Chalke Valley History Festival – 26th June – 2nd July
The festival which aims to “excite, enthrall and entertain about the past” is back and featuring some fantastic speakers.
CHRIS PATTEN – FIRST CONFESSION
26 June starting at 18:30 in Hiscox Tent
Lord Patten, one of the most distinguished Tory ‘Wets’ of the 1980s and 1990s, will talk about his time in office in the Conservative Party, as the last Governor of Hong Kong, European Commissioner, Chairman of the BBC and now Chancellor of Oxford University. From Northern Ireland to Asia, he will show us unexpected sides of many of the great figures of the day.
HELEN RAPPAPORT – CAUGHT IN THE REVOLUTION: PETROGRAD 1917
28 June starting at 17:00 in Baillie Gifford Tent
Helen Rappaport will look at the Russian Revolution from an entirely new perspective, that of a wide range of foreign nationals living in Petrograd in 1917 who witnessed history being made on the streets. Through their eyes we see Russian history in the making, revealing the unravelling of the revolution over the course of one single year in the heart of the war-torn capital.
PADDY ASHDOWN – GAME OF SPIES: THE SECRET AGENT, THE TRAITOR AND THE NAZI
29 June starting at 18:30 in Hiscox Tent
Paddy Ashdown will talk about the lethal spy triangle between 1942 and 1944 in Bordeaux and of France’s greatest betrayal by aristocratic and right-wing Resistance leader André Grandclément. It is a story of SOE, treachery, bed-hopping and executions in the city labelled ‘la plus collaboratrice’ in the whole of France.
ANNIE GRAY – THE GREEDY QUEEN: EATING WITH VICTORIA
1 July starting at 10:00 in Baillie Gifford Tent
Come and sit down at the royal table and open the kitchen door to hear about what Victoria ate, and how she changed English food forever. Based on intriguing original research, historian Annie Gray will show the Queen’s absolute reliance on food as well as delving below stairs for a proper look at the cooks who played such an important role.