merl

Jon Smith: Vibrant localism: the story of Common Ground

MERL SEMINAR SERIES: RURAL RIDERS AND RADICALS

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND MERL SPEAKER SERIES 2018

Booking recommended – BOOK TICKETS

VENUE: The Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, RG1 5EX

A series of lunchtime talks organised by the Department of English Literature and the Museum of English Rural Life, in celebration of their ongoing collaborations. Events in the series feature (alternately) writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

22 MARCH – JON SMITH – VIBRANT LOCALISM: THE STORY OF COMMON GROUND

Jos will introduce the work of Common Ground and explore the group’s relationship to rural England, in which ideas of the local are re-energised through a close engagement with the arts.

This talk is part of Rural Riders and Radicals, a series of lunchtime talks in collaboration with the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading. Events in the series feature writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

James Grande: Radical Tours and Rustic Harangues

MERL SEMINAR SERIES: RURAL RIDERS AND RADICALS

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND MERL SPEAKER SERIES 2018

Booking recommended – BOOK TICKETS

VENUE: The Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, RG1 5EX

A series of lunchtime talks organised by the Department of English Literature and the Museum of English Rural Life, in celebration of their ongoing collaborations. Events in the series feature (alternately) writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

This talk is part of Rural Riders and Radicals, a series of lunchtime talks in collaboration with the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading. Events in the series feature writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

1 MARCH – JAMES GRANDE – RADICAL TOURS AND RUSTIC HARANGUES: WILLIAM COBBETT AND JOHN THELWALL

This talk will explore the radical tradition of rural writing through the work of Cobbett and John Thelwall, focusing on their tours, agricultural experiment, political oratory, and their thinking about the English countryside.

Simon Kovesi: John Clare and Place

MERL SEMINAR SERIES: RURAL RIDERS AND RADICALS

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND MERL SPEAKER SERIES 2018

Booking recommended – BOOK TICKETS

VENUE: The Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, RG1 5EX

A series of lunchtime talks organised by the Department of English Literature and the Museum of English Rural Life, in celebration of their ongoing collaborations. Events in the series feature (alternately) writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

This talk is part of Rural Riders and Radicals, a series of lunchtime talks in collaboration with the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading. Events in the series feature writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

15 FEBRUARY – SIMON KOVESI – JOHN CLARE AND PLACE

The Romantic labouring-class poet John Clare is regarded as English literatures’s first major ecologically-concious writer. Simon discusses place as a foundation of Clare’s writing, and asks what position he should have in contemporary versions of environmentalism.

Clover Stroud: The Wild Other: On Landscape and Grief

MERL SEMINAR SERIES: RURAL RIDERS AND RADICALS

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND MERL SPEAKER SERIES 2018

Booking recommended – BOOK TICKETS

VENUE: The Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, RG1 5EX

A series of lunchtime talks organised by the Department of English Literature and the Museum of English Rural Life, in celebration of their ongoing collaborations. Events in the series feature (alternately) writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

This talk is part of Rural Riders and Radicals, a series of lunchtime talks in collaboration with the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading. Events in the series feature writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

1 FEBRUARY – CLOVER STROUD – THE WILD OTHER: ON LANDSCAPE AND GRIEF

Clover will read extracts from The Wild Other, her deeply confessional memoir about the role horses and the landscape of Oxfordshire have played in managing trauma in her life.

Alexandra Harris: The March and the Visitor

MERL SEMINAR SERIES: RURAL RIDERS AND RADICALS

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AND MERL SPEAKER SERIES 2018

Booking recommended – BOOK TICKETS

VENUE: The Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, RG1 5EX

A series of lunchtime talks organised by the Department of English Literature and the Museum of English Rural Life, in celebration of their ongoing collaborations. Events in the series feature (alternately) writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

18 JANUARY – ALEXANDRA HARRIS – THE MARSH AND THE VISITOR

Alex will introduce and read from recent essays about an area of Sussex which she finds familiar from her childhood, but which she has experience increasingly as unknown territory.

Alexandra describes herself as a “literary critic, cultural historian, lover of buildings, landscapes, seasons, stories”. Her books include Romantic Moderns (2010) and Weatherland: Writers and Artists under English Skies(2015). The latter is an exploration of imaginative responses to the weather in England across the centuries. She is a Birmingham Professorial Fellow at the University of Birmingham.

In this talk, Alex will introduce and read from recent essays about an area of the Sussex countryside which is familiar from her childhood, but which still feels like unknown territory. She will be in conversation with Paddy Bullard, considering differing forms of country knowledge, distance, belonging, and the way we write about it.

Find out more about Alex and her work at www.alexandraharris.co.uk 

This talk is part of Rural Riders and Radicals, a series of lunchtime talks in collaboration with the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading. Events in the series feature writers with a national profile, and academic authors showcasing new and exciting research.

The MERL Autumn Speaker Series – Dr Ciara Healy

Showing, Doing, Telling: Craft And Making

A Season Of Events Exploring Craft And Making At The MERL

Specialists in craft and the arts examine different ways of responding to rural life, exploring how best to nurture old skills, contemporary creative responses and traditional practice.

Dr Ciara Healy, Lecturer in Art at the University of Reading, explores rural approaches to survival through protective objects found in the Museum’s collection and elsewhere.

Admission is free, although booking is recommended.

The MERL Autumn Speaker Series – Mark Allery

Showing, Doing, Telling: Craft And Making

A Season Of Events Exploring Craft And Making At The MERL

Specialists in craft and the arts examine different ways of responding to rural life, exploring how best to nurture old skills, contemporary creative responses and traditional practice.

In this talk, woodsman, bodger and scythesman Mark Allery joins the MERL for a hands-on exploration of some of the scythes in the MERL collection and shares the story of his search for the earliest surviving scythes.

Admission is free, although booking is recommended.

The MERL Autumn Speaker Series – Jack Thacker

Showing, Doing, Telling: Craft And Making

A Season Of Events Exploring Craft And Making At The MERL

Specialists in craft and the arts examine different ways of responding to rural life, exploring how best to nurture old skills, contemporary creative responses and traditional practice.

This talk by Jack Thacker, the current poet-in-residence at the MERL, will explore the poetics of agriculture.

Admission is free, although booking is recommended.

The MERL Autumn Speaker Series – Greta Bertram

Showing, Doing, Telling: Craft And Making

A Season Of Events Exploring Craft And Making At The MERL

Specialists in craft and the arts examine different ways of responding to rural life, exploring how best to nurture old skills, contemporary creative responses and traditional practice.

In this talk, Greta Bertram, Heritage Crafts Association, will discuss the topic “Heritage Crafts At Risk”.

Admission is free, although booking is recommended.

MERL: Ladybird evening for grown-ups

Tickets are now available for a very special Ladybird event at The Museum of English Rural Life Thursday 23rd February, 7.30-9pm.

Book now to join Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley, authors of the ‘Ladybird for Grown-Ups’ series, for a humorous exploration of these best-selling books! You’ll also have to chance to put your burning Ladybird questions to a panel of Ladybird experts – all for just £4.

http://www.reading.ac.uk/themerl/whats-on/themerl_ladybirdeveningforgrownups.aspx

The museum will be open from 5 to 9pm, including the Tales from the Stacks’ book club Ladybird Special with Professor Karin Lesnik-Oberstein at 5.30pm, a free book-signing with Jason and Joel at 6.30pm and chance to visit the galleries, café and shop.