Felice Hardy will share the moving story of the escape and survival of her grandmother, Liesl Herbst, who fled Nazi occupation with her family. In 1930, at the age of 26 Liesl was the Austrian National Tennis Champion, a celebrity in Vienna. Liesl, her husband David and their daughter Dorli came to Britain after escaping...

With a strong background in classical cooking and an exuberant personality, Rosemary Shrager has become the star of numerous television series including Rosemary: Queen of the Kitchen, The Big Family Cooking Showdown, I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! and most recently, in the successful series Cooking With the Stars. With her usual flair...

The story of art doesn’t have to be all about art-historical ‘isms’ and complex academic debate. It often revolves around some very simple firsts. The first time an artist painted his, or her, self-portrait, the first representation of a smile, the first real place to be depicted, the first feminist artwork, the first to take...

Mixing history, memoir and nature writing, Bob Gilbert will take you on a journey of discovery, uncovering the truth behind mysteries and myths from across the natural world. From the darkest corners of Britain’s churchyards to Scotland’s Pentland Hill, Gilbert travels the length of the UK, and beyond, seeking answers to questions that have intrigued...

The Tangle of the Commons tells the story of the British landscape and our relationship with the wild things around us, seen and unseen. Who really owns this place – and what happens if humans push things too far? Here are some of the old tales, laced with history, ecology and a hefty dose of...

Michael Morpurgo will present the re-tellings of ten of Shakespeare’s plays, beautifully written with Morpurgo’s warm, accessible, and inimitable style. A perfect introduction to the Bard, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo an Juliet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Henry V, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Winter’s Tale. Child's ticket available...

Caroline Davison will explore the world of Edwardian folk music, and its influence on the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. In January 1905 the young Vaughan Williams, not yet one of England’s most famous composers, visited Norfolk to find folk songs ‘from the mouths of the singers’. An old fisherman, James ‘Duggie’ Carter, performed The Captain’s...

Interior designer Flora Soames founded her eponymous firm in 2009 and launched an acclaimed collection of fabrics and wallpapers in 2019. Informed by her background in art and furniture, her style exudes the traditional charm of English country homes while incorporating modern, original touches that are comfortable and design-led. This embrace of old and new...

Jackie Malton, the inspiration for legendary TV detective Jane Tennison in Lynda La Plante’s Prime Suspect, joined the police force in the 1970s. It was the time of sex segregation in the police force. Male recruits were given truncheon; female recruits received a handbag and were assigned social work duties. But Malton desperately wanted to...