Talks

18th July 2025

6pm

The Octagon Chapel

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham rose from obscurity to become first minister to two kings. Described as 'the handsomest man in Europe' he was King James I's beloved right-hand man and bedfellow. Under King Charles I his power became even greater. He stood at the centre of a political conflict of profound significance - one that would soon erupt into civil war. On the one hand the kings insisting on their royal prerogative: on the other the Commons defending the people's rights and liberties. Buckingham seemed to his contemporaries to be as brilliant and ominous as a meteor and - like a meteor - he fell, assassinated at the age of 36. 

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is a biographer, cultural historian and novelist. Her most recent book is The Scapegoat: the Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham which has been described as 'fabulous' (The Guardian), 'dazzling' (Wall Street Journal) and 'stunningly good' (The Sunday Times) .  Her previous books include The Pike: Gabriele d'Annunzio, which won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography of the Year Award.  

18th July 2025

7:30pm

The Octagon Chapel

The events that caused thousands of Flemish and Walloon Strangers to come to Norwich in the second half of the sixteenth century are some of the most important in the history of the Low Countries. In the first half of this talk, Professor Chris Joby discusses these events and their consequences for Norwich. He then tells the stories of some of the Strangers. Whilst many came to settle and find work, typically as textile workers, others soon returned to the Low Countries to resist the Habsburg authorities. Their actions would contribute to the Dutch Revolt and the birth of a nation: the Dutch Republic. 

Professor Christopher Joby PhD, hab., FRHistS, is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia. He has published many academic articles and six monographs including John Cruso of Norwich (D.S. Brewer, 2022). He is currently writing a book on East Anglia and the Dutch Revolt. 

19th July 2025

2pm

The Octagon Chapel

In 1973, Derek Jarman set off from London to film the stones of Avebury. He was following in the footsteps of Paul Nash, who had photographed the ancient megaliths a generation before. Standing in that muddy field, by those stones, both artists had felt a direct connection to their hero – a man who had died a long, long time ago, yet who remained electrically alive to them.

In this alluring and poetic odyssey, Philip Hoare traces the enduring legacy of William Blake and how he came to inspire so many creative lives. Reaching out of his past and into our future, Blake draws together the natural world and metaphysical realms, merging the human and the animal and the spiritual, firing up 20th century artists, filmmakers, poets, writers and musicians with his radical promise of absolute freedom. This stirring, deeply-felt book brings us back to Blake and shows that art still has the power to create positive change.

Philip Hoare is the author of ten works of non-fiction. His Leviathan won the Ballie

Gifford Prize, and the New York Times praised his last book, Albert & the Whale, as the result of ‘the forceful weather system that is Hoare’s imagination’. He lives in Southampton and swims every day in the sea.

19th July 2025

3:30pm

The Octagon Chapel

Witty and engaging TikTok historian Jenny Draper digs out unusual stories of individuals that have shaped the world, and discovers the lessons their unique experiences can teach us. Breaking away from history as told through the lens of kings, queens and nobles, this book instead lifts the lid on 24 fascinating stories of little-known underdogs, mavericks, trailblazers and oddballs. Through these stories you will meet characters such as The Chevalier d’Eon – a fencing master, spy and diplomat who came out as a woman in 18th-century London; Ellen and William Craft – a married couple who made a daring escape from slavery in the American South; and Peter the Wild Boy – a child found living in the woods in Germany who was taken to the royal court in England. These poignant and often hilarious true stories show us that the world as we know it was built by a wider array of historical figures than we experienced in our schoolbooks.

19th July 2025

6:30pm

UEA Lecture Theatre 1

Tariq Ali has been a leading figure of the international left since the 60s. He has been writing for the Guardian since the 70s. He is a long-standing editor of the New Left Review and a political commentator published on every continent. His books include The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power, and The Obama Syndrome. You Can't Please All is his 2nd volume of memoirs after the first volume Street Fighting Years. The latest memoir chronicles the fallout from the revolutionary upsurges of the 60s and 70s and his ongoing role as a left wing activist as well as being a personal portrait of his family background and the lives of friends and comrades.

At this event he will be interviewed by Alan Finlayson - Professor of Politics and Social Theory at UEA.

This event is in partnership with the UEA. 

All tickets £8 - Ages 14+

21st July 2025

6pm

Dragon Hall, Norwich

Dr Eleanor Janega is a medieval historian, specializing in sexuality, urbanity, and empire, in the late medieval and early modern periods. Her work aims to highlight the ways that our society has been influenced by the past, and more particularly, how it tells stories about history that aren’t actually true to justify our own desires. She is the co-host of hit podcast Gone Medieval and a presenter of TV Channel History Hit.

In this talk Eleanor will look at Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe with a view to analysing what conditions were generally for women in the Middle Ages.

21st July 2025

7:30pm

Dragon Hall

This event will be a discussion about the process of historical fiction as to how much research different authors go into and how much is left to the imagination.

Elizabeth Fremantle is an historical novelist who won the HWA Golden Crown award in 2024 for her novel Disobedient. Her novel Firebrand about Henry VIII's sixth wife Catherine Parr has been made into an upcoming TV Series. Her latest book 'Sinners' is a murder story set in 16th Century Rome.

Elizabeth Fremantle will be in discussion with Naomi Wood, a historical novelist (Mrs Hemingway and The Hiding Game) and writer of contemporary fiction (This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things). She is also an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at UEA, and lives in Norwich.

22nd July 2025

1pm

Guildhall, Norwich

The Boleyns of Blickling: From plough to crown in 100 years chronicles the rise of the Boleyn family, from humble farming roots in Salle, Norfolk, to wealth, nobility and crucially, influence, with perhaps their most famous member, the ill-fated second wife of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, who was born at Blickling. 

 Charles J Weigand (Chuck) was born on the 11th June 1945 in Brooklyn, New York.  Chuck retired in 2002, this time in England, eventually ending up in Norfolk where he started working as a Blickling Hall Room Guide and researcher: “I have been volunteering at Blickling for eight years and love it. History, specifically Tudor, has been my passion and hobby for most of my life.”
 

22nd July 2025

6pm

Dragon Hall 

Sir Richard J. Evans is one of the world’s leading historians of Nazi Germany. Formerly Professor of European History at UEA, he is Regius Professor Emeritus of History at Cambridge University. He is the author of the seminal book 'In Defence of History', published in 1997. He has been a prominent Historian in British life for over 30 years. In this event, he will look back upon his career as a Historian.

His recently published book ‘Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich’ asks why so many Germans took part in the crimes of Nazi Germany. 

(Photo credit: Bill Knight)

22nd July 2025

7:30pm

Dragon Hall

Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron, Keats – the Romantic poets are titans of English literature, taught and celebrated around the world. Their work is associated with sublime passions, violent stormscapes and a questing search for the inner self. It is rarely associated with the racial politics of the transatlantic slave economy.

But these literary icons lived through a period when individual and collective resistance by Black people in Britain and her overseas colonies was making it increasingly difficult – and increasingly costly – to ignore their demands for freedom. A time when popular support for the abolition movement exploded across the country – and was met by a vehement, reactionary campaign from the establishment. A time when white supremacist ideologies were fomented to justify the abuse and exploitation of non-white 'races'. This cultural context is not immediately obvious in the canon of Romantic poetry. But that doesn’t mean it’s not there. The Trembling Hand turns an urgent critical gaze onto six major Romantic authors, examining how their lives and works were entangled with the racist realities of their era. Mathelinda Nabugodi pores over carefully preserved manuscripts, travels to the houses where these writers lived and died, examines the personal objects which survived them: a teacup, a baby rattle, a lock of hair. Amid this archive, she searches for traces of Black figures whose lives crossed paths with the great Romantics. And she grapples with the opposing forces of reverence and horror as her fascination with literary relics collides with feelings of sorrow and rage.

Dr Mathelinda Nabugodi is a Lecturer in Comparative Literature at University College London. Previously she was a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow in the Faculty of English at the University of Cambridge, where she researched the literary archive of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and a Research Associate in the Literary and Artistic Archive at the Fitzwilliam Museum. She completed her doctorate at UCL, where she was the first person ever to be awarded a PhD in Creative Critical Writing by the university, for her thesis on Shelley and Walter Benjamin.

23rd July 2025

7:30pm

The Octagon Chapel

The Abolition Campaign to end slavery in the British Empire is said to have been the world's first successful human rights campaign. Norfolk women including the radical Elizabeth Fry, Amelia Opie and Harriet Martineau played a vital role in the campaign although they themselves lacked even the right to vote. The determined women campaigners   employed and developed strategies despite much opposition even from Wilberforce himself.  They then used these strategies in the suffrage campaign which was to follow - another great human rights struggle The first petition to Parliament asking for votes for women was presented to the House of Commons on  3 August 1832. The Abolition of Slavery Act was passed on 1 Aug 1833. Alison Dow will bring alive the stories of these women and many others who, for too long, have gone unrecognised .

24th July 2024

1pm

The Octagon Chapel 

This talk will investigate Norfolk’s most significant battles and their battlefields, with a particular focus on Robert Kett and fighting in Norwich and at Dussingdale, 1549. This will also be placed within the wider context of other Norfolk rebels’ battlefields and broader battlefield research. 

Michael Rayner is chair of the Battlefields Trust’s Battlefield Panel and a member of Historic England’s Expert Advisory Group. He is author of the recently published ‘English Battlefields’ (2025, The History Press), copies of which will be available at this event.

24th July 2025

6pm

The Octagon Chapel

Thomas Paine was born in Thetford in 1737. He was the only significant figure to play an active role in both the American & French Revolutions. A staunch republican & democrat, he was very much a man of the 18th century Enlightenment, and was an influential freethinker and advocate of natural rights. He is, of course, best known for Rights of Man (1791 & 1792), but he was a prolific writer, and it was his surprisingly modern style of writing that made him so important - as well as his message. Narrowly escaping the guillotine in France, he returned to the USA in 1802..... But was no longer welcome. He was regarded as still being the revolutionary, and was distrusted. He died in New York in 1809. 

 Previously Curator of Thetford's Museum, Chad Goodwin has worked as a tutor in adult education for almost 30 years, specialising in courses on radical politics. 

23rd July 2025

2-3:30pm

Norfolk Record Office

Dr Blessin Adams traded police work investigating today’s crime in the Norfolk Constabulary for academia, tracing the lives and deaths of people in early modern England. As a social historian she is fascinated by historical stories of murder and justice, which she writes about in her books Thou Savage Woman and Great and Horrible News.

Join Blessin as she delves into the Norfolk archive to reveal a fascinating seventeenth century manuscript that tells the true and sad story of a Norwich woman accused of murdering her own child. Through this case, and others like it, we’ll discover the early modern’s fascination with, and hatred of, women whose ‘immoral’ characters made them vulnerable to accusations of murder and mayhem.

24th July 2025

3pm

The Octagon Chapel

 Norfolk-born businessman and life-long Nelson fan Nigel Cushion, will be exploring the life of one of Norfolk’s most famous: Horatio Nelson. Nigel will be talking through the journey of Nelson’s life, covering some of the well-known Nelson stories, as well as some lessor known. From modest son of a Norfolk vicar to the most famous person in Europe, saving the nation, and becoming a national hero and celebrity. Suitable for an audience of all ages, for Nelson experts as well as those who are new to Nelson. Nigel will cover Nelson’s adventures, his achievements and challenges, as well as uncovering what makes Nelson so special. Nigel has named his Norwich based leadership mentoring business Nelsonspirit in honour of Nelson’s magic. Nigel speaks on leadership and history all around the world, and he is looking forward to speaking about Nelson in Norwich.

 Speaker:  Adrian O'Dell

Thursday 24th July 2025

7:30pm

The Forum

Norwich Society Members £4 / Non-members £8

Norwich has always welcomed Strangers to its city but some have been more welcome than others. The Normans disrupted Anglo-Scandinavian life, breaking the 200-year link with Denmark and reconnecting with France and Europe.

Dominant new buildings were raised and the layout radically changed but the Normans brought order, recognition and prosperity.

Adrian O'Dell is the son of a Polish Air Force officer and a nurse from Lancashire and was educated at the City of Norwich School. After an international career in the oil industry, he ‘retired’ to Norfolk and has devoted himself to the study of Norfolk and Norwich’s history and heritage. He is a freelance city tour guide and was also a trustee of the Norfolk & Norwich Heritage Trust (Dragon Hall) before it was passed on to the National Centre for Writing. He has completed post-graduate studies in Landscape History at UEA. Adrian is Chair of the Norfolk Polish Heritage Group which researches and archives stories of Polish immigration into Norfolk since World War II and has dual British/Polish nationality.

Tickets can be purchased via The Norwich Society website https://www.thenorwichsociety.org.uk/   

or  direct from Eventbrite (link below)

18th July 2025

10am

 Meet in front of The Forum NR2 1BH 

 Explore Victorian Norwich on this two-hour walking tour with tour guide, Paul Dickson. Celebrate the city's 19th century architecture, industry, shopping and culture. But also consider the dreadful housing conditions of the poorer members of society. Hear about the growth of the shoe industry, Colman's Mustard, Caley's Chocolate and the Norwich Union. Visit Bowhill & Elliott, Albert slipper manufacturers, founded in 1874. The tour starts on the steps of The Forum and finishes at the beautiful art nouveau Royal Arcade. Event contact 07801 103737. 

20th July 2025

11am

 Meet at the Erpingham Gate in Tombland NR3 1HF 

Two-hour walking tour looking at the story of Kett’s Rebellion (1549), with tour guide Paul Dickson. The tour goes through Norwich Cathedral Close to Bishopgate past the Great Hospital, and across the river at Bishop’s Bridge, followed by a climb up to Kett’s Heights to see the remains of St Michael’s Chapel (Kett's HQ), with fabulous view across the city. The return journey follows the north side of the river with views of the medieval Cow Tower and surviving city walls, before crossing the river and passing the Adam and Eve pub and seeing the site of the Battle of Palace Plain (1 August 1549). The tour finishes in Tombland. Event contact 07801 103737.

22nd July 2025

11am

 Meet outside The Forum NR2 1BH

This 2 hour walking tour with tour guide, Paul Dickson, celebrates the diverse contribution of black people to the history of Norwich and Norfolk from street traders in the 18th and 19th centuries to Pablo Fanque, the UK’s first black circus impresario, the American servicemen who brought rhythm and blues and soul music to the city and Lucas the 1960s US airman, who settled in Norfolk, and gave soul to the Orford Cellar. The tour also looks at slavery – those involved in the slave trade and the abolitionists from Norfolk like Thomas Fowell Buxton, Amelia Opie and Harriet Martineau. We also explore the work of 19th century Norfolk boxing hero Jem Mace with black boxers. Event contact 07801 103737.

23rd July 2025

4pm

City Hall steps

This 90-minute theatrical guided walking tour uncovers the untold and underrepresented stories of remarkable women who shaped the city’s history, overcame injustice and strived for change. As with all Norwich Story Walks' productions, this experience aims to entertain as well as educate and inform, making history come alive through storytelling and engagement.

The Norwich Her Story Walk focuses on women who fought against oppression, campaigned for equality, and made lasting impacts in their fields. Through storytelling, historical insights, and dramatic retellings, participants will walk the streets of Norwich while hearing about the lives of extraordinary women such as Elizabeth Fry, Edith Cavell, Amelia Opie, Jenny Lind and Julian of Norwich.

This walk starts at 4pm from City Hall Steps and ends with a complementary mocktail shot at the Edith Cavell in Tombland at 17:30.

 Come gather ye friends around your flickering campfires and listen! To tales of daring, horror and high adventure from the worn pages of history!
 

Laughs and fun for kids aged 6 - 600!
 

Let us take you on a jaunt through the squishy bits of our colourful past and explore the myths and legends of what makes a good rebel... we'll tell you the tales of some historical characters that weren't afraid to challenge the status quo and you get to decide which one is best! ...also, there's sword fights!

Come gather ye friends around your flickering campfires and listen! To tales of daring, horror and high adventure from the worn pages of history!
 

Laughs and fun for kids aged 6 - 600!
 

Let us take you on a jaunt through the squishy bits of our colourful past and explore the myths and legends of what makes a good rebel... we'll tell you the tales of some historical characters that weren't afraid to challenge the status quo and you get to decide which one is best! ...also, there's sword fights!

20th July 2025

11am-1pm

 Workshop room in the American Library (groundfloor of the Forum Library) 

Join Bridget McKenzie, the founder of Climate Museum UK, in a creative writing and zine-making workshop as part of the new Norwich History Festival. We will summon the spirits of some of the radical change-makers of the City in the past, introduce them to the current predicament of the Earth Crisis, and ask for their ideas. Each participant will connect with one local historical activist for liberation, justice and nature. We will do some writing, collage or sketching (as you prefer) and collate them into zines that will inspire their readers with hope for the future.  

21st July 2025

5:45pm

Cinema City, Norwich

Norwich History Festival, in partnership with the Sir John Hurt Film Trust, is delighted to 

present THE ELEPHANT MAN, in tribute to the great radical Director David Lynch. 

Dr. Frederic Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers Joseph (John) Merrick (John

Hurt) in a sideshow. Born with a congenital disorder, Merrick uses his

disfigurement to earn a living as the 'Elephant Man'. Treves brings Merrick

into his home, discovering that his rough exterior hides a refined soul, and

that Merrick can teach the stodgy British upper class of the time a lesson about dignity. Merrick becomes the toast of London and charms a caring actress (Anne Bancroft) before his death at 27.

Tickets are £8.50 or £5.50 for Members.

22nd & 23rd July 2025

10:30am

Cinema City, Norwich

Norwich History Festival Presents ZOG.

A half hour family film based on the much loved picture book written by Julia

Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

In the true spirit of Norwich’s own strong women of history (Harriet

Martineau, and Edith Cavell to name a couple) Princess Pearl shakes off the

shackles of her birth to become a doctor who helps the accident prone dragon

Zog.

Toddler tickets are £5 (£4 if you book online), adults go FREE.