I was in the army for 20 years and then turned to a life-long interest with the result that in 2004 I graduated from the University of Kent with a 1st class honours degree in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval History. I’ve recently returned to studying and am researching The Development and Function of the Foliate Head in English Medieval Churches for a Ph.D. at Birmingham.
I have been lecturing and running study tours on Anglo-Saxon and Medieval history for some years and I use art – usually church art - as the evidence in my research as much as possible. But however lovely or bizarre the images might be, it fascinates me to try to get at the people who made them and to hear their voices speaking. Sometimes, I may say, they speak to us directly and write things such as the Anglo-Saxon scribe who complained at the end of his manuscript that: “three fingers write, but my whole body labours.”
I cover 1,000 years of history! What I like to do is to take the major events and look at the individuals living through those times and try to understand them. For instance, when we see an image made around 1400, we could be seeing a reaction to the several catastrophes of the C14th, and might be looking at a cry for help, or someone reacting to the situation with sensitivity, superstition or perhaps with humour. Someone has called this Listening to Art and that is what I do.
I lecture for Martin Randall Travel and The Cultural Experience have run lecture tours for Holts Tours which have included A White Garment of Churches (French cathedrals - twice), Medieval Pilgrimage, Medieval Brittany, The Age of Bede, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England and An Appointment with Angels (Norfolk Churches). I’ve also run Focus on Shropshire, York and Wessex jointly with my husband, Gordon. I also sometimes lecture on board cruise ships for Silversea and Noble Caledonia Cruises.
I’m a NADFAS lecturer as well as being a speaker for the Kent Federation of History, East Kent National Trust and the WI as well as being on the Churches Committee for the Kent Archaeological Society and a member of the British Commission for Military History. In my spare time, I’m writing my first book.
On a different note, I believe that I may be the only third generation of women to serve in the British Army. My maternal grandmother served in the Women’s Legion in WW1 and the ATS in WW2. My mother served in the ATS and WRAC and I was in the WRAC and AG Corps. Not only did we all join the army, but we all wore two cap-badges. I’m always interested to hear if anyone else has the same record.
[Note: All the lectures are available in digital or 35 ml slide format].
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