Katherine Mansfield Course 2026

Photo: Yoksel Zok, Unsplash

Katherine Mansfield: stories of Love

Live online course
Thursdays, 19 March to 23 April 2026
6.00 to 8.00 pm British Time

Katherine Mansfield Course with Claire Davison, Alison Hennegan, Gerri Kimber, Ellie Mitchell, Trudi Tate, and Hollie Wells

Join us for a new course on Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), one of the greatest short story writers of the twentieth century. Born in New Zealand, Mansfield lived most of her adult life in England and other parts of Europe. She was friends with Virginia Woolf and D. H. Lawrence and other great writers of the period. She was an accomplished cellist and her writing is often shaped by her love of music.

Mansfield was a shrewd observer of love in all its forms, in families, marriages, affairs. In this course, we will explore her brilliant stories about the many shapes of love, its hopes, disappointments and betrayals.

Six sessions, weekly on Thursdays, 19 March to 23 April 2026, 6.00-8.00 pm British Summer Time.

Lectures

Lecture 1. 19 March 2026. Gerri Kimber, Katherine Mansfield: Men and Love
Lecture 2. 26 March 2026. Trudi Tate, KM: Love and Disappointment
Lecture 3. 2 April 2026. Alison Hennegan, Katherine Mansfield and Oscar Wilde
Lecture 4. 9 April 2026. Claire Davison, KM: For love of France
Lecture 5. 16 April 2026. Hollie Wells, KM: Music, desire, and self-love
Lecture 6. 23 April 2026. Ellie Mitchell, KM: Marriage

Sepia photograph of Katherine mansfield and John Middleton Murry

Set Reading

Katherine Mansfield, Collected Stories, introduced by Ali Smith (Penguin, 2007). Available from Toppings and from Bookshop.org.

Reading for each lecture

  • 1. Gerri Kimber, Men and Love
    Set reading
    Juliet (1906)
    A Little Episode (1909)
    Maata (1913)
    A Dill Pickle (1917)
    Poison (1920)

  • 2. Trudi Tate, Love and Disappointment
    Set reading
    A Dill Pickle
    The Singing Lesson
    Prelude

    Optional Further Reading
    At the Bay
    Daughters of the Late Colonel

  • 3. Alison Hennegan, Mansfield and Wilde
    Set reading
    [to follow shortly]

  • 4. Claire Davison, For Love of France

    Set reading
    Je ne parle pas français
    An Indiscreet Journey
    Poison

  • 5. Hollie Wells, Music, Desire, and Self-love
    Set reading
    Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day (1917)
    Miss Brill (1920)
    Misunderstood (1903)
    Juliet     (1906)
    She Unpacked her Box (1907) (extracts will be provided)
    Bliss (1918)

    Optional Further Reading
    The Singing Lesson

  • 6. Ellie Mitchell, Marriage
    Set reading
    At the Bay
    Mr and Mrs Dove
    Marriage a la Mode
    The Stranger

Further Reading

If you want to read a biographical work on Mansfield, we suggest either of these titles:

Claire Harman, All Sorts of Lives: Katherine Mansfield and the Art of Risking Everything (2023)
Gerri Kimber, Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life (Reaktion, 2025)

Optional Further Reading

Claire Davison and Gerri Kimber, eds., Katherine Mansfield's French Lives (Brill Rodopi, 2016)
Gerri Kimber, Katherine Mansfield and the Art of the Short Story (Palgrave, 2015)
Gerri Kimber, Katherine Mansfield: The Early Years (EUP, 2016)
Claire Tomalin, Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life (2012)

Please support independent bookshops or Bookshop.org when buying books for our courses. Thank you.

Link

Katherine Mansfield Society website publishes many of the stories online.

Recordings

This is a 6-week course, with a live online lecture and seminar each week. The lectures are recorded so that participants can listen again during the course, and for 2 weeks afterwards, if they wish. The seminars are not recorded.

Course fees

£320 full price
£290 students on a low income
£290 CAMcard holders
£290 Members of the Katherine Mansfield Society
(Prices include 20% VAT)

Zoom link

We will send you a Zoom link at least 24 hours before the course begins. Please let us know in good time if the link does not arrive, so that we can re-send.

If you cannot attend a course you have booked

Please note that, because places are limited, we cannot usually give refunds if you cannot attend a course. But if you contact us in advance, we might be able to transfer your booking to a different course.