Village Hall Talks at Wootton-By-Woodstock
 


Past Speakers

BEN VILJOEN
Date: October 3rd
Ben spoke on the history of English landscape gardening in the 18th Century. His talk gave an overview of the work of Bridgeman, Kent, Brown and Repton with particular emphasis on Rousham and Stowe, as well as Blenheim. Ben also told the story of the discovery of one of the lost Repton Red Books, showing that new discoveries can still be made even in an area as intensively researched as the history of landscape gardening.

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LAURENCE REES
November 7th 2008
Laurence is creative director of BBC TV Factual Programmes and has won many awards for his four series on World War II, including The Nazis: A Warning from History. Under his editorship, Timewatch, BBC TV’s historical documentary series, won three Emmys in three years. His new six-part series, called World War II – Behind Closed Doors, is due for transmission this autumn.

BORIS RANKOV
December 5th 2008
Boris is professor of ancient history at Royal Holloway, University of London, and will talk about his involvement with the Trireme Project, which created a replica ancient war ship, powered by 170 oarsmen on three levels. A Wootton resident, he is also renowned for achieving six rowing Blues at Oxford, which remains a record, and has umpired the Boat Race twice.

HENRY PORTER
January 23rd 2009
Henry is the author of international best-selling espionage thrillers and children’s books. He is also the London Editor of Vanity Fair (the country’s biggest-selling luxury magazine), and also a columnist on The Observer, focusing on surveillance and the powers of the state

MARK DAMAZER
Date February 13th 2009
Mark is Controller of BBC Radio 4, a national institution, which is revered as one of the world’s greatest speech radio stations. This year, it was named Station of the Year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. Mark will give an insight into operations at Radio 4 and then take questions.

 

IAN RITCHIE

IAN RITCHIE
Date March 13th 2009
Ian is chief executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which organsies the world's greatest tennis championsips at Wimbledon. Ian oversees all aspects of the tournament, including the commissioning this summer of the new retractable roof over Centre Court and multi-million pound prize money - with the winner of the women's Single's Final now getting the same money as the men.
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JOHN LLOYD AND JOHN MITCHINSON
Date April 17th 2009
JOHN LLOYD AND JOHN MITCHINSON

John Lloyd is a legend of British comedy, having produced - among others - the classic hits Blackadder, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image and, latterly, the QI programmes, which are broadcast on BBC1 on Friday evenings, under the chairmanship of Stephen Fry. John, who lives in West Hendred, in Oxfordshire, also created The News Quiz and Quote...Unquote on BBC Radio 4 and a host of other classic comedy shows. He set up the Quite Interesting company and is the co-author of the best-selling QI books along with....

John Mitchinson, who is the chief researcher for the QI series and says he has amassed such a huge amount of information that his wife describes his brain as a "skip". John, who lives in Great Tew, used to be a senior manager for Waterstones and says he has found the job of his dreams. He is now managing director of Quite Interesting Limited and looks after the company's online bookshop.

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Paul Oliver

PAUL OLIVER
May 8th 2009
Paul, a Wootton resident, is a world authority on the blues and has written ten books on the subject. He also made his own recordings of peformers in the Deep South, including interviews with legendary artists, which form a unique archive. He has been a regular on BBC Radio for 50 years. .

 
Lord Howe

LORD HOWE
June 12th 2009
Geoffrey Howe was Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving Cabinet minister and one of her staunchest supporters .

 
 
Ivo Dawnay

IVO DAWNAY
September 18th 2009
Ivo Dawnay, Director of Communications at the National Trust, who delighted the audience with a talk with the intriguing title: Revoluntionaries in Pearls. .

Robert Hardy

ROBERT HARDY
October 16th 2009
Robert is one of the country's leading actors, having appeared in many celebrated roles on stage, television and radio. He is also a world authority on the longbow and its use in medieval battles, in particular at Agincourt. .

Lone

Lone Droscher-Nielsen
November 9th 2009
Founder of a rehabilation centre for orangutans in Indonesian Borneo, which is the world's biggest primate rescue project, caring for over 700 animals. Orangutans are seeing their habitat destroyed after the rainforest is cleared to produce palm oil - an ingredient in many products we all use on a regular basis. Lone recently starred in Orangutan Diary on BBC Two and has been voted the World's Greatest Living Dane. .

Rupert

Rupert Sheldrake
2010
Without doubt, our most cerebal speaker so far was Rupert Sheldrake, the science writer and broadcaster who has a doctorate in biological research from Cambridge. In the past, Rupert has been branded “the most controversial scientist on Earth” on the basis of many of his theories, including his radical idea of memory in nature. .

Michael

Michael Lowe
2010
Michael lives in Wootton and is one of the country's leading lute-makers, with his craftsmanship renowned in many parts of the world. He has made instruments for many of the most celebrated lutenists, such as Sweden's Jakob Lindberg, who regularly uses Michael's instruments whilst playing in some of the world's major concert halls. They are also played when accompanying Dame Emma Kirkby, the leading early music soprano and a close friend of Michael's.

Prue

Prue Leigh
2010
Living in a bed-sit in London in the Sixties, after arriving from South Africa, Prue Leith started out making lunches for directors' dining-rooms and ended up as one of the country's most successful businesswomen, running large catering companies and a teaching school, as well as serving on the boards of several major organisations.

Paul

Paul Oliver
2010
Wootton is lucky in having several people who are the best in their field, but it is fair to say that Paul Oliver is unique in being a world authority on both the Blues and vernacular architecture. Having spoken last year on music from the Deep South, Paul gave a magisterial talk on May 7th about different styles of dwelling around the world

Colin

Paul Oliver
2010
One of the most moving passages in Colin Dexter's captivating talk on June 4th was when he described how one exceptional teacher at his school in Stamford gave him the chance to borrow any book from his library. Colin chose a novel by Thomas Hardy and so he developed his love of words and stories, which was to culminate in his own contribution to the canon of English literature with the Inspector Morse novels.

 

detail


John Lloyd & John Mitchinson Talk, Summer 2009

Local Links
Wootton Stores
Evenlode Books
The Woodstock Bookshop
The Killingworth Castle
Adrian Arbib Photography

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