talks

COVID-19: 2021 TALK SEASON SUSPENDED

Due to present lockdown restrictions, all talks booked for the current season are suspended until further notice.

I’m sorry that I can’t offer talks on Zoom – my style is much better suited to live performance, as you’ll know if you’ve seen me! However, as soon as conditions permit , I’ll gladly deliver socially-distanced outdoor talks at a site of your choice.

An animated and enthusiastic public speaker, I’ve been delivering all kinds of presentations to all kinds of audiences, from junior-school children to university students, for the past 30 years. My specialist subjects are the Wars of the Roses – particularly the battles of Wakefield and Towton – kings and queens, and women’s history. But as you’ll see from the lists below, my interests are eclectic, and I’ll happily research and deliver a new bespoke talk on a topic of your choice in the fields of archaeology, general history, and military history.

All talks are accompanied by an illustrated PowerPoint presentation, (I bring my own laptop and projector), and may be delivered in period costume and/or feature show n’ tell items from my collection of replica costume, weaponry and domestic utensils, plus Herstory publication sales/signing if desired.

Fees start from £50 for a 1-hour talk plus Q&A session, and I operate mainly within an hour’s drive-time from Wakefield, though may be able to travel further afield on occasion.

Availability: weekday evenings between December – April; weekends year-round.

Talks Available:

GENERAL

• King Arthur & the Wars of the Roses: a detailed look at this legendary monarch’s connection to our 15^th century civil war
• Magna Carta: origins and legacy of the Great Charter
• Isabella of France: remarkable wife of an unremarkable king, Edward II
• The Battle of Agincourt 1415: Henry V’s famous triumph
• Shakespeare’s She-Wolf: the extraordinary career of Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI
• Black Death – The Great Mortality: bubonic plague in medieval and 17^th century England
• The Wives of Henry VIII: six queens, ‘divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived’
• Fool for Love? the controversial life and loves of Mary, Queen of Scots
• Marie Antoinette: Villain or Victim? the turbulent life of France’s most reviled queen
• Unfortunate Queens: Margaret of Anjou, Mary Stuart and Marie Antoinette, three royal ladies extremely unlucky in their husbands
• The Brontës of Haworth: the story of one of Britain’s most famous and tragic literary families
• The Battle of Waterloo: the famous conflict which ended the Napoleonic wars
• Fish n’ Ships: the rise and fall of Grimsby, once the world’s greatest fishing port
• A History of Chocolate: our favourite confectionery, from the Aztecs’chocolatl to Victorian chocolate tools
• Historical Re-enactment: find out what re-enactors do, and why/how we do it!
• The Story of Christmas: a light-hearted exploration of our favourite festival

WARS OF THE ROSES

• The Battle of Wakefield: Richard, Duke of York’s catastrophic defeat on 30^th December 1460
• The Savile Family and the Battle of Wakefield: this prominent Thornhill family’s links with our famous local battle
• Towton: the battle, the battlefield and the Battlefield Society: an introduction to Towton, including the Battlefield Trail and famous local landmarks
• From Wakefield to Towton: Edward, Earl of March’s winter campaign, featuring the battles of Mortimer’s Cross, St Albans, Ferrybridge and Dintingdale, and defeat of Henry VI at Towton
• The Battle of Towton: origins and cause of one of the biggest and bloodiest battles ever fought on English soil
• The Legitimacy of King Edward IV: a true son of York or a common archer’s bastard?
• The Life & Death of King Richard III: was he a good king or a murderous usurper?
• The Reign of King Richard III: the achievements of a short reign (1482 – 85)
• Richard III and Yorkshire: Richard’s associations with the county, including York, Middleham and Sandal Castle
• Extraordinary Women: a look at any or all of four major players in fifteenth-century politics: Margaret of Anjou, Cecily Neville, Elizabeth Woodville and Margaret Beaufort
• Ordinary Women: everyday female lives in medieval England
• Medieval Costume: a top-to-toe look at what people wore and how it was made
• Life & Times: how ordinary people lived during the turbulent decades of the Wars of the Roses
• Wars of the Roses Site Tours: visit the battlefields of Wakefield and Towton, or the castles of Sandal, Pontefract, Conisbrough and Middleham, from the comfort of your seat!