Session 1 of 2. We study some great poems about winter through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Jan Parker on Theatre as Protest: Euripides’ Trojan Women. Part of our series Lectures for Peace. All proceeds go to charities working for peace and for refugees. Details on the Lectures for Peace page.

Course repeated by popular demand.

Lecture 5 of 5 on George Orwell: Power, Freedom, Decency. Live online with Lisa Mullen, University of Cambridge.

Lecture 1. Love and money: Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)
Lecture 2. Truth and lies: Homage to Catalonia (1938)
Lecture 3. Home and memory: Coming up for Air (1939)
Lecture 4. Equality and humanity: Animal Farm (1945)
Lecture 5. Freedom and fear: Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Session 2 of 2. We study some great poems about winter through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Session 1 of 2. We study some of the great poetry of American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26. Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 5. Beth Rigel Daugherty, Living and Thinking in the Rooms of Woolf’s Essays.

Session 2 of 2. We study some of the great poetry of American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Lecture 1 of 6 on Literary Gardens with Karina Jakubowicz. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872).

Women Writers Season. Karina Jakubowicz on Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937).

Shakespeare and Euripides: Romance Plays. Course with Fred Parker and Jan Parker.

Lecture 1 of 6. Pericles (selected scenes) and Shakespearean Romance with Fred Parker

The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain hosts an annual lecture in honour of the birthday of Virginia Woolf, born 25 January 1882. Professor Michele Barrett will speak on Virginia Woolf and Feminism: Revisiting an Awkward Conversation.

Further information.

Lecture 2 of 6 on Literary Gardens with Karina Jakubowicz. Elizabeth von Arnim, Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898).

Shakespeare and Euripides: Romance Plays. Course with Fred Parker and Jan Parker.

Lecture 2 of 6. Euripides, Alcestis, with Jan Parker

Shakespeare and Euripides: Romance Plays. Course with Fred Parker and Jan Parker.

Lecture 3 of 6. Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, with Fred Parker

Session 1 of 2. We study some of the great poetry of American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Lecture 3 of 6 on Literary Gardens with Karina Jakubowicz. Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden (1911).

Shakespeare and Euripides: Romance Plays. Course with Fred Parker and Jan Parker.

Lecture 4 of 6. Euripides, Ion, with Jan Parker

Session 2 of 2. We study some of the great poetry of American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Shakespeare and Euripides: Romance Plays. Course with Fred Parker and Jan Parker.

Lecture 5 of 6. Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale with Fred Parker

Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 6. Karina Jakubowicz on Jacob’s Room (1922).

Lecture 4 of 6 on Literary Gardens with Karina Jakubowicz. Katherine Mansfield short stories, including ‘The Garden Party’ (1922) in Mansfield, Collected Stories or online from the KM Society website.

Shakespeare and Euripides: Romance Plays. Course with Fred Parker and Jan Parker.

Lecture 6 of 6. Shakespeare, The Tempest with Fred Parker

Alison Hennegan on the early life and writing of Siegfried Sassoon, who became famous as a soldier-poet who protested against the First World War. Part of our series Lectures for Peace. All proceeds go to charities working for peace and for refugees. Details on the Lectures for Peace page.

Lecture 5 of 6 on Literary Gardens with Karina Jakubowicz. Virginia Woolf, ‘Kew Gardens’ (short story, 1919); further reading ‘A Sketch of the Past’ (essay, in Woolf, Moments of Being).

Lecture 1 of 5 on Iris Murdoch and the Natural World with Miles Leeson. We study five great novels by Murdoch, March - May 2026.

We will study:

The Unicorn 
The Sea, The Sea
Nuns and Soldiers
The Good Apprentice
The Message to the Planet

Lecture 1 of 6. Katherine Mansfield and Love with Claire Davison, Alison Hennegan, Gerri Kimber, Ellie Mitchell, Trudi Tate, and Hollie Wells.

Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 7. Claire Davison on Orlando’s Bedrooms.

Lecture 6 of 6 on Literary Gardens with Karina Jakubowicz. H.D. Sea Garden (1916) and T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922), esp. ‘Burial of the Dead’. You can find The Waste Land in print in Eliot’s Collected Poems, or online at Poetry Foundation. Several HD poems can be found online at Poetry Foundation.

Lecture 2 of 6. Katherine Mansfield and Love with Claire Davison, Alison Hennegan, Gerri Kimber, Ellie Mitchell, Trudi Tate, and Hollie Wells.

Lecture 2 of 5 on Iris Murdoch and the Natural World with Miles Leeson. We study five great novels by Murdoch, March - May 2026.

Set reading:

The Unicorn 
The Sea, The Sea
Nuns and Soldiers
The Good Apprentice
The Message to the Planet

Lecture 3 of 6. Katherine Mansfield and Love with Claire Davison, Alison Hennegan, Gerri Kimber, Ellie Mitchell, Trudi Tate and Hollie Wells.

Lecture 4 of 6. Katherine Mansfield and Love with Claire Davison, Alison Hennegan, Gerri Kimber, Ellie Mitchell, Trudi Tate and Hollie Wells.

Jane Austen’s Families. Lecture 1 of 4. Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Tom Zille, University of Cambridge.

Lecture 1. Dependants: Sense and Sensibility (1811)

Session 1 of 2. We study some of the great poetry of American poet Terrance Hayes (b. 1971) through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

New Yorker Radio programme on Hayes.
Poetry Foundation on Hayes with some of his sonnets.

Lecture 3 of 5 on Iris Murdoch and the Natural World with Miles Leeson. We study five great novels by Murdoch, March - May 2026.

Set reading:

The Unicorn 
The Sea, The Sea
Nuns and Soldiers
The Good Apprentice
The Message to the Planet

Lecture 5 of 6. Katherine Mansfield and Love with Claire Davison, Alison Hennegan, Gerri Kimber, Ellie Mitchell, Trudi Tate, and Hollie Wells.

Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 8. Angela Harris on Rooms in Mrs Dalloway (1925).

Session 2 of 2. We study some of the great poetry of American poet Terrance Hayes (b. 1971) through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

New Yorker Radio programme on Hayes.
Poetry Foundation on Hayes with some of his sonnets.

Lecture 6 of 6. Katherine Mansfield and Love. With Claire Davison, Alison Hennegan, Gerri Kimber, Ellie Mitchell, Trudi Tate, and Hollie Wells.

Jane Austen’s Families. Lecture 2 of 4. Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Tom Zille, University of Cambridge.

Lecture 2. The Family Circle: Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Lecture 4 of 5 on Iris Murdoch and the Natural World with Miles Leeson. We study five great novels by Murdoch, March - May 2026.

Set reading:

The Unicorn 
The Sea, The Sea
Nuns and Soldiers
The Good Apprentice
The Message to the Planet

Lecture 1 of 3, live online. In this year of Christopher Nolan’s new film of the Odyssey, join us with expert Dr Jan Parker to study Homer’s great work of the trials and return of Odysseus.

Jane Austen’s Families. Lecture 3 of 4. Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Tom Zille, University of Cambridge.

Lecture 3. Distant Relations: Mansfield Park (1814)

Lecture 5 of 5 on Iris Murdoch and the Natural World with Miles Leeson. We study five great novels by Murdoch, March - May 2026.

Set reading:

The Unicorn 
The Sea, The Sea
Nuns and Soldiers
The Good Apprentice
The Message to the Planet

Lecture 2 of 3, live online. In this year of Christopher Nolan’s new film of the Odyssey, join us with expert Dr Jan Parker to study Homer’s great work of the trials and return of Odysseus.

Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 9. Trudi Tate on Rooms in The Years (1937).

Lecture 3 of 3, live online. In this year of Christopher Nolan’s new film of the Odyssey, join us with expert Dr Jan Parker to study Homer’s great work of the trials and return of Odysseus.

Toni Morrison. Lecture 1 of 4: The Bluest Eye. Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Alex Calder, University of Cambridge.

Jane Austen’s Families. Lecture 4 of 4. Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Tom Zille, University of Cambridge.

Lecture 4. The Smooth Surface of Family Union: Persuasion (1818)

Toni Morrison. Lecture 2 of 4. Song of Solomon. Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Alex Calder, University of Cambridge.

Join us for a one-off lecture and discussion of the poetry of Iris Murdoch Miles Leeson, who has just co-edited a new Selected Poems 1936-95 of Iris Murdoch.

Available from:
Bookshop.org.uk: in the UK.

Toni Morrison. Lecture 3 of 4. Beloved (1987). Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Alex Calder, University of Cambridge.

Toni Morrison. Lecture 4 of 4. Jazz (1992). Live online lectures and seminars, fortnightly, with Alex Calder, University of Cambridge.

Virginia Woolf Season 2025-26: Woolf’s Rooms. Lecture 10. Ellie Mitchell on Rooms in The Waves (1931).

Join us for two x two-hourly sessions, studying the poetry of Seamus Heaney through close reading. With Mariah Whelan. Session 1 of 2.

Join us for two x two-hourly sessions, studying the poetry of Seamus Heaney through close reading. With Mariah Whelan. Session 2 of 2.

Doris Lessing Course: Women and Destiny. 1. The Grass is Singing (1950). Lecture 1 of 4 fortnightly sessions, live online with Anne-Laure Brevet.

Session 1 of 2. We study more of the great poetry of P. B. Shelley through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Session 2 of 2. We study more of the great poetry of P. B. Shelley through close reading. Live online sessions with poet and lecturer Mariah Whelan.

Doris Lessing Course: Women and Destiny. 2. Martha Quest (1952). Lecture 2 of 4 fortnightly sessions, live online with Anne-Laure Brevet.

Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 1.

Session 1 of 5. We study writing about Venice in the 19th and 20th centuries. Live online course with Miles Leeson. Lecture 1: the 19th century: Byron, Wordsworth, Ruskin, Dickens.

Doris Lessing Course: Women and Destiny. 3. The Golden Notebook (1962). Lecture 3 of 4 fortnightly sessions, live online with Anne-Laure Brevet.

Session 2 of 5. We study writing about Venice in the 19th and 20th centuries. Live online course with Miles Leeson. Lecture 2: Henry James The Aspern Papers (1888).

Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 2.

Doris Lessing Course: Women and Destiny. 4. The Summer Before Dark (1973). Lecture 4 of 4 fortnightly sessions, live online with Anne-Laure Brevet.

Session 3 of 5. We study writing about Venice in the 19th and 20th centuries. Live online course with Miles Leeson. Lecture 3. Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (1912)

We study four great detective novels from the 1920s and 30s, all written by women. Lecture 1 of 4 with Alison Hennegan. Live online course.

Session 4 of 5. We study writing about Venice in the 19th and 20th centuries. Live online course with Miles Leeson. Lecture 4. Patricia Highsmith, Those Who Walk Away (1967).

Lecture 1 of 4 on the plays and stories of Anton Chekhov, with Claire Davison and Trudi Tate.

Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 3.

Lecture 2 of 4 on the plays and stories of Anton Chekhov, with Claire Davison and Trudi Tate.

We study four great detective novels from the 1920s and 30s, all written by women. Lecture 2 of 4 with Alison Hennegan. Live online course.

Session 5 of 5. We study writing about Venice in the 19th and 20th centuries. Live online course with Miles Leeson. Lecture 5 Daphne du Maurier, Don't Look Now (1971).

Lecture 3 of 4 on the plays and stories of Anton Chekhov, with Claire Davison and Trudi Tate.

Virginia Woolf Season.

Mark Hussey on Woolf’s last novel, Between the Acts (1941). Live online lecture and seminar.

Lecture 4 of 4 on the plays and stories of Anton Chekhov, with Claire Davison and Trudi Tate.

We study four great detective novels from the 1920s and 30s, all written by women. Lecture 3 of 4 with Alison Hennegan. Live online course.

Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 4.

We study four great detective novels from the 1920s and 30s, all written by women. Lecture 4 of 4 with Alison Hennegan. Live online course.

Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 5.

Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 6.

Virginia Woolf Season 2026-27. Lecture 7.