Gibson Library All events are held in Saffron Walden Library except where stated. There is no charge for admission and non-members are welcome. The Library has disabled access.
Wednesday 30 April 2025 at 7:30 pm in person in Saffon Walden Library
Brightening from the East. The nonconformist landscapes of 20th century Essex, by Author Ken Worpole
In his new book, Brightening from the East, writer and social historian Ken Worpole explores a unique 'region of the mind' - the Thames Estuary, the marshland landscapes of the East Anglian shoreline, and the Quaker and Anglican strongholds of the Essex interior - where Essex has been fertile soil for a rich variety of radical and religious settlements, 'the Thaxted experiment' being the most well-known. In his talk the author will focus on the powerful mix of East End political radicalism, the English Folk Revival, and the Christian 'leavening' of rural Essex, which all combined to produce some of the most remarkable episodes in the history of social reform in 20th century, a number of which will be discussed in greater detail.
Ken is the author of several books, most recently No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen: back to the land in wartime Britain (2021), New Jerusalem: the good city and the good society (2015) and Contemporary Library Architecture: a planning and design guide (2013).
Wednesday 14 May 2024, in Saffron Walden Library, in person, at 7:30pm
Gibson Library Society's AGM
Details of the AGM will be held on the Society's 2025 AGM webpage shortly.
Non-members are welcome to attend the following talk, but may not take part in the business of the AGM.
The AGM will be followed by a talk on by Oscar Aldred on Sir Cyril Fox and the Archaeology of the Cambridge region.
Sir Cyril Fox PhD FSA FBA MRIA (1882-1967) was an archaeologist and director of the National Museum of Wales, who went up to Magdalene College, University of Cambridge to read - as of then - Section B of the English Tripos in 1919. Extraordinarily, Professor HM Chadwick, his college tutor, transferred Fox to read for a PhD after his first year. After completing his PhD in 1922, Fox subsequently published it with few amendments in 1923 with Cambridge University Press. This is not remarkable in itself, but it is rather that the topic of study which was highly regarded: the title of his dissertation and publication was 'The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region' (ACR). In ACR, Fox outlined the basis for a landscape approach to archaeology, that has formed the foundation for landscape archaeology. In this talk, drawing on examples of Fox's archaeological work from the Cambridge region and beyond, I will examine what made Fox's study significant, and how it transformed our thinking about the past.
Oscar Aldred PhD FSA works for the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, within the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, and is a Member of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and the Centre for Landscape Regeneration, also at Cambridge. His main research interests are in landscape archaeology, excavation, the history of archaeology, and archaeological method and theory. He specialises in later prehistory to post-medieval times, and the archaeology of the North Atlantic and the UK. He is widely published, including the book 'The Archaeology of Movement' (Routledge 2021) and an article in 2023 about the 100 year anniversary of Fox's ACR in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society (PCAS).
Details for further meetings in 2025 will be available shortly.
When meetings are announced as being "via Zoom", GLS Members will be sent a Zoom invitation via the GLS email gibsonlibrary1832@gmail.com ; Members can also contact Peter Walker via the Library if they do not have email.
Friday 14th March, at 7:30pm in Saffron Walden Library
POETRY 2
The Gibson Library Society held a second evening of poetry readings: "from Matthew Arnold to Benjamin Zephaniah", hosted by local poet Hannah Walker.
People were invited to bring their favourite poems to read, or poems they have written themselves, or just come and listen. Modern poetry or old favourites, high-brow or humorous - all are welcome at our poetry evening.
Wednesday, 19 February, 2025 at 8:00pm in Saffron Walden Library
Agent Zo, courageous Second World War resistance hero - An illustrated talk by Clare Mulley
AGENT ZO tells the remarkable story of courageous resistance fighter Elzbieta Zawacka, aka 'Zo', the only female member of the Polish elite special forces, the 'Silent Unseen', and the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi-German occupied Poland during the Second World War. There, while being hunted by the Gestapo, who arrested her entire family, she established an important intelligence network, couriered microfilm across wartime borders, and played a key role in the largest organised act of defiance against Nazi German occupation - the Warsaw Uprising.
Clare Mulley is an award-winning author focused on female experience during the Second World War. Her books include Agent Zo, as well as The Women who flew for Hitler, The Spy who loved and The woman who saved the children.
Wednesday 29 January in Saffron Walden Library at 8:00pm,
'Unruly Virtuoso: Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) Defies His Editors', an illustrated talk by Professor Claire Preston.
Keeping up with Dr Thomas Browne of Norwich, one of the great polymaths of the seventeenth century, is an impossible task. His broad intellectual range, his vast reading, his inventive thinking, and his quirky, gorgeous prose have resisted the best efforts of scholars and editors to contain and explain him. This talk explored Browne himself - his life and influential works - and the Oxford edition currently in progress that tries to capture a mind at once characteristic of his hectic and fascinating times and unique among its greatest writers.
Claire Preston is Professor Emerita of Renaissance Literature at Queen Mary University of London (2013-2020) following twenty-one years at Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College). She has published widely on various aspects of early-modern literary-scientific interaction. Her most recent book is The Poetics of Scientific Investigation in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 2015); her current project looks at 'big science' from Henry Oldenburg to Robert Oppenheimer. She is General Editor of the Oxford Complete Works of Sir Thomas Browne (8 vols, 2023-27) for which she is editing Urne-Buriall, The Garden of Cyrus, and A Letter to a Friend.
Thursday 9 January at 7:30pm , in Saffron Walden Library, in person,
A Short History of Twelfth Night a talk by Perry Staker.
Mention Twelfth Night and most people will either think of Shakespeare's play or remind you that Christmas decorations must be taken down on or before that day or you're bound to have bad luck for the coming year. However, Twelfth Night was very much celebrated in the past and with special customs and special foods. It is also a Christian festival on the last night of the Twelve Days of Christmas, marking the coming of the Epiphany which is also known as Three Kings' Day; a day celebrating how the Magi - also known as the Three kings or the Wise Men - came to visit the baby Jesus after he had been born. This talk will look at the customs, ceremonies and food eaten at this time as people celebrated Twelfth Night in the past.
Perry Staker Interested in history from an early age Perry developed an interest in seventeenth century food and recipes during the 33 years she has spent as a member of the English Civil War Society. In recent years she has widened her research to include the food and recipes of other periods of history as well as the social history of Britain. In 2018 she was invited to take on the role of the Victorian Cook in the BBC2 series 'The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts' shown in January 2019 triggering her developing interest in the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Wednesday 20th November, in Saffron Walden Library, in person, at 8:00pm,
The British Country House Revival author Ben Cowell talked about his new book.
The book traces the history of the Historic Houses organisation from its foundation in 1973, and the significant revival in fortunes that historic house properties have experienced in the half-century since the V&A's landmark exhibition in 1974: "The Destruction of the Country House".
Ben, who lives in Newport, Essex, is Director General of Historic Houses, the association that represents independently owned historic houses, parks and gardens across the UK. In his career in heritage, Ben has also worked for the National Trust, English Heritage, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. He has published several other books including The Heritage Obsession (2008) and Uvedale Price (2012, co-authored with Charles Watkins).
Thursday 3rd October, 7.30-9pm. Venue: Saffron Walden Library, Ground Floor Fiction area.
An Evening of Poetry Readings: From Matthew Arnold to Benjamin Zephaniah,
A Gibson Library Society Event for National Poetry Day.
Join us for an informal evening of poetry readings to celebrate National Poetry Day! Hosted by local poet Hannah Walker.
What are your favourite poems? Come and read them aloud and talk about what they mean to you.
Do you write poetry? If so, come along to share and talk about them at our poetry evening.
Or do you just want to listen? Then please come along too.
Modern poetry or old favourites, high-brow or humorous - all are welcome at our poetry evening*.
An exciting opportunity to share and discuss a range of poetry from the Gibson Library alongside more recent poets, from Matthew Arnold to Benjamin Zephaniah!
*NB: poem length, no longer than three minutes. Long poems, extracts only.
Trip to The Cromwell Museum at Huntingdon, Thursday 19th September 2024
Details for the trip are on this form, which should printed off and returned to the Library.
Thursday 27 June 2024, in Saffron Walden Library, in person, at 8:00pm
Oliver Cromwell and the crisis of the English Revolution 1647-9, a talk by Professor John Morrill
For more than a month in 1647, the headquarters of the New Model Army was at Saffron Walden and this month was crucial to the radicalisation of the army. Debates amongst the officers and representatives of the rank and file, mainly held in St Mary's Church, set the Army on a course that was to lead six months later to the famous debates on manhood suffrage and the future of the monarchy in Putney Church, and eventually to the trial, conviction and execution of Charles. In his lecture, Professor John Morrill plotted the course of this extraordinary series of events.
John Morrill is Emeritus Professor of British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Selwyn College. The most recent of his (thirty) books is a three-volume edition of all the recorded words of Oliver Cromwell (including his words at the Saffron Walden Debates) and a volume covering 1641-1746 in the Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism. He is also the author of a new biography of Oliver Cromwell to be published in January 2025.
Wednesday 15 May 2024, in Saffron Walden Library, in person, at 7:30pm
Gibson Library Society's AGM
The AGM had been originally planned for 7 May, but had to be deferred as the work on the Saffron Walden Library's RAAC was over-running.
Details of the AGM are held on the Society's 2024 AGM webpage.
The AGM was followed by a talk on the ghost stories of M R James.
All members attending were asked to join us in a drinks reception after the conclusion of the AGM business.
