Illustrated Talks 2011-2012

Illustrated Talks are held at The Danish Club - Urb. Haza del Agorrobo, Ctra. de Mijas, on the second Tuesday in the month at 11.00;  unless otherwise stated

February 14th 2012
The young Brontës and Art - Visual Influences
Patrick and Maria Bronte lived in Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire with their six children.  They were all gifted, but the consequences of the deaths, first of their mother, then of their two older sisters, left a profound mark on Charlotte, Emily, Anne and their brother Patrick Branwell. Their imaginary worlds dominated their complex and detailed ‘plays’ together with created histories, political structures and enormous casts of characters; dramatic and tragic events are chronicled in prose, poetry and pictures.  Most famously, Charlotte’s book Jane Eyre, Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall became accepted as masterpieces in literature.
Lecturer: Elizabeth Merry, M.A.,B.A. ( Hons ), P.G.C.E.

March 13th 2012
Lutyens and New Delhi
The Coronation Durbar was held in Delhi in 1911.   During the pageantry, the King-Emperor, George V, announced the construction of the new Imperial Capital at Delhi. The Delhi Planning Commission appointed Edwin Lutyens to prepare a Master Plan.  Lutyens laid out a two-mile grand axis from the River Jumna to Raisina Hill. On the latter arose his masterpiece, the Viceroy’s House. Inaugurated with pomp and circumstance in 1931, the last Viceroy, Earl Mountbatten, left New Delhi in 1947, but the splendour remains.  From being an arid plain, ‘Lutyens’s Delhi’ has attained the verdure of a Garden City.  It forms an oasis in the heart of a teeming metropolis of ten million.
Lecturer: Dr.Mervyn Miller, Ph.D.,B.A.,Bachelor of Architecture

April 10th 2012
Laura Ashley - Her life, Fashion and Design
The name, “Laura Ashley” has become an international byword for the classic English countrywoman.  Laura became a leading influence on British design, printing textiles in 1953, with her husband Bernard Ashley.  Their venture resulted in a fashion and home decoration business that has become renowned internationally.  This led to fame, glamour and wealth, including a chateau in France and a private plane.  Laura had a puritanical streak and wanted to create "a kind of scrubbed simple beauty", which despite mass production never destroyed the ethnic cottage industry of her roots in rural Wales on which the business was based.  We learn about the wife, the mother and the remarkable business woman.
Lecturer: Anne Sebba, B.A. ( Hons )