26th August – 26th August 2017 10am Produce original work and refine previous drafts using historical material as a guide. To begin, the class will look at a number of poems written between the English Reformation and the Reform Act. All poems deal, in some way, with the idea of transformation. These will be used …
View course details “Reformation to Reform: A Masterclass with Writer in Residence Penny Boxall”

8th August – 8th August 2017 7.30pm for 8pm Penny Boxall reads a selection of her poetry and discusses the role that museums and libraries have played in providing inspiration, in her own work and that of others. How do we take ownership of the past? Should we? What stories do objects tell? Penny Boxall’s poetry has …
View course details “Poetry and History: An Evening with Writer in Residence Penny Boxall”

29th July – 29th July 2017 10am In this day masterclass Ruth Scurr (John Aubrey: My Own Life) helps aspiring biographers, historians and students of life-writing with what she calls ‘the freest form of historical writing’. Using examples from historical biography, learn how to write compelling life stories. Ruth Scurr is a writer, historian and …
View course details “Writing a Life: A Masterclass on Biographical Writing with Writer in Residence Ruth Scurr”

28th July – 29th July 2017 Katherine Angel looks at the practice of first-person writing and memoir. How can you write well from your own life? What are the strategies and techniques for good first-person writing? What are the risks involved? Katherine Angel is the author of Unmastered: A Book On Desire, Most Difficult To …
View course details “A Masterclass with Katherine Angel”

4th July – 6th July 2017 The Great War was a cultural, theological and, of course, human catastrophe. Such was its impact on British public and private life it has set the tone for rituals of remembrance, war poetry and ideas about ‘cultural memory’ ever since. Using her new book (of the same title) as …
View course details “Fierce Imaginings – The Great War: Symbol, Memory and God”

9th June – 11th June 2017 An exciting new event at Gladstone’s Library in association with the Crime Writers’ Association and The Detection Club… To celebrate the launch of a new Crime Writing Archive here at Gladstone’s Library, we’re delighted to be partnering with the team behind the hugely successful Bodies from the Library events …
View course details “Alibis in the Archive”

  27th May – 27th May 2017 10am What are the challenges in creating a piece of non-fiction based on historical records? How can you write engaging and gripping history, biography, or other life-writing within the constraints of known fact? How can you tell a factual story without it being just ‘one damn thing after …
View course details “Stories or Histories? A Masterclass with Political Writer in Residence Caroline Shenton”

29th April – 29th April 2017 10am They might be thought of as a staple of children’s literature, but animals are as much at home in Chekov and Steinbeck as they are in Beatrix Potter and C.S. Lewis. Explore how animals in fiction can illuminate their human companions. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is a Japanese-British-Chinese-American author …
View course details “Illuminating Companions: A Masterclass with Writer in Residence Rowan Hisayo Buchanan”

4th April – 4th April 2017 7.30pm for 8pm Join Rowan Hisayo Buchanan as she looks to the side of the protagonist, where the sidekick usually stands. Narrators, foils, love interests and more; Rowan will explore the power of sidekicks and how they enhance literary works. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is a Japanese-British-Chinese-American author whose writing …
View course details “The Power of the Sidekick: An Evening with Writer in Residence Rowan Hisayo Buchanan”

31st March – 2nd April 2017 Images – often conflicting – of sin, sex and salvation are a rich seam running through both Christian tradition and the history of art. This course will explore visual art from the Middle Ages to the present day from these thematic perspectives. It will open up art as a …
View course details “Sin, Sex and Salvation: Perspectives on Art and Faith”