Oliver Everett is Librarian Emeritus of the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. He was Librarian and Assistant Keeper of the Royal Archives from 1985 to 2002.

Mr. Everett's experience of working with the British Royal Collection and with the Royal Family enables him to lecture with great insight and from personal involvement. His talk will be illustrated with many beautifully coloured slides of the finest items in the Royal Collection.

Oliver was in the British Diplomatic Service, 1967-81. He was Assistant Private Secretary to Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, 1978-80; and Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales, 1981-83.

Mrs Corrigan was in the army for 20 years and then turned to a life-long interest in history with the result that in 2004 she graduated from the University of Kent with a 1st class honours degree in Anglo-Saxon and Medieval History.

We will hear today about the Black Death, and how it affected the survivors.

Dr Kate Williams appears regularly on radio and television, most recently as a panellist on Newsnight Review and discussing history on Woman's Hour and More4 News.

Kate's one hour BBC Timewatch special, 'Young Victoria' about the passionate youth of Queen Victoria was based on Becoming Queen. Filmed in various locations around Britain and Germany, it was shown on 18 October 2008 and repeated on 18 April 2009. Acclaimed by the Guardian as 'telly history at its best', by the Times as 'excellent' and by the Radio Times as 'superb', it received 2.2 million viewers and has been shown around the world.

Today, Dr Williams will talk to us about Queen Victoria and her struggle to the throne, and about her cousin, Princess Charlotte, known as the “Queen Who Never Was”

Since 1975 Mr Karczewski-Slowikowski has lectured on antique furniture in the UK, in many European countries and in Australia. He also has practical experience of restoring furniture and of the various techniques used in its construction and decoration.

Today’s lecture will examine neo-classical furniture in the context of the Grand Houses and rooms for which it was intended. Adam’s style was interpreted and adapted by celebrated cabinet makers, who produced furniture that made “charming harmony” with his interiors.

Charles Beauclerk is a first class honours graduate of Oxford University and lectures and writes on 16th and 17th century history. He founded the De Vere Society in 1986 to foster debate and research on the Shakespeare authorship question, and was president of the American-based Shakespeare Oxford Society from 1995-97.

Today Mr Beauclerk will put to the meeting the intriguing question “Who Wrote Shakespeare?”

Mrs Rosalind Whyte is an art historian and accredited NADFAS lecturer who has guided and lectured for a number of years at Tate Britain and Tate Modern. A graduate of Goldsmiths and Birkbeck, Rosalind also leads tours at the Royal Academy.

Today she will be telling us about John Constable’s life and paintings.

AGM at 1.30pm followed at 2.00pm
by the this lecture.

Ms Halford is President of Bristol Decorative and Fine Arts Society, and is a researcher/scriptwriter/director at the BBC. She has made a special study of Women Artists, and has also researched Faberge in Russia and America.

Today’s lecture will look at sculpture and paintings from 2650BC to the present day to discover how artists through the ages have depicted love, sometimes accompanied by an appropriate poem or an odd ode!

Historically many towns have developed around a market place, the civic and commercial centre of a community. This area was not only for trade, but the location for public announcements, the celebration of important events, the commemoration of heroes and the punishment of those who broke the law.

This lecture is the result of four years research for a book on the subject, and we look forward to a most interesting talk.