Glossop Guild for enquiring minds
Autumn Venue Based Courses
September 2024 ~ December 2024
Palestine 1948: The Coming of the State of Israel & the First Arab-Israeli War
Tuesday Afternoon
Tutor: Alan Sennett
Tuesday 24th September 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £7.00 Members, £10.00 Non-members
This session looks at the pivotal year of 1948 in the Middle East. For Zionists it saw the declaration in May of independence but for Palestinian Arabs, it is seen as Al Nakba (the Catastrophe). Israel was born in the midst of civil war in the Mandate which developed into a regional conflict between the new Jewish state and surrounding Arab states. Was it a war of independence or a case of ethnic cleansing? How do historians view this contentious issue?
NB. You may also be interested in Alan’s 3-week Zoom course The Middle East Mandates, which is outlined on our Zoom courses page.
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This course is sold out
Dr. Zachi Evenor, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Lost Booker Prize
3 Thursday Afternoons
Tutor: Creina Mansfield
Thursday 26th September, 3rd October & 10th October 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
1.30 pm ~ 3.30 pm Fee: £19.00 Members, £23.00 Non-members
When J. G Farrell was awarded the 'lost Booker' prize for Troubles, it was a particularly poignant achievement. The Anglo-Irish writer had discovered his theme when he wrote about Britain's loss of Empire, but because of a Booker rule change in 1970, his stylishly comic novel had been ineligible for the award.  That omission was later redressed. Farrell wrote 2 further novels about Britain's imperial retreat before his tragic early death.
We shall look at the history and significance of the Booker Prize and then study Troubles, set in the Ireland of 1919-1920.
The British Way of Espionage
3 Thursday Evenings
Tutor: Kevin Harrison
Tuesday 1st, 8th & 15th October 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £19 Members, £23 Non-members
Intelligence is part of mankind’s basic survival instinct and as old as humanity itself. (John Hughes-Wilson, The Puppet Masters, (2004)).
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(1) Elizabeth’s Master of Spies: Sir Francis Walsingham (1532-90): the origins of the English intelligence service can be discerned in countering threats at home and abroad to the Protestant settlement of Queen Elizabeth.
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(2) Britain and Espionage in the Rise of a Great Power: 1600-1815: the Commonwealth, Cromwell & John Thurloe: protecting the Republic and keeping the Royalists at bay (the 1650s); the Jacobite threat, Marlborough, intelligence, espionage and defeating the French (1688-1714); fighting … and losing a rebellion in the American colonies: the turning of Benedict Arnold and Major Andre’s doom (1776-83): Wellington, his spy-masters and the defeat of the French in the Peninsula War (1809-14).
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(3) Military Intelligence and the age of empire and domestic and international threats and their countering: From War to War: Intelligence in the ‘Age of Peace’: 1815-1914; to win a war: The Great War and intelligence (1914-18): the Inter-War Era (1919-1939): Major threats at home and abroad: communism and fascism/Nazism; war of survival and how to win it: World War Two (1939-45).
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Kim Philby, as depicted on a Soviet Union stamp
Manchester's Avro Aviation Heritage
Thursday Evening
Tutor: Frank Pleszak
Tuesday 22nd October 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7 Members, £10 Non-members
Avro is one of the most famous names in the aircraft industry. It is synonymous with some of the most iconic aeroplanes ever built.
As a company it was based around Manchester and the northwest for its entire life: but we are very lucky that it was.
This lecture isn’t about the various fabulous aircraft that they produced, though some will get mentioned, but details the fascinating history of the company and its long association with our region.
Avro Vulcan Bomber
Ozzy Delaney, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
In the Shadow of the Masters - the Artists Who Invented Themselves
4 Tuesday Afternoon Lectures
Tutor: Frank Vigon
Thursday 17th, 31st October, 7th November & *30th January 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £26 Members, Non-members £30
An exploration of uniqueness. In this set of four lectures, we will try to understand how these individual artists brought their own style and their own perspective of representational art to change our own perceptions for ever.
Thursday 17th October - Artemisa Ghentileschi - the female artist in a world dominated by male egotism & patrician power.
Thursday 31st October – Michelangelo – the Ego and the Ecstasy
Thursday 7th November – Durer – Drawn to our attention
Thursday 30th January 2025 – Donatello – the Body Beautiful *
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* NB This session is in the Spring 2025 term.
Donatello
1386 - 1466
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Michelangelo
1476 - 1564
Artemisia Gentileschi
1593 - 1652/53
Buildings & the Environment - A Professional Journey
Tuesday 29th October
Tutor: Michael Corcoran
Tuesday 29th October 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7.00 Members, £10.00 Non-members
Sensitised to emerging environmental concerns in the early 1970s, exemplified by the Club of Rome’s study ‘The Limits to Growth’ and E E Schumacher’s book ‘Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered, Michael set about aligning these concerns with his own sense of professional ethics. These were more easily expressed in multi-disciplinary practise, and later in academia, but not without challenges. His fifty-year professional journey (not yet completed) will be illustrated by reference to a number of projects, key among which was a research, development and demonstration project for the Department of Health on the design of Low Energy Hospitals.
Modern Building Techniques
By Bill Nicholls CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Amazing Journeys of Tea, Coffee & Hot Chocolate
3 Tuesday Afternoons
Tutor: Brigitta Hoffman
Tuesday 5th, 12th & 19th November 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £19 Members, Non-members £23
In each of these 3 talks, we will follow the history of our favourite hot beverages from their original growing areas through the centuries to their places on our tables. When did they start to be used? How were they processed and what changed over time? What were they used for and when did they start to come in teabags, granules and plastic jars in Europe? We will be looking at the role of Queens and Religious Orders for their popularity and the need to change processing methods to deal with lengthy sea voyages and mass production.
Sgtblackpepper, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Iatanoid, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Origin & Evolution of Sex
3 Thursday Afternoon Lectures
Tutor: Bob Callow
Thursday 14th, 21st & 28th November 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £19 Members, Non-members £23
Sexual identity has become a matter of public interest in recent years. We may ask what determines our sex, what is its significance in inheritance and how did sexual reproduction come about? Sex is determined in different ways in major groups of animals both in insects and vertebrates. Switches between these groups give important clues to our evolutionary history. This short course will examine: the origin of sexual reproduction, the significance of sex-lined inheritance and the evolution of sex-determination. The talks will be illustrated and there will be ample opportunity for discussion.
Film Day School - The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Tutors: Creina Mansfield & Alan Sennett
Saturday 16th November 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
10.30 am ~ 3.30 pm Fee: £30 Members, Non-members £35
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Ken Loach’s film is both a dramatization and an attempt at an explanation of both the struggle for Ireland’s independence from Britain and the subsequent Civil War that left a legacy of bitterness in the new “Free State”. This day school will view the film in sections and consider the historical and wider literary background to the events portrayed. We ask to what extent the film offers an accurate and adequate interpretation of these events and processes. We discuss the making of the film and examine Loach’s unique approach to cinema.
Making Sense of the 2024 US Presidential Election
Tuesday Evening Lecture
Tutor: Andrew Russell
Tuesday 26th November 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7 Members, Non-members £10
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At the time of writing the summary for this session (early July 2024) it’s tough to predict the possible result of the Presidential Election on the 5th November. We’ve been fascinated/appalled by ex-President Trump’s hush money conviction in May this year and the other prosecutions he faces, not the least the charge of inciting insurrection on 8th January 2021. We’ve also looked on as Joe Biden has struggled with his own popularity polls, especially in relation to the very difficult situation in Gaza and the US support for Israel, while questions about his age persist. How will these issues, and others, affect the outcome? We’re pleased to have Professor Andrew Russell back with us to help make some sense of it all.
Explaining the Outcome of the British General Election 2024
Tuesday Evening Lecture
Tutor: Andrew Russell
Tuesday 3rd December 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7 Members, Non-members £10
Those of you who attended Professor Russell’s first talk for the Guild in February 2024, will remember his presentation, and the lively discussion that followed, on whether the outcome of the UK General Election was going to be a foregone conclusion. Well now we know. Five months will have passed by the time Andrew returns for his second lecture and there will be much to discuss. How did the Labour and Conservative parties fare and what does the future hold for them in light of the general election result and beyond? What will be the role of the Liberal Democrats and other so-called fringe parties like the Greens and Reform? It’s going to be another interesting evening.
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Descrier from London, UK, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Surrealist Women
Thursday Afternoon Lecture
Tutor: Frank Vigon
Thursday 5th December 2024
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £7 Members, Non-members £10
This is the story of a significant number of women artists who moved into the realm of the Surreal. This was not just a revolution in art, but part of a gender war and the battle can be traced back to the Renaissance. Women were squeezed and marginalised out of aesthetic existence. They could be muses and we know, by the simple calculation of the number of female nudes in Art forms, that women were objectified and treated differently in greater numbers than their male counterparts.
In the first half of the 20th century, a legion of women artists came forward to express themselves in ways that challenged the status quo. Surrealist women artists sought to understand their dreams and the subconscious and express these thoughts vividly in what was sometimes the stuff of nightmares. They were the pathfinders who helped the next generation of installationists, painters, sculptors, graphic designers and performance artists who all celebrated the difference between the genders as well as their shared commonalities.
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Zwei Frauen Mit Blume (Two Women With Flower)
Max Beckmann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
