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Lectures
INSPIRATION FOR ALL AT ST PETER’S
Our various programmes of lectures brought over 20 speakers to the school to enthuse, educate and entertain pupils, the wider St Peter’s community and members of the public who come in their thousands to enjoy what we offer. We are delighted to continue to be a major partner in the York Literature Festival (March) and York Festival of Ideas (June).
Two of our visitors in the Christmas Term were OPs. In September, Alan Mak, now MP for Havant, visited for a Memorial Hall lunch and spoke to an enthusiastic group of Sixth Formers. Actor Greg Wise visited in October to take tea with Drama and English pupils and appear ‘In Conversation’ in the evening. Greg’s sister, Clare – one of our first female Sixth Formers – recently died of breast and bone cancer, with Greg leading her care and he spoke about the blog they kept together, now a book, Not That Kind of Love.
As the political rollercoaster continued to buck and weave, Rosa Prince, biographer of both Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May was here in the middle of party conference season to give us some welcome context.
Our first Sixth Form Lecture was from the explorer Tim Emmett, whilst for our second we were honoured to welcome back holocaust survivor Iby Knill who spoke movingly of her and her family’s experience and her survival of Auschwitz. Five very different speakers placed their perspectives in front of Sixth Formers in the first half of the Easter Term. The Rt Rev James Jones, former Bishop of Liverpool, spoke about his work not just as a Bishop, but in the public sphere, particularly in chairing the Hillsborough Independent Panel, and the interplay between the church, politics and society. Imperial College’s Professor Emeritus Nick Bosanquet explored the changing fortunes of the generations and the prospects for St Peter’s millennials as they prepared to enter the workforce. Anthony Robinson is an OP with a long and distinguished career in international relations, who returned to update us on geopolitics in Eastern Europe and in particular, the forthcoming presidential election in the Ukraine at which he was to be an election observer. Once again, a new generation of Sixth Formers enjoyed Mike Hurst’s lecture The Music Makers, accompanied with his guitar, whilst Patrick Foster visited for the first time to talk about the dangers of a gambling addiction, drawing on a dark period in his own life.
The busiest period was in March when we organised seven events as part of the York Literature Festival. We welcomed novelists Joanna Trollope and Kate Mosse, historians Kate Williams and Tessa Dunlop, poet Liz Lochhead and her saxophone accompanist Steve Kettley and former Home Secretary & memoir writer Alan Johnson. Chris Mullin closed our part of the Festival with his talk Great Political Disasters – appropriately enough on the night before we had originally been due to Brexit, 29 March.
In June we enjoyed two events as part of the York Festival of Ideas, with Gavin Esler leading a panel as part of the How To Do Good book tour addressing humanitarian crises and our part in responding to them and a hugely entertaining evening with Maths enthusiast and puzzle writer Alex Bellos.
The Summer Term also saw the return of Carol Drinkwater - from the Olive Farm in the south of France, which has been the subject of several of her books - to Yorkshire, where she first made her name in the TV adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small to talk about her latest novel The House on the Edge of the Cliff.
Once again, the programme would not have been possible without a huge amount of help from:
All those in Estates ably led by Steve Howarth and Darren Adamson Catering, particularly from Keith Stimpson and Jason Farrell IT, where Barry Nacey is often trouble shooting for me Housekeeping, with Di ever helpful Marketing, where Peter Livesey and Katherine Pomfret are enthusiastic and invaluable.
Our wonderful monitors, as well as Judith Kirk and Ali Fuller have run front of house in a very welcoming and efficient way each evening. Sara Burns continues to do a wonderful job looking after our guests and providing sound and lighting to make them look and sound their best. We look forward to another great programme next year.
Mr Ben Fuller Head of the Public Lecture Programme
