

Monday 19 February 2018 1 pm at Museum of London China: Art, War and Salvation, 1933-1949 Craig Clunas, Visiting Professor of Chinese Art After the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, many artists and intellectuals in China saw the overthrow of ‘tradition’ as the means to rescue the nation from poverty and backwardness. Rejecting what thev saw as irrelevant avant-garde artistic trends, they looked to the art of the Soviet Union and anti-fascism in Western Europe, as well as to a more ‘authentic’ tradition of folk art. Following the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, artists engaged with the politics of national salvation, and the era between the defeat of Japan (1945) and the Communist Victory in 1949 saw the creation of some key works of modern Chinese culture. See page 64 33

Tuesday 20 February 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London If Humans Are So Great, Why is the World Such a Mess? Alister McGrath, Gresham Professor of Divinity Human beings often have generous views of themselves - not always easy to defend. Massive scientific advances are sometimes used for destructive purposes. This lecture looks at our changing understanding of ourselves, focussing on Charles Darwin’s theory of human origins and the religious, scientific and ethical questions raised. Does a tendency to violence reflect our evolutionary past? If so, what can be done about it? Does it help us understand what is going on? Or to work out what we can do about it? Modern humanists have yet to come to terms with Darwin and the idea that humans are like other animals. See page 55

Tuesday 20 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Justice Online: Getting Better? Joshua Rozenberg QC (hon) In 2017, the Government paved the way for the civil and family courts of England and Wales to provide ‘innovative methods of resolving disputes.’ New legislation will underpin a £1bn investment in digitising the courts, that may see defendants convicted by computer and disputes settled by software. Tribunals dealing with benefits claims will also be reformed. But how effective are online courts? Are they just a way of saving money? Joshua Rozenberg reports on what’s been achieved so far and asks whether online justice ​is just as good.​

Wednesday 21 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Asthma and Chronic Airways Disease Christopher Whitty, Visiting Professor of Public Health Asthma, an intermittent disease, is the commonest lung disease in the UK. The second is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), now the 4th leading cause of death globally. In both a combination of environmental and genetic factors are important, although for COPD smoking is the biggest risk factor. This lecture will consider trends and advances in these two diseases, and the chronic genetic lung disease cystic fibrosis. See page 69 34

Monday 26 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The 19th Century Craze for Stereoscopic Photography Ian Christie, Visiting Professor History of Film and Media Stereoscopic photography rapidly became a worldwide craze after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cheap viewers and mass-produced stereographs brought startlingly vivid images within reach of a mass audience, making this the form in which most people first encountered photography – a fact largely ignored in conventional photographic history. Like the commercial suppliers of Magic Lantern slides, stereograph publishers offered systematic coverage of many subjects, even claiming that to ‘visit’ remote countries by stereo was better than risking the journey. See page 66

Tuesday 27 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Politics Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric It is well known that Shakespeare lived in an age of monarchy and wrote powerfully in his English history plays about the duties of the sovereign. In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will tell another, forgotten story: of how Shakespeare was also fascinated by Roman political models, especially the theory of civic duties expounded by Cicero, who appears as a character in Julius Caesar. He will also show how Shakespeare looked to Horace for a model of the public role of the writer. See page 62

Wednesday 28 February 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Elementary Particles and Their Interactions Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy Matter consists of a mêlée of elementary particles. There are protons and neutrons, made up of quarks, and many other short-lived massive particles. All atoms consist of protons, neutrons and an accompanying cloud of electrons - then there are electrons, muons and neutrinos, as well as the mass- less particles - photons. The very early universe is a unique laboratory for studying the rarest of particles. We see the faded brilliance of the fiery past, and can assemble clues that enable us to trace out the particle content of the beginning of the universe. One hope is to discover particles of dark matter, but this has so far eluded our best efforts. Page 53 35

Wednesday 28 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Military Training in Violence, 1914 to the Present Joanna Bourke, Visiting Professor of History How have the British and American armed forces been taught to fight and kill in conflicts from 1914 to the present? What role have psychology and technology played in military training? How do combatants contribute to, and endure, harsh military drills? Social and cultural life in the barracks will be explored, including ‘rites of passage’ in preparing soldiers for battle. See page 67

March 2018

Thursday 1 March 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Dealing with Sex Abuse: How Does the Family Court Assess Risk? Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law Sexual abuse is always an abuse of power. It can be opportunistic or premeditated; furtive intra-familial abuse or acts shared online. It can be multigenerational and inter-sex: grandmother to grandson; father to daughter; sibling to sibling. The victim may become an abuser. What can break the cycle? What effect do these cases have on the professionals involved? How does the family justice system confront these emotive and complex cases? This lecture contains details that some may find distressing See page 59

Monday 5 March 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London FULBRIGHT LECTURE Grasping Shadows: The Dark Side in Painting Professor William Sharpe, Columbia University and University of Edinburgh What’s in a shadow? Danger and death? Or the vital life-force of whatever object casts it? Are shadows seductive nothings or truth-telling images of repressed sexuality and violence? Starting with literary examples from Dickens, this lecture will untangle the complexity of shadow- meaning by exploring how artists have used shadows since ancient times. Works by Van Eyck, Masaccio, Leonardo, Munch, Picasso, Sargent, Hopper, and many others will be discussed. 36

Tuesday 6 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Nationalist Parties Vernon Bogdanor, Visiting Professor of Political History Between 1886 and 1914, British politics was dominated by the Irish Question, and the Irish nationalist party exerted considerable pressure on British governments. Since 1974, the rise of the SNP has brought the Scottish Question into the forefront of British politics, and in 1998, legislation provided for devolution to the non-English parts of the United Kingdom. There remain, nevertheless, strong pressures for Scottish independence, and in Wales there is a lively nationalist party, Plaid Cymru. How is the rise of nationalist parties to be explained? See page 68

Wednesday 7 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Palace, Park and Square: St James’s and the Birth of the West End Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment Based on new research into the origins of St. James’s, Simon Thurley looks into the ingredients that went into making a court quarter there and the way it formed a blueprint for the new West End of London. This is the first of two lectures by Professor Thurley on ‘Buildings in the West End of London.’ See page 63

Thursday 8 March 2018 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Slave Stories: Aesop and Walter Crane Edith Hall, Visiting Professor of Classics In 1887 the influential arts-and-crafts book illustrator Walter Crane published The Baby’s Own Aesop, bringing the homespun wisdom of ancient Greek peasants to a new generation of children. This lecture uses these fables to tackle the least attractive feature of ancient Greece - institutionalised slavery. Beneath the semi-legendary figure of Aesop himself, a barbarian sold to a Greek slave-owner in the 6th century BCE, lie tens of thousands of his real-life equivalents. The lecture asks how the ancient fables address power relations in a slave society. Were they primarily stories for and by slaves, or did they serve ruling-class interests? See page 65 37

Tuesday 13 March 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The Quantum Mathematician Christopher Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry Quantum science has been one of the most successful and useful theories ever invented. Indeed quantum technology was added as the ninth of the original eight great technologies. However, quantum mechanics is also, at the same time, one of the most mysterious, and in many ways most bizarre of all scientific theories. Some of the maths of quantum science will be explained, demonstrating its vital role in modern technology. We will also look at its applications to quantum computing and ask questions about how this may change the way that we do computations in the future. See page 57

Tuesday 13 March 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Architecture and the Edwardian Era Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin, University of Kent Descriptions and reconstructions of houses can illuminate other histories and provide a sense of the relationships between people and places. Edwardian architecture in particular provides a fascinating commentary on broader historical themes – not only in its use of style and its remodelling of old buildings but also in the range of new activities it provided for, from ‘servantless’ country and seaside cottages to motor houses, gardens and hobbies rooms. Looking at the furnishing and operation of these houses enables lost spaces to be re-established in the mind, and offers insights into the tools and methodologies of historians.

Wednesday 14 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Personalised Medicine - Made for You Martin Elliott, Gresham Professor of Physic Everyone is different, and treatment options increasingly reflect that. As we understand more about our genetic make- up, our varying response to conventional therapies means that we can design drugs and build devices tailored for individuals (‘bespoke’ rather than ‘ready made’). This lecture considers the challenges that the NHS and its suppliers face in employing personalised medicine. See page 61 38

Thursday 15 March 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Structure of Finance Jagjit Chadha, Gresham Professor of Commerce In the traditional model of finance, households saved and firms borrowed through financial intermediaries. Those financial intermediaries might be banks or pension funds but the experience of intermediation in the UK does not encourage the thought that long term finance can easily be located. Do we need a Development Bank? See page 54

Tuesday 20 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Internet of Things Martyn Thomas, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology Many televisions, baby monitors, central heating and even light-bulbs are already connected to the internet but this is only the start. Over the next few years, many billions of devices will be connected and machine-to-machine data will become the main internet traffic. Why is this happening? How will all this data be processed? And what are the benefits and the risks? See page 58

Wednesday 21 March 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct The Guitar at the Restoration Court Christopher Page, Gresham Professor of Music When the most famous diarist in English, Samuel Pepys, accompanied Charles II back to London for the Restoration of the monarchy he was given the task of carrying the king’s guitar. From this moment on, the instrument had a the royal seal of approval and some of the best guitar playing in Europe was heard at Whitehall. Court ladies had themselves portrayed with a guitar on their lap like a musical pet; actors and actresses played them in comedies and guitar-masters made a living teaching the daughters of London barmaids. See page 60 39

Thursday 22 March 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Is ‘Green Business’ a Contradiction in Terms? Carolyn Roberts, Jackson Professor of the Environment Posters in shops and on trucks shout ‘carbon neutral business’, and more organisations are boasting of reducing their environmental impact by using environmentally-friendly, responsibly sourced materials. And yet we also have diesel car emission frauds, the hoax of ‘degradable’ plastic, and a fashion industry that claims to be sustainable whilst suggesting that we buy new clothes each season. There are green marketing scams, and dubious data being deployed to benefit shareholders. Are global businesses now leading politicians in moving towards more sustainable practice or is this an example of a ‘post-truth’ society? See page 56

Tuesday 27 March 2018 1 pm at Museum of London Are We Lost in the Cosmos? Alister McGrath, Gresham Professor of Divinity There have been dramatic changes in our scientific understanding of the universe in the last hundred years. It used to be thought that the universe was eternal; now it is thought that it came into being in the ’Big Bang‘. So what does this say about the trustworthiness of science? What are the implications of the Big Bang for our understanding of ourselves? Is the universe meaningless? or is there some way of developing a ‘big picture’ of reality that helps us decide our place and purpose in the universe. See page 55

Tuesday 27 March 2018 6 pm at Museum of London Shakespeare’s Ancient Ghosts Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric Where do the ghosts in Shakespeare come from? And what about the magic? In this lecture, Jonathan Bate will summon up the ghosts of Old Hamlet, the victims of Richard III and Julius Caesar, revealing their origins in the bloody plays of Seneca. He will then show how such figures from classical mythology as Theseus and Medea provide a key to the association between supernatural powers and Shakespearean art. See page 62 40

Wednesday 28 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The USSR in the Cold War Years Professor Polly Jones, University College Oxford After Stalin’s death in 1953, successive leaders tried to find ways to revitalise the Soviet regime and rethink its promises to the Soviet people. Life within a system no longer based on terror and intense industrial transformation (yet still striving to reach communism) offered citizens strange alternatives. The commemoration of Bolshevism hampered attempts to enthuse the population about the Soviet future. Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev tried to re-infuse the spirit of revolution as well as to stave off disillusionment with Soviet ideology, demonstrating the complex legacy of the Russian Revolution. See page 70

Easter Break, 29 March - 3 April 2018

April 2018

Wednesday 4 April 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Existential Risks in the Solar System Joseph Silk, Gresham Professor of Astronomy There are strong reasons to believe that the survival of life on the Earth is under threat. Human activity is one example that we are able to control, at least in principle. We might irreversibly pollute, or destroy the planet with thermonuclear devices. Epidemics might become uncontrollable. Asteroid impact could devastate the Earth, although preventive measures might detect and monitor orbits of potential killer asteroids. Longer term, the sun will evolve into a red giant and expand to a hundred times the orbit of the earth. The earth will burn to a crisp, losing its atmosphere and oceans. By then, humanity, or whatever remains, should have found safer havens than the inner solar system. See page 53 41

Wednesday 4 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London How Spontaneous Gestures Connect to Thinking Professor Geoffrey Beattie, Edge Hill University Human beings often make frequent hand movements whilst they are talking. There has been considerable psychological debate about their function, but it is now clear that they often convey core parts of the underlying message. Since we have little conscious awareness of these movements, they can be particularly revealing. We control what we say, but find it difficult, or impossible, to control the content and form of these movements. Their form and ‘meaning’ may not match the accompanying speech and these gesture-speech mismatches can indicate various underlying psychological states, including deception. I will argue for the essential unity of speech and gesture in the transmission of thought, and suggest that we have underestimated the considerable communicative significance of these movements.

Tuesday 10 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Philosophy of Time: Does Physics Have the Last Word? Professor Raymond Tallis, Retired Physician, Clinical Neuroscientist and Philosopher Time’s mysteries seem to resist comprehension and what remain can stretch even the most profound philosopher. Professor Tallis seeks to rescue time from the jaws of physics, examining the claims that time is merely the fourth dimension of space-time, that there is a ‘passage’ of time or that time has a direction or arrow. He restores tenses and our sense of ‘now’ that are often denied or ignored by physicists and connects these with our unique human freedom. For most of us, time is composed of mornings, afternoons and evenings and expressed in hurry, hope, longing, waiting, enduring, planning, joyful expectation and grief. Thinking about time is to meditate on our own mortality. Yet, physics has little or nothing to say about this time, the time as it is lived. Our temporal lives deserve a richer attention than is afforded by the equations of mathematical physics. 42

Thursday 12 April 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall King Henry III and the Communication of Power Dr Benjamin Wild, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London Against the backdrop of King John’s ignominy and the political challenge posed by Magna Carta, which encouraged demands for greater representation in parliament, King Henry III used art, architecture and apparel to exalt his authority and to communicate his divinely- ordained status on a scale never previously seen in England. This lecture considers how Henry used art to justify monarchy at the dawn of what is commonly termed the ‘parliamentary state’.

Wednesday 18 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Birth of Modern Theatreland: Covent Garden and the Two Theatres Royal. Simon Thurley, Visiting Professor of the Built Environment London is home to two of the oldest working theatres in the world both founded by Charles II’s patents. They shaped a whole quarter of London, and continue to do so today. In a second lecture on ‘Buildings in the West End of London’, Professor Thurley looks at the significance and impact of these great institutions on the development of London. See page 63

Thursday 19 April 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Regional, Industrial and Infrastructure Policies Jagjit Chadha, Gresham Professor of Commerce There are large disparities in economic performance at the regional level in the UK. We need to consider what kinds of policies might raise regional performance and the extent which directed industrial policies and infrastructure spending might be employed to iron out differences in regional performance. The evidence will be considered. See page 54 43

Tuesday 24 April 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Can You do Mathematics in a Crowd? Christopher Budd, Gresham Professor of Geometry We all find ourselves in crowds every so often. Whilst human behaviour in general can be very hard to predict, it is possible, to a certain extent, to predict the behaviour of large numbers of people in a crowd. In this lecture I will explain the mathematics behind herding and flocking and will use this to shed some insight into how crowds of people behave. I will then show how this is helpful for the designers of sports stadia, the police, the home office and even retail stores. See page 57

Tuesday 24 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Minor Political Parties Vernon Bogdanor, Visiting Professor of Political History In the past, these were of two types (1) Breakaway parties such as the Liberal Unionists before the First World War and the SDP in the 1980s or (2) Extremist parties such as the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s and the Communist Party. Most of them have been unsuccessful. The United Kingdom Independence Party is an exception. In 2015, UKIP showed itself the most successful minor party in British history, winning one- eighth of the vote. Since then, it has been in decline. What is the explanation of the failure of the minor parties? See page 68

Wednesday 25 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Air Pollution: Its Impact on Health and Possible Solutions Christopher Whitty, Visiting Professor of Public Health Lung disease, heart disease, stroke, dementia and learning difficulties have been associated with different forms of air pollution including gasses and particulate matter. It is a difficult policy area because there is an economic and social cost to tackling it, so there is a trade- off. This lecture will consider the evidence for different forms of air pollution causing diseases, and outline some of the potential solutions. See page 69 44

Thursday 26 April 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Child in the Family Court Room Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law What role do children play in the family trial? The case concerns their future: how is their voice heard? What happens if they hold the key to the issues before the court? Should they give evidence, hear evidence? Should they meet the judge deciding their futures? How does the court reduce the risk that the trial experience itself harms the child it is seeking to protect? In this lecture I will explore whether the family court system is fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with the children at the heart of its deliberations. See page 59

Monday 30 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London What Really Happened at the First Moving-Picture Shows Ian Christie, Visiting Professor History of Film and Media The reception of moving pictures in 1894–96 has been much mythologised. Were spectators really frightened of an approaching train? Did they imagine seeing their departed relatives re- animated on screen? How much attention was actually paid to this new phenomenon among so many contemporary novelties and wonders? Moving pictures may not have been the innovation once claimed, but within a decade few could doubt that they had become a major force in changing the Edwardian world. See Page 66

May 2018

Tuesday 1 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London In Search of the Medieval Outlaw: The Tales of Robin Hood Professor Stephen Church, University of East Anglia The rulers of the medieval English kingdom discouraged resistance to authority by the widespread use of execution, outlawry, and exile. Yet medieval English society also applauded such resistance. Encapsulated in the tales of Robin Hood, the good outlaw is loyal, courageous, and clever; while the authorities he outwits are disloyal, cowardly, and stupid, using the cover of the law to behave corruptly. Examination of the outlaw in medieval literature tells us much about the mentality of the medieval English mind. 45

Wednesday 2 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Karl Marx – 200 Years On Professor Gareth Stedman Jones, Queen Mary University To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx (5 May 1818) and 150 years since Das Kapital was published in 1867, the lecture will explore the possible affinity between Marx’s work in human history and Darwin’s in natural history. Enthusiasm for Darwin was shared by successive generations of Communists but Marx’s conception of a ‘natural human being’ was different. In the new political and intellectual climate, Marx viewed competition as a product, not of ‘the struggle for existence’, but of private property and commercial society.

Tuesday 8 May 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Facts Matter, But They Aren’t Enough: Science, Faith and Meaning in Life Alister McGrath, Gresham Professor of Divinity In our post-truth age, facts often don’t seem to meet the deepest human longings. So do we need to go against facts, or beyond them? What does the relatively new discipline of the cognitive science of religion, which suggests that human beings are naturally religious, have to say about our human future? And where does this instinct come from? Recent psychological research has looked at the importance of meaning to human beings, and how this works out in core questions about the relation of science and faith. See page 55

Tuesday 8 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Fame Sir Jonathan Bate, Gresham Professor of Rhetoric Ever since classical antiquity, poets and playwrights have written about famous heroes and anti-heroes, lovers and politicians. But they have also yearned for posthumous fame themselves. How do they achieve it? This final lecture will show how Shakespeare helped to immortalize the famous figures of ancient Greece and Rome, and how he in turn became famous after his death – as the classics were to Shakespeare, so Shakespeare became a classic. He is our classic. See page 62 46

Thursday 9 May 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Speechwriting: Creating Authenticity Simon Lancaster, Speechwriter The image of the speechwriter in televised programmes (such as The Thick of It, The West Wing or Yes Minister) is assomething of a puppeteer, a sinister figure operating in the shadows, malevolently manipulating our political masters. Simon Lancaster believes that the successful speechwriter is less of a puppeteer and more of an impressionist. In his talk, he will share a number of stories and anecdotes from his time as speechwriter, setting out how he captures someone else’s authentic voice and what happens when it goes wrong.

Monday 14 May 2018 1 pm at Museum of London China: Art, Power, and Revolutions, 1950-1976 Craig Clunas, Visiting Professor of Chinese Art The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 gave Chinese artists a government that had explicit policies for the arts, seeing them as an essential part of the creation of ‘new China’. Resources were put into the support of art and artists, opening up new possibilities at the same time as other possibilities that were uncongenial to Communist Party policy were closed down. The consequences of fierce artistic debates could be expulsion from the visible art world and the silencing of some points of view. An increase in party control of the arts, linked with adulation of the Great Leader, led to very widely-reproduced images that played a part in the unprecedented stress and upheaval. See page 64

Tuesday 15 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London From Two-Party to Multi-Party Politics Vernon Bogdanor, Visiting Professor of Political History Between 1951 and 1959, over 95% of voters supported the two major parties. Since 1983, fewer than 80% have voted Conservative or Labour. How is the decline of the two party system to be explained? See page 68 47

Wednesday 16 May 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct Samuel Pepys the Guitarist Christopher Page, Gresham Professor of Music At first, Samuel Pepys could see no virtue in the guitar at all and regarded it as a toy or ‘bauble’. Yet he soon changed his mind as he became more interested in Italian music. He arranged for an English merchant in Italy to send him an instrument, and during some of the most troubled periods of his life began to learn it. As a result, we possess from the hands of his house musician, Cesare Morelli, the largest collection of guitar-accompanied song to survive from 17th-century Europe. The series will close with ensemble performances in which the audience is invited to imagine eavesdropping on Samuel Pepys. See page 60

Tuesday 22 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London JOINT LONDON MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY/ GRESHAM COLLEGE ANNUAL LECTURE Mathematical Research from Toy Models Professor Tadashi Tokieda, Trinity Hall Cambridge ‘Toy’ here has a special sense: an object of daily life which you can find or make in minutes, yet which, if played with imaginatively, reveal behaviours that keep seasoned mathematicians and physicists puzzled for a while. The lecture will consist of table- top demos of such toys, together with simple, robust modelling of what is going on. The theme that emerges is singularity.

Wednesday 23 May 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The 30 Years’ War (1618-48) and the Second Defenestration of Prague Professor Peter Wilson, All Souls College Oxford Professor Wilson will examine the causes, conduct and consequences of the Thirty Years’ War, Europe’s most destructive conflict prior to the two 20th-century world wars. The talk takes place on the 400th anniversary of the defenestration of three Habsburg officials by Bohemian malcontents in Prague. This violent act triggered a crisis which expanded into general war despite the best efforts of most of those involved to contain it. Why it took so long to make peace, and what extent the conflict can be considered a ‘religious war’ will also be discussed. 48

Wednesday 23 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Media Reporting of Medical Advances: Helpful or Misleading? Martin Elliott, Gresham Professor of Physic The media and medicine have different perspectives. At least in part, this is due to a preference for individual human stories over detailed analysis of results. This lecture will use examples of how the public may be misled and consider the implications of such misunderstanding. See page 61

Thursday 24 May 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Transparency in the Family Court: What Goes on Behind Closed Doors? Jo Delahunty QC, Gresham Professor of Law Who does the story belong to: the family or society? Where and how are the lines drawn? Until relatively recently the Family Court door was closed to all save the parties and professionals involved in the case. A 2014 initiative aimed to secure ‘an immediate and significant change in practice’ to usher in greater understanding of the way in which the courts operate. The aim was to improve public awareness of the court process and to increase confidence in its actions. ‘Transparency’ was the watch word of the day. Has it worked? See page 59

Tuesday 29 May 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The Riddle of Ancient Sparta: Unwrapping an Enigma Professor Paul Cartledge, Clare College Cambridge and A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow Ancient Sparta has been handed down in a tradition radically conflicted and confused by rival political and social ideologies. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, one might say. This Spartan tradition is still alive and lively today. This lecture seeks to shed light rather than heat, by assessing just how odd (different, exceptional, peculiar) Sparta really might have been. 49

Tuesday 29 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Computers and Warfare Martyn Thomas, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology Stuxnet, the attacks on the Ukrainian power grid, and autonomous armed guards are only the beginning. Computers are changing warfare profoundly because military strategy has always been geographically based but there are no borders in cyberspace. We shall investigate the implications for the future of international conflict and of national defence. If preparations for the next war have already started, can we tell who is winning? See page 58

Wednesday 30 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Russia After Communism Bridget Kendall, Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Russia’s emergence from Soviet Communism, ‘a revolution without shots’, did not result in civil war and bloodshed, as in 1917. But the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 still came as a shock and the subsequent chaos (with hyperinflation, political turmoil and a messy war in Chechnya) revealed that the post-Communist transition was by no means cost free. The Putin era brought increased stability and prosperity, but also loss of political freedom, increased power of the state, weakening of the rule of law, increased nationalism and a rift between Russia and the West. What is Russia’s place in the world now? And what does the turbulence of the last 25 years tell us about where it is heading? See page 70

Thursday 31 May 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Who’s to Blame for Britain’s Floods? Carolyn Roberts, Jackson Professor of the Environment In the last ten years, the UK has been devastated by floods that have caused enormous physical and economic damage, seriously affecting the mental health of local residents. Media coverage has included allegations about the incompetence of scientists, weather forecasters, planners, builders and water companies. Conspiracy theories, fake news and alternative facts proliferate, and wellington-booted politicians often appear insincere. Can the scientific evidence about causes of recent floods dispel some of the myths about our ability to control the rising waters? See page 56 50

June 2018

Wednesday 6 June 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Nelson Mandela in the 21st Century Professor Elleke Boehmer, University of Oxford To mark the 100th anniversary of his birth, the legacy of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), first president of democratic South Africa, will be considered - both within his country and in the wider world. Mandela’s was famously a world life, that is, he was a determinedly national leader whose vision and influence also had global dimensions. His biography Long Walk to Freedom (1994) traces one of the most resonant political stories of the past century. But in what ways did this passionately nationalist leader, who identified himself completely with his country and his people, also appeal to the world? And what is his legacy for the globalised 21st century?

Thursday 7 June 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The British Economy: Can We Build a Successful Future? Jagjit Chadha, Gresham Professor of Commerce The challenges faced by the UK are very large. And they have not been convincingly challenged for a generation or more. We may have suffered from short-termism and an inability to develop a balanced economy. In this final lecture we will consider whether we can plot a more successful future than our recent history might suggest and what that implies for our economic and political institutions. See page 54

Monday 11 June 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Remembering London: The Story of the Faith Communities of London and their Prospects ​The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dr Richard Chartres KCVO FSA, 132nd Bishop of London Bishop Richard Chartres will present a survey in five acts of the history of London's faith communities, with a word about their prospects in the 21st century. 51

Tuesday 12 June 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Computers and the Future Martyn Thomas, IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology The invention of the computer in 1948 has changed our world radically but we are only in the early years of this industrial revolution. What disruptions will quantum computing bring? What else can we foresee and what can we learn from the first seven decades of our cyber enabled world that will help us to design the best future for ourselves and our children? See page 58

Wednesday 13 June 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Conversion of T.S. Eliot Lord Harries of Pentregarth T. S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” was the voice of a disillusioned generation and reflected a world in disarray. Then in 1928 Eliot announced to a startled world, and the disapproval of his contemporaries, that his general point of view could be described as ‘classicist in literature, royalist in politics and anglo-catholic in religion.’ The previous year he had been baptised behind closed doors in Finstock Church, near Oxford. This lecture will consider that conversion with three interlinked questions in mind: From what was he converted? Why did he convert? What was the immediate effect of that conversion? The recently published 6 volumes of Eliot’s letters covering the period help shed light on the answers. The lecture will also explore how this new direction in his life is reflected in the poems he wrote at the time. 52

Thursday 14 June 2018 6 pm at the Guildhall RESERVATIONS REQUIRED THE SIR THOMAS GRESHAM ANNUAL LECTURE 2018 Climate Change: A Defining Challenge for the 21st Century? Dame Julia Slingo FRS, Former Chief Scientist, Met Office The scientific evidence for climate change will be examined, describing how simulations of the Earth’s weather and climate are constructed and how these can be used to make assessments of what our climate and weather might be like in the coming decades. Based on this scientific evidence it will be argued that climate change may well be one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century, and that how we respond will determine our future prosperity, health and well-being and the sustainability of Earth’s natural environment.

Tuesday 19 June 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London THE PROVOST’S LECTURE Terrorism in Historical Perspective Professor Sir Richard Evans FBA, Provost, Gresham College Terrorism has become one of the most destructive and worrying aspects of life in 21st-century European cities. Seemingly random and unpredictable attacks have placed us all at risk of injury or death. How new is this phenomenon? Is terrorism more widespread and more dangerous than it has been in the past? This lecture takes the long view and examines the nature and impact of terrorism in Europe since the nineteenth century.

Thursday 21 June 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall RESERVATIONS REQUIRED The Gray’s Inn Reading The Hon Mr Justice Ross Cranston FBA Sir Ross Cranston, a recently retired judge of the High Court, Queens Bench Division, and Visiting Professor of Law at the London School of Economics, will be speaking on legal issues of topical interest. 53 Astronomy Joseph Silk Gresham Professor of Astronomy

The programme of Professor Joseph Silk, from the Institut d’Astrophysique, Paris Sorbonne University, will focus on the nature of the universe, on our cosmic beginnings and our future.

Wednesday 20 September 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London How Were the Stars Formed? See page 8

Wednesday 18 October 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London Are We Alone in the Universe See page 13

Wednesday 6 December 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London How Special is our Universe? Fine-tuning and Cosmological Natual Selection See page 22

Wednesday 31 January 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The High Energy Universe See page 28

Wednesday 28 February 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London What’s the Matter? Elementary Particles and Their Interactions See page 34

Wednesday 4 April 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Existential Risks in the Solar System See page 40 54 Commerce Jagjit Chadha Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Commerce

The prospect of leaving the EU has forced the UK to debate its economic future. The government will have to address long term problems such as productivity, savings and investment, the housing market, the structure of finance, regional policies and infrastructure.

Thursday 21 September 2017 The Productivity Puzzle See page 9

Thursday 9 November 2017 1 pm* at Barnard’s Inn Hall Mobilising Savings for Investment See page 18

Thursday 25 January 2018 1 pm* at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Housing Market See page 27

Thursday 15 March 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Structure of Finance See page 38

Thursday 19 April 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Regional, Industrial and Infrastructure Policies See page 42

Thursday 7 June 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The British Economy: Can We Do It? See page 50 * The winter lectures, November and January, will take place at 1 pm – not in the evening. 55 Divinity Alister McGrath Gresham Professor of Divinity

Professor of Divinity, Alister McGrath will take as his theme Are Science and Faith At War?

Tuesday 3 October 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London Are Science and Faith At War? See page 10

Tuesday 21 November 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London Astronomy and the Meaning of Life See page 20

Tuesday 23 January 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The Clockwork God: Isaac Newton and the Mechanical Universe See page 26

Tuesday 20 February 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London If Humans Are So Great, Why is the World Such a Mess? See page 33

Tuesday 27 March 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Are We Lost in the Cosmos? See page 39

Tuesday 8 May 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Facts Matter, But They Aren’t Enough. Science, Faith and Meaning in Life. See page 45 56 Environment Carolyn Roberts Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment

Professor Roberts’s last series will tackle controversies such as fake news, alternative facts and our ‘post truth society’ - looking at the Thames, flooding, national parks, organic food and eco-cities.

Thursday 28 September 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Cleaning Up the Thames: Success or Failure? See page 10

Thursday 9 November 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Organic Food: Rooted in Lies? See page 18

Thursday 18 January 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Ecotowns or EgoTowns? See page 26

Thursday 8 February 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall National Parks and National Park Cities See page 31

Thursday 22 March 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Is ‘Green Business’ a Contradiction in Terms? See page 39

Thursday 31 May 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Who’s to Blame for Britain’s Floods? See page 49 57 Geometry Chris Budd Gresham Professor of Geometry

Professor Budd’s second series will continue to show how relevant mathematics is to all of our lives, and the process by which mathematical ideas move from the abstract to the practical, and also transfer technology between very different disciplines.

Tuesday 17 October 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London How Maths Can Save Your Life See page 12

Tuesday 14 November 2017 1 pm at the Museum of London Maths Goes into Space See page 19

Tuesday 9 January 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Maths is Coded in Your Genes See page 24

Tuesday 13 February 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Is a Mathematician a Robot? See page 31

Tuesday 13 March 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London The Quantum Mathematician See page 37

Tuesday 24 April 2018 1 pm at the Museum of London Can You do Mathematics in a Crowd? See page 43 58 Information Technology Martyn Thomas IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology

Professor Martyn Thomas, will bring to an end his three year series of lectures on Living in a Cyber-enabled World.

Tuesday 24 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Is Society Ready for Driverless Cars? See page 14

Tuesday 9 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Will Bitcoin and the Block Chain Change the Way We Live and Work? See page 24

Tuesday 13 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Should We Vote Online? See page 31

Tuesday 20 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Internet of Things See page 38

Tuesday 29 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Computers and Warfare See page 49

Tuesday 12 June 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Computers and the Future See page 51 Professor Thomas will also be presenting an extra lecture Computer Bugs in Hospitals: A new killer, see page 29. 59 Law Jo Delahunty QC Gresham Professor of Law

This second series continues the theme of ‘transparency’ with Professor Jo Delahunty QC exploring diversity, equality and fairness in the family Justice system.

Thursday 5 October 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Women Lawyers: Equals at the Bar? See page 11

Thursday 30 November 2017 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall What Do Judges Do in the Family Court? See page 22

Thursday 1 February 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Vulnerable Clients and The Family Justice System See page 29

Thursday 1 March 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Dealing with Sex Abuse: How Does the Family Court Assess Risk? See page 35

Thursday 26 April 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Child in the Family Court Room: Whose Child is it Anyway? See page 44

Thursday 24 May 2018 6 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Transparency in the Family Court See page 48 60 Music Christopher Page Gresham Professor of Music

Professor Page of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge takes as his title for his fourth and last series: For Courtesan, Queen and Gallant: the Guitar in England from Henry VIII to Samuel Pepys.

Wednesday 11 October 2017 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct The Guitar in Tudor London See page 12

Wednesday 15 November 2017 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct Buying, Selling and Owning Guitars in Elizabethan England See page 19

Wednesday 17 January 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct The Guitar in the Age of Charles I See page 25

Wednesday 7 February 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct An Englishman (with a Guitar) Abroad See page 30

Wednesday 21 March 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct The Guitar at the Restoration Court See page 38

Wednesday 16 May 2018 1 pm at St Sepulchre's, Holborn Viaduct Samuel Pepys the Guitarist See page 47 61 Physic Martin Elliott Gresham Professor of Physic

For his last series, Professor Martin Elliott has chosen the theme of ‘Personalised Medicine.’ Healthcare is facing great economic and organisational challenges, but continues to innovate to meet the basic human needs to prolong life or improve its quality.

Wednesday 18 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London What is Value in Healthcare? See page 13

Wednesday 29 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Half a Century of Heart Transplantation See page 21

Wednesday 10 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Your Own Care Pathway See page 24

Wednesday 14 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Does a Good Bedside Manner Matter? See page 32

Wednesday 14 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Personalised Medicine and Innovation See page 37

Wednesday 23 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Media Reporting of Medical Advances See page 47 62 Rhetoric Sir Jonathan Bate FBA Gresham Professor of Rhetoric

In his first series of Gresham Lectures, Sir Jonathan Bate explores the many ways in which Shakespeare’s imagination was shaped by the stories, ideas and figures of ancient Greece and Rome.

Tuesday 17 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s London and Ancient Rome See page 13

Tuesday 28 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Heroes See page 21

Tuesday 23 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Lovers See page 27

Tuesday 27 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Politics See page 34

Tuesday 27 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Ancient Ghosts See page 39

Tuesday 8 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Shakespeare’s Fame See page 45 63 The Built Environment Simon Thurley CBE Visiting Gresham Professor of the Built Environment

Professor Simon Thurley will present a special lecture on the Thames as part of the Thames Festival, as well as exploring the themes of Merchants, Money and Megalomania and Buildings in the West End of London.

Wednesday 13 September 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London From Royal Highway to Common Sewer: The River Thames and its Architecture See page 8

Wednesday 6 December 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London House, Shop and Wardrobe in London’s Merchant Community. See page 23

Wednesday 17 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London London Merchants and Their Residences See page 25

Wednesday 7 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Palace, Park and Square: St. James’s and the Birth of the West End. See page 36

Wednesday 18 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Birth of Modern Theatreland: Covent Garden and the Two Theatres Royal. See page 42 64 Chinese Art Craig Clunas Visiting Professor of Chinese Art

Professor Clunas, Oxford University, will present Chinese Art 1911-1976: A Connected History demonstrating how Chinese artists responded to the decades between the fall of the empire in 1911, and the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The series will examine key works of art as a starting point for a discussion of the issues faced by Chinese visual art in an age of war, revolution and dislocation. The lectures will be richly illustrated with visual examples.

Monday 20 November 2017 1 pm at Museum of London China: New Nation, New Art, 1911-1932 See page 20

Monday 19 February 2018 1 pm at Museum of London China: Art, War and Salvation, 1933-1949 See page 32

Monday 14 May 2018 1 pm at Museum of London China: Art, Power, and Revolutions, 1950-1976 See page 46 65 Classics Edith Hall Visiting Professor in Classics

Few academic subjects have influenced the history of the world as much as ancient Greek history and culture, yet today few people enjoy opportunities to study this important area. This series of lectures by Professor Edith Hall (King’s College London) will cover ancient Greek history by looking at depictions of key events and themes in film, opera and the arts.

Thursday 23 November 2017 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Homer’s Iliad via the Movie Troy (2004) See page 21

Thursday 18 January 2018 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall The Age of Tyrants: Sappho via Gounod’s Opera See page 26

Thursday 8 March 2018 1 pm at Barnard’s Inn Hall Slave Stories: Aesop via Walter Crane See page 36 66 Film and Media History Ian Christie Visiting Professor in the History of Film and Media

Professor Christie, Birkbeck University of London, will present a series considering the extent to which we are living through a media revolution, no less dramatic and far-reaching than that of the late 19th century. Drawing comparisons between the late Victorian era and the present seems to offer a way of involving diverse groups of people in the history of media and mediation.

Monday 25 September 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Multimedia 1900: Experience and Entertainment in Everyday Life See page 9

Monday 26 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The 19th Century Craze for Stereoscopic Photography See page 34

Monday 30 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London What Really Happened at the First Moving-Picture Shows See page 44 67 History Joanna Bourke Joanna Bourke, Visiting Professor of History

Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck University of London, will focus her series Understanding Human Violence, on looking at aggression that exists in every period of history and in every culture. She will be considering how violence has changed over time and what ideologies have been harnessed to legitimise aggression, investigating the origins, causes, representation, and experience of violence from the eighteenth century to the present. Only by understanding the history of violence can we make steps towards forging a more peaceable world.

Wednesday 11 October 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London The History of Pain See page 12

Wednesday 22 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London A Global History of Sexual Violence See page 20

Wednesday 28 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Military Training in Violence, 1914 to the Present See page 35 68 Political History Vernon Bogdanor FBA CBE Emeritus Gresham Professor of Law

Professor Bogdanor’s series of lectures will examine British political parties - their ideologies, successes and failures.

Tuesday 26 September 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London The Conservative Party See page 9

Tuesday 12 December 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London The Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats See page 23

Tuesday 30 January 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London The Labour Party See page 28

Tuesday 6 March 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Nationalist Parties See page 36

Tuesday 24 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Minor Political Parties See page 43

Tuesday 15 May 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London From Two-Party to Multi-Party Politics See page 46

Professor Bogdanor will also be presenting an extra lecture on The 2016 US Presidential Election - One Year On, see page 17. 69 Public Health Christopher Whitty CBE Visiting Gresham Professor of Public Health

In this lecture series, entitled Chronic Diseases, Professor Whitty will examine conditions that are very topical at the present time.

Wednesday 15 November 2017 6 pm at the Museum of London Diabetes: A Rising Tide See page 19

Wednesday 21 February 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Asthma and Chronic Airways Disease See page 33

Wednesday 25 April 2018 6 pm at the Museum of London Air Pollution: Its Impact on Health and Possible Solutions See page 43 70 Short Series

The Russian Revolution

A number of distinguished speakers will examine the October Revolution and its consequences.

8 November 2017 – See page 18 Lenin and the Russian Revolution Professor Catherine Merridale FBA

31 January 2018 – See page 28 The Fate of the October Revolution Under Stalin Professor Bob Service

28 March 2018 – See page 40 The Cold War Years Professor Polly Jones

30 May 2018 – See page 49 Russia After Communism Bridget Kendall, Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge

English Landscape

Professor Malcolm Andrews of the University of Kent will look at English Landscape - a sequence of talks exploring how the distinctive personality of English landscape scenery evolved and was promoted by writers and artists.

25 October 2017 - See page 14 The Picturesque

1 November 2017 - See page 16 Constable and Clare

8 November 2017 - See page 17 Samuel Palmer and the Pastoral 71 GRESHAM COLLEGE

Our People

The College

President: The Lord Mayor of London Provost: Professor Sir Richard Evans FBA Academic Registrar: Dr Valerie Shrimplin Accounts and Facilities Manager: Dawn Fulks Head of Communications: Lucia Graves Communications Manager: James Bull Communications Officer: Richard Taverner Office and Events Administrator: Mariam Ismail

Gresham College Council

Mr John Carrington, Chairman of Council Professor Daniel Hodson, Vice Chair (Mercers) Mr Simon Duckworth OBE DL, Vice Chair (COLC) Professor George Brock Dr Andrew Burnett FBA CBE Professor Carolin Crawford Mrs Xenia Dennen Professor Sir Richard Evans FBA Mr Tom Hoffman CC Professor Martyn Thomas CBE Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli Ms Debby Ounsted CBE The Hon Timothy Palmer DL Mr John Scott CC Dr Giles Shilson CC

Programme and other details are correct at the time of going to press. Gresham College reserves the right to make changes to the speakers or printed programme. 72 How to find our Lectures Barnard’s Inn Hall Gresham College is on the south side of Holborn between Furnival Street and Fetter Lane, opposite the large red-brick former Prudential building. There is a sign post on the pavement giving directions to the College down a short passage-way.

Nearest underground station:

Menswear Chancery Lane (exit 3) Shop Buses: 8, 17, 25, 45, 46, 242, 341, 501 and 521

NCP car parks are within easy walking distance. The Museum of London The Museum is situated on London Wall (EC2), at the junction with Aldersgate Street. The entrance is on a pedestrian high walk which can be reached by stairs, escalators or lifts from Aldersgate Street, London Wall or St Martin’s le Grand.

Nearest underground stations: Barbican, St Paul’s, Moorgate. Buses: 4, 8, 25, 56, 100, 172, 242, 521. NCP cark park underneath the Museum.

St Sepulchre’s Church St Sepulchre’s is situated on Holborn Viaduct, at the junction with Newgate Street. The St Sepulchre’s entrance is on the corner of Church

Snow Hill Snow Hill. Holborn Viaduct City Nearest stations: St Pauls, Thameslink Giltspur Street Farringdon or City Thameslink Newgate St. Buses: 8, 25, 46, 56, 242, 521.

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Chancery Lane Gray’s Inn Road Strand Chancery Lane Programme Summary (with short titles) 2017–18 See programme entries by date in the main section for details 13 Sept 17, 6 pm Simon Thurley, River Thames Museum of London 20 Sept 17, 1 pm Joseph Silk, How Were Stars Formed Museum of London 21 Sept 17, 6 pm Jagjit Chadha, The Productivity Puzzle Barnard’s Inn Hall 25 Sept 17, 6 pm Ian Christie, Multimedia 1900 Museum of London 26 Sept 17, 6 pm Vernon Bogdanor, The Conservative Party Museum of London 27 Sept 17, 1 pm Gustav Milne, The Port of Roman London Museum of London 28 Sept 17, 6 pm Carolyn Roberts, Cleaning Up the Thames Barnard’s Inn Hall 3 Oct 17, 1 pm Alister McGrath, Science and Faith Museum of London 3 Oct 17, 6 pm George McGavin, Natural World Tales from TV Museum of London 5 Oct 17, 6 pm Jo Delahunty, Women Lawyers Barnard’s Inn Hall 10 Oct 17, 1 pm Roger Tomlin, Roman London Voices Museum of London 11 Oct 17, 1 pm Christopher Page, Guitar in Tudor London St Sepulchre EC1A 11 Oct 17, 6 pm Joanna Bourke, History of Pain Museum of London 17 Oct 17, 1 pm Christopher Budd, Mathematics Can Save You Museum of London 17 Oct 17, 6 pm Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare’s London Museum of London 18 Oct 17, 1 pm Joseph Silk, Are We Alone in the Universe? Museum of London 18 Oct 17, 6 pm Martin Elliott,Value in Healthcare? Museum of London 19 Oct 17, 6 pm Sir Geoffrey Nice QC,Justice for All Barnard’s Inn Hall 24 Oct 17, 6 pm Martyn Thomas, Driverless Cars? Museum of London 25 Oct 17, 1 pm Malcolm Andrews, The Picturesque Museum of London 25 Oct 17, 4 pm Robin Wilson et al, Mathematical Constants (BSHM) Museum of London 26 Oct 17, 6 pm Mary Beard, How to Spot a Roman Emperor (RHS) Museum of London 30 Oct 17, 7 pm Sir Stuart Peach, Defence (Nailor Lecture) Mercers’ Hall 31 Oct 17, 6 pm Janet Todd, Jane Austen Museum of London 1 Nov 17, 1 pm Malcolm Andrews, Constable and Clare Museum of London 1 Nov 17, 6 pm Lyndal Roper, Martin Luther Museum of London 7 Nov 17, 6 pm Vernon Bogdanor, 2016 US Election - One Year On Museum of London 8 Nov 17, 1 pm Malcolm Andrews Samuel Palmer and the Pastoral Museum of London 8 Nov 17, 6 pm Catherine Merridale Lenin and the Russian Revolution Museum of London 9 Nov 17, 1 pm Jagjit Chadha, Savings for Investment Barnard’s Inn Hall 9 Nov 17, 6 pm Carolyn Roberts, Organic Food Barnard’s Inn Hall 14 Nov 17, 1 pm Christopher Budd, Maths in Space Museum of London 15 Nov 17, 1 pm Christopher Page, Buying and Selling Guitars St Sepulchre EC1A 15 Nov 17, 6 pm Christopher Whitty,Diabetes Museum of London 20 Nov 17, 1 pm Craig Clunas, Chinese Art 1911-1932 Museum of London 21 Nov 17, 1 pm Alister McGrath, Astronomy and the Meaning of Life Museum of London 22 Nov 17, 6 pm Joanna Bourke, History of Sexual Violence Museum of London 23 Nov 17, 1 pm Edith Hall, Homer’s Iliad Barnard’s Inn Hall 28 Nov 17, 6 pm Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare’s Heroes Museum of London 29 Nov 17, 6 pm Martin Elliott,Heart Transplantation Museum of London 30 Nov 17, 6 pm Jo Delahunty, Judges and the Family Court? Barnard’s Inn Hall 5 Dec 17, 6 pm Jeremy Summerly, Carols 1582! Barnard’s Inn Hall 6 Dec 17, 1 pm Joseph Silk, How Special is Our Universe? Museum of London 6 Dec 17, 6 pm Simon Thurley, London’s Merchant Community Museum of London 12 Dec 17, 6 pm Vernon Bogdanor, The Liberal Party Museum of London 4 Jan 18, 6 pm Catherine Roach, The Romance Story Barnard’s Inn Hall 9 Jan 18, 1 pm Christopher Budd, Maths is in Your Genes Museum of London 9 Jan 18, 6 pm Martyn Thomas, Bitcoin and the Block Chain Museum of London 10 Jan 18, 6 pm Martin Elliott,Your Care Pathway Museum of London 16 Jan 18, 6 pm George McGavin, History of Dung Museum of London 17 Jan 18, 1 pm Christopher Page, Guitar in the Age of Charles I St Sepulchre EC1A 17 Jan 18, 6 pm Simon Thurley, London Merchants’ Residences Museum of London 18 Jan 18, 1 pm Edith Hall, Sappho via Gounod’s Opera Barnard’s Inn Hall 18 Jan 18, 6 pm Carolyn Roberts, Ecotowns or EgoTowns? Barnard’s Inn Hall 23 Jan 18, 1 pm Alister McGrath, Isaac Newton & Mechanical Universe Museum of London 23 Jan 18, 6 pm Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare’s Lovers Museum of London 24 Jan 18, 6 pm Steve Jones, Here Comes the Sun Museum of London 25 Jan 18, 1 pm Jagjit Chadha, The Housing Market Barnard’s Inn Hall 30 Jan 18, 6 pm Vernon Bogdanor, Labour Party Museum of London 31 Jan 18, 1 pm Joseph Silk, High Energy Universe Museum of London 31 Jan 18, 6 pm Bob Service, October Revolution Under Stalin Museum of London 1 Feb 18, 6 pm Jo Delahunty, The Family Justice System Barnard’s Inn Hall 5 Feb 18, 6 pm Elizabeth Crawford, Votes for Women Museum of London 6 Feb 18, 1pm Thomas/Thimbleby, Computer Bugs in Hospitals Museum of London 6 Feb 18, 6 pm Nick Lane, Energy Flow and Evolution of Life Museum of London 7 Feb 18, 1 pm Christopher Page, Englishman with a Guitar St Sepulchre EC1A 8 Feb 18, 6 pm Carolyn Roberts, National Parks and Park Cities Barnard’s Inn Hall 13 Feb 18, 1 pm Christopher Budd, Mathematicians as Robots? Museum of London 13 Feb 18, 6 pm Martyn Thomas, Voting Online Museum of London 14 Feb 18, 6 pm Martin Elliott,Medical Bedside Manner Museum of London 15 Feb 18, 6 pm Robin Wilson, Euler’s Equation Barnard’s Inn Hall 19 Feb 18, 1 pm Craig Clunas, Chinese Art 1933-1949 Museum of London 20 Feb 18, 1 pm Alister McGrath, Why is the World Such a Mess? Museum of London 20 Feb 18, 6 pm Joshua Rozenberg, Justice Online: Getting Better? Museum of London 21 Feb 18, 6 pm Christopher Whitty,Asthma and Airways Disease Museum of London 26 Feb 18, 6 pm Ian Christie, Stereoscopic Photography Museum of London 27 Feb 18, 6 pm Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare’s Politics Museum of London 28 Feb 18, 1 pm Joseph Silk, Elementary Particles Museum of London 28 Feb 18, 6 pm Joanna Bourke, Military Training in Violence, Museum of London 1 Mar 18, 6 pm Jo Delahunty, Sex Abuse and Family Court Barnard’s Inn Hall 5 Mar 18, 1 pm William Sharpe, The Dark Side in Painting Museum of London 6 Mar 18, 6 pm Vernon Bogdanor, Nationalist Parties Museum of London 7 Mar 18, 6 pm Simon Thurley, St. James’s and the West End Museum of London 8 Mar 18, 1 pm Edith Hall, Aesop and Walter Crane Barnard’s Inn Hall 13 Mar 18, 1 pm Christopher Budd, The Quantum Mathematician Museum of London 13 Mar 18, 6 pm Timothy Brittain-Catlin,Edwardian Architecture Barnard’s Inn Hall 14 Mar 18, 6 pm Martin Elliott,Personalised Medicine Museum of London 15 Mar 18, 6 pm Jagjit Chadha, Structure of Finance Barnard’s Inn Hall 20 Mar 18, 6 pm Martyn Thomas, The Internet of Things Museum of London 21 Mar 18, 1 pm Christopher Page, Guitar at the Restoration Court St Sepulchre EC1A 22 Mar 18, 6 pm Carolyn Roberts, Is ‘Green Business’ a Contradiction? Barnard’s Inn Hall 27 Mar 18, 1 pm Alister McGrath, Lost in the Cosmos? Museum of London 27 Mar 18, 6 pm Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare’s Ancient Ghosts Museum of London 28 Mar 18, 6 pm Polly Jones, USSR in the Cold War Years Museum of London 4 Apr 18, 1 pm Joseph Silk, Risks in the Solar System Museum of London 4 Apr 18, 6 pm Geoffrey Beattie,Spontaneous Gestures and Thinking Museum of London 10 Apr 18, 6 pm Raymond Tallis, The Philosophy of Time Museum of London 12 Apr 18, 6 pm Benjamin Wild, King Henry III and Power Barnard’s Inn Hall 18 Apr 18, 6 pm Simon Thurley, Modern Theatreland Museum of London 19 Apr 18, 6 pm Jagjit Chadha, Regional and Industrial Policies Barnard’s Inn Hall 24 Apr 18, 1 pm Christopher Budd, Maths in a Crowd? Museum of London 24 Apr 18, 6 pm Vernon Bogdanor, Minor Political Parties Museum of London 25 Apr 18, 6 pm Christopher Whitty,Air Pollution Museum of London 26 Apr 18, 6 pm Jo Delahunty, Child in the Family Court Room Barnard’s Inn Hall 30 Apr 18, 6 pm Ian Christie, The First Moving-Picture Shows Museum of London 1 May 18, 6 pm Stephen Church, Robin Hood Museum of London 2 May 18, 6 pm Gareth Stedman Jones, Karl Marx Museum of London 8 May 18, 1 pm Alister McGrath, Science, Faith and Meaning in Life Museum of London 8 May 18, 6 pm Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare’s Fame Museum of London 9 May 18, 6 pm Simon Lancaster, Speechwriting Barnard’s Inn Hall 14 May 18, 1 pm Craig Clunas, Chinese Art 1950-1976 Museum of London 15 May 18, 6 pm Vernon Bogdanor, Two Party to Multi-Party Politics Museum of London 16 May 18, 1 pm Christopher Page, Samuel Pepys the Guitarist St Sepulchre EC1A 22 May 18, 6 pm Tadashi Tokieda, Maths from Toy Models (LMS) Museum of London 23 May 18, 1 pm Peter Wilson, The 30 Years’ War (1618-48) Museum of London 23 May 18, 6 pm Martin Elliott,Reporting of Medical Advances Museum of London 24 May 18, 6 pm Jo Delahunty, Transparency in the Family Court Barnard’s Inn Hall 29 May 18, 1 pm Paul Cartledge, The Riddle of Ancient Sparta Museum of London 29 May 18, 6 pm Martyn Thomas, Computers and Warfare Museum of London 30 May 18, 6 pm Bridget Kendall, Russia After Communism Museum of London 31 May 18, 6 pm Carolyn Roberts, Britain’s Floods Barnard’s Inn Hall 6 Jun 18, 6 pm Elleke Boehmer, Nelson Mandela Museum of London 7 Jun 18, 6 pm Jagjit Chadha, The British Economy Barnard’s Inn Hall 11 Jun 18, 6pm Richard Chartres, Remembering London Museum of London 12 Jun 18, 6 pm Martyn Thomas, Computers and the Future Museum of London 13 Jun 18, 6pm Lord Harries, The Conversion of T.S.Eliot Barnard’s Inn Hall 14 Jun 18, 6 pm Dame Julia Slingo, Climate Change Guildhall, Old Library 19 Jun 18, 6 pm Richard Evans, Terrorism in Historical Perspective Museum of London 21 Jun 18, 6 pm Sir Ross Cranston, The Gray’s Inn Reading Barnard’s Inn Hall Date to be announced: The Lord Mayor’s Annual Gresham Event Guildhall, Old Library Astronomy

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