


PAST MONTHLY MEETINGS
On this page you can see details of
previous monthly meetings. Recent reports about the main
speakers are on the next section. For previous years
please scroll to the lower part of the page. This also
shows how to find out details about past second subjects
presented at the monthly meetings.
Recently
130: Graham Bennett: Our Wonderful West End Theatreland.
We were
delighted to welcome Graham on his second visit to
one of our Monthly Meetings. Last time he spoke
about Diaghilev and this time about the history of
the West End theatres. There are 40 of them in
this small area and there used to be even more. We
learned about the first theatres in Elizabethan
times and Shakespeare's players, who became the
famous King's Men — and their battles with the
Puritans, which led to theatres closing for 18
years. After the Restoration performances
recommenced, carrying on until censorship was
introduced in 1737, lasting 230 years. The Music
Hall's popularity triggered the building of many
theatres in Victorian times including Shaftesbury
Avenue, which did not exist previously. The cull
of these buildings which took place in the 60s and
70s robbed us of many beautiful theatres; luckily
the campaign to save Ally Pally Theatre succeeded.
Graham's Talk was most interesting and
entertaining and was enhanced by his slides.
129: Professor Sarah Wil
son: Art
History: The Beautiful Game. Professor Wilson accompanied her
fascinating talk with many slides of work by
contemporary artists including Picasso, Fougeron
and others. She showed how art can claim to be the
richest academic discipline, crossing over
literature, philosophy and politics, and argued
that art is increasingly political rather than
aesthetic. Her presentation was well received by
the audience.
We have recorded this meeting and you can find the links here: 129-1 and 129-2.
128: Bob Gilbert: The Missing Musk. Bob
made a
welcome return and we were entertained by his
accounts of travelling extensively in his search
for answers to unsolved botanical mysteries. He
made a special study of lichen, which is now known
to comprise many different organisms and of which
there are 50,000 species. It is found worldwide in
every terrain and in many colours. We learned
about mutualism, which enables different species
to live together. Bob brought some copies of his
book The
Missing Musk,
all of which were eagerly snapped up by members.
We appreciated a very engaging and interesting
presentation. You can see the recording(s) of
this meeting on our YouTube channel here: 128-1
and 128-2.
127: May 2023: Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell: The Disc
overy of Pulsars: A Graduate
Student's Story: We were privileged to listen to
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell's presentation about the
discovery of pulsars. The story of her
identification of these extraordinary bodies, and
the reaction of the scientific community and the
establishment, is well known but it was
enlightening to hear from her first hand about how
someone else was honoured for the discovery. It
was salutary to hear how women were regarded in
professional life during those days! Also she gave
us, scientists or non-scientists, some amazing
facts about pulsars which were presented in a way
we could all make sense of. We have recorded this meeting and
you can find the links here: 127-1
and 127-2.
126: April 2023: Fiona Chest
erton: Secrets Never to be Told,
Unravelling a Century and a Half of Family
Secrets. Fiona Chesterton used to be an
Islington resident but was welcomed back from
Cambridge to tell us the gripping story of how an
unexpected inheritance triggered an investigation
into her own family history and that of previously
unknown relatives in Canada. Her research involved
several trips to Canada and she discovered how
illegitimacy blighted the life of her distant
English-born cousin Jessie Heading and the writer
herself. Jessie's grandfather was Fiona's great
great grandfather. Jessie had emigrated to Canada
under the auspices of the Girls Friendly Society
to be a domestic servant — one of thousands deemed
‘surplus" women. Jessie had a short-lived marriage
and brought up a little boy (of unknown paternity)
alone. He, William Underwood, eventually died
intestate. After 17 years of official inquiry, his
estate was shared between ten distant cousins,
Fiona being one. This talk was warmly received and
many members bought copies of Fiona’s book Secrets
Never to be Told. We have recorded this
meeting and you can find the links here: 126-1
and 126-2.
Or just the slides can be viewed here: 126-Secrets
125: March 2023: Margaret Hodge: Dirty Mone
y.
Dame
Margaret has spent the last couple of years
exploring "Dirty Money". Incredibly, £350 billion is
lost to our economy annually, of which £200 billion
is due to fraud. Huge sums of money were stolen by
fraudsters under the furlough and bounceback schemes
during the pandemic. Britain has become the "go to"
country for Russian and other questionably-acquired
money from around the world and we are no longer the
most trusted jurisdiction in Europe. Deregulation
failed to replace lost industries and use of tax
havens has grown. The "kleptocrats" make huge
donations to the Conservative Party and use their
ill-gotten gains to buy property and companies in
the UK. Dame Margaret campaigns for regulation of
the system to register companies — there are 4000
children under 2 on Companies House registers! So we
need smart regulation, tough enforcement,
transparency and accountability and there is support
for these changes across all political parties.
124: February 2023: Christopher M
cK
ane: The
Birth of The Times. Our room at the Resource
Centre on Thursday was turned into a London Coffee
House for an hour when Christopher gave us all a
facsimile of the first edition of the Times and we
were invited to peruse it and join in the discussion
about the contents. The first issue of what became The
Times was published on 1st January 1785. It was
called the Daily Universal Register and was
published by John Walter I. We learned about some of
the early printing methods and how the newspaper was
distributed — in a time when less than half the
population was literate. Christopher had a
distinguished career on the Oxford Times, the
Birmingham Post, the Times (two stints) and the
Independent, of which he was a founder staff member.
It was an entertaining and enlightening presentation
and there is more to be learned from Christopher's
book, which is readily available: The Thunderer:
the Life and Times of John Walter II. Christopher's
photos can be seen here.
123: January
2023: Rosemary Brown: Following Nellie Bly, her record
breaking race around the world. Our January
speaker didn’t just do theoretical research when writing
her book but retraced Bly’s footsteps herself. In 1890,
Bly circumnavigated the world faster than anyone ever
had — alone and carrying only a Gladstone bag. Having
been given only two days to get ready for the trip, she
covered 21,740 miles by ocean liner and train in 72 days
— beating the fictional record of Phileas Fogg in Around
the World in 80 Days. 125 years later, Rosemary set off
to retrace Bly’s footsteps on an expedition registered
with the Royal Geographical Society.
This talk brought the book and Bly’s remarkable achievements alive. Her undercover reporting, advocacy for women’s rights, and crusades for vulnerable children undoubtedly helped make the Victorian world a better place. You can see Rosemary's slides here.
122: November 2022: Professor Lloyd
Peck: How have animals
survived in
Antarctica for 20 million years? We were delighted to welcome Professor Peck and a few of his animal friends on a second visit to Islington U3A after eight years. He is a polar marine biologist known principally for his research into the biological adaptation of animals in extreme cold. He told us about his 20 visits to Antarctica over the last 30 years and his many underwater dives. He identified oxygen as a factor in polar gigantism, and problems with protein synthesis as the cause of slow development and growth in polar marine species. The presentation included some salutary statistics about global warming and the effects of sea level rises but the audience enjoyed his engaging presentation enhanced by some wonderful slides. You can view the PowerPoint material here.
121 - No meeting, cancelled.
120: October 2022: Dame Frances C
airncross: The
trouble with News. Dame Frances started her
presentation by reminding us about the unprecedented
changes which have taken place in the way news has been
distributed since the invention of the internet.
Smartphones have only been around for 14 years and they
have changed everything. Young people receive most of
their news by social media and do not regularly watch
the news on the BBC or other platforms. Frances made a
case for the importance of the "red tops" who present
nuggets of important news in bite-size accessible bits.
The tabloids and local papers are struggling with
falling readerships and we need to find innovative ways
of supporting them by inventive selective subscriptions.
The British press has the advantage of using the medium
of English, the most widely spoken language in the
world, and some invaluable brands such as the Royal
Family. Some news includes a "public good" such as
promoting clean air, and there is therefore a case to be
made for government subsidies and for us to pay
something too.
119. October 2022: Elizabeth Crawford, OBE, g
ave us a
fascinating presentation about the Suffragettes with
special reference to local Islington women who were
involved. It was salutary to hear that the campaign took
62 years to achieve its goal. In the 19th century it was
taken for granted that voters were male and it took the
combined efforts of several women's rights groups over
many years to bring about change. With a combination of
writing pamphlets, lobbying, travelling widely for
public meetings and later resorting to direct action,
public opinion was slowly and painfully changed. Many
women were imprisoned and subjected to violent force
feeding which left some with permanent injuries. We owe
them so much. Over 50 members joined the zoom
presentation and it will be available on our website
after today. For further information see Elizabeth's
website: womanandhersphere.com.
Archive
Recently
130: Graham Bennett: Our Wonderful West End Theatreland.

129: Professor Sarah Wil

We have recorded this meeting and you can find the links here: 129-1 and 129-2.
128: Bob Gilbert: The Missing Musk. Bob

127: May 2023: Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell: The Disc

126: April 2023: Fiona Chest

125: March 2023: Margaret Hodge: Dirty Mone


124: February 2023: Christopher M



This talk brought the book and Bly’s remarkable achievements alive. Her undercover reporting, advocacy for women’s rights, and crusades for vulnerable children undoubtedly helped make the Victorian world a better place. You can see Rosemary's slides here.
122: November 2022: Professor Lloyd

Antarctica for 20 million years? We were delighted to welcome Professor Peck and a few of his animal friends on a second visit to Islington U3A after eight years. He is a polar marine biologist known principally for his research into the biological adaptation of animals in extreme cold. He told us about his 20 visits to Antarctica over the last 30 years and his many underwater dives. He identified oxygen as a factor in polar gigantism, and problems with protein synthesis as the cause of slow development and growth in polar marine species. The presentation included some salutary statistics about global warming and the effects of sea level rises but the audience enjoyed his engaging presentation enhanced by some wonderful slides. You can view the PowerPoint material here.
121 - No meeting, cancelled.
120: October 2022: Dame Frances C

119. October 2022: Elizabeth Crawford, OBE, g

Archive
For summary notes of previous speakers see the records as below —
For 2021-22, click here
For 2020-21, click here
For 2019-20, click here.
For 2018-19, click here.
For 2017-18, click here.
For 2016-17, click here.
For 2015-16, click here.
For 2014-15, click here.
For 2013-14, click here.
For 2016-17, click here.
For 2015-16, click here.
For 2014-15, click here.
For 2013-14, click here.
To view some of the older presentations
(2013-2020) determine the presentation number from the
register above, then click on the relevant link number
below (the figures in brackets mean there is no recording
for that meeting):
16 18 19 26 30 31 35 37 38 42 44 46 47 48 49 50 51 53 54 55 56 (57) 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 (70) 71 72 (73) 74.1 74.2 75.1 75.2 76 (77) 78
Regarding No. 65: Copyright acknowledgement to Pathe News.
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