Virginia Woolf and the Natural world
summer course in Cambridge 2026
IN PERSON
SUNDAY 2 August TO FRIDAY 7 August 2026
There is nothing quite like studying in the beautiful city of Cambridge.
Claire Davison talk, Trinity Hall, 2025
STUDY
Take time each day in the summer course to read and think, and share the fruits of your reading in discussions and supervisions. Our students are all ages from 18 to 70+.
Ann Kennedy Smith talk, Newnham College dining hall, 2025
STAY
Our summer courses are based in a Cambridge college. You can live, study, and share some meals with the course participants. A rare opportunity to spend a week of discussion with other keen students of your subject. In 2026 our summer course lectures take place in the relaxed setting of Clare Hall. We have secured some accommodation at nearby Selwyn College; see our Terms and Conditions page for details. You are also welcome to stay elsewhere.
Visit to Newnham College, 2025
EXPLORE
Our summer courses include walks, talks, and excursions in Cambridge to places such as the Wren Library at Trinity College, Girton College, Newnham College, King's College, Trinity Hall, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and other places of interest.
The summer course in 2026 will run twice: first, live online, then in person in Cambridge. This is the page for the Cambridge course.
Summer course photos above are by Jeremy Peters, 2024, 2025.
Jackdaw cyanotypes are by Deborah Parkin.
Our 2026 Virginia Woolf course will explore the theme of Virginia Woolf and the Natural World
All of Woolf’s books, even those set largely in cities, are deeply interested in the presence of nature and with human relations with the natural world. We will explore her interest in the natural world: the sea, woods, clouds, trees, gardens, birds, and much else.
There will be a rich programme of lectures, supervisions (tutorials), talks, visits, and discussions. Our teachers include leading Woolf scholars and experienced Cambridge supervisors. We will spend a week immersed in the great writings and ideas of Virginia Woolf.
The course is based on 5 books which we will study in close detail, one book per day. Each day, there is a lecture and a supervision (tutorial), plus talks, visits in Cambridge, a communal dinner, and more.
The supervisions are based loosely on the practice in Cambridge colleges, in which small groups of 3 or 4 people work with a skilled supervisor. This is a rare opportunity to look closely at Woolf’s writings, learn more about her historical and cultural context, and to improve your close reading skills.
Course dates: 2-7 August 2026.Arrive in Cambridge Sunday afternoon 2 August, depart Saturday morning 8 August 2026.
We hope to offer an optional trip to Monk’s House in East Sussex, where Woolf lived for many years, now a National Trust property. Details to come soon. This will be on Saturday 8 August, so you might wish to stay an extra night.
Lectures
Monday 3 August 2026. Alison Hennegan, Women and Nature in Jacob’s Room (1922)
Tuesday 4 August 2026. Karina Jakubowicz, Gardens in To the Lighthouse (1927)
Wednesday 5 August 2026. Hollie Wells, Hollie Wells, Land and Sea in The Waves (1931)
Thursday 6 August 2026. Trudi Tate, The Weather in History: The Years (1937)
Friday 7 August 2026. Ellie Mitchell, Earth and Sky in Between the Acts (1941)
Supervisions
After each lecture, there will be 15 minutes’ question time, then we have a break for a cup of tea. Then you will have a 1-hour supervision. This is a small tutorial group with 3 or 4 students working closely with a supervisor on the book of the day. The supervision is one of the most rewarding elements of the course.
Visits (to be confirmed)
• Afternoon tea and talk at the Orchard Tea Room in Grantchester, much loved by Woolf, Rupert Brooke, Bertrand Russell, John Maynard Keynes, and others
• Afternoon tea and talk at Waterstone’s Bookshop, Cambridge
• Visit to one or two Cambridge Colleges
… and more
Talks and Readings
• Ann Kennedy Smith, Virginia Woolf, Rupert Brooke and the ‘neo-pagans’
• Harriet Baker on Nature Writing in Virginia Woolf’s Diary.
Further talks and readings to be confirmed.
Set Reading
Woolf, Jacob’s Room (1922)
Woolf, To the Lighthouse (1927)
Woolf, The Waves (1931)
Woolf, The Years (1937)
Woolf, Between the Acts (1941)
If possible, please buy the most recent Oxford World’s Classics editions of the novels, so we can all be on the same page in discussions. But if that’s difficult, don’t worry; any good edition will do. Please support local and independent bookshops, or Bookshop.org or Hive.co.uk when buying books for our courses. Thank you.
Optional Further Reading
Woolf, ‘A Sketch of the Past’ in Moments of Being
Woolf, Diary. Read any sections which interest you, especially those from the times she is writing To the Lighthouse or The Waves.
Harriet Baker, Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Rosamond Lehmann (Allen Lane, 2024).
Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf (biography, 1996)
Michael Whitworth, Virginia Woolf: Authors in Context (2005)
Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens and Other Short Fiction, ed. Bryony Randall (2022)
Editions: we recommend the Oxford World’s Classics edition, so we can all be on the same page in discussions. But if that’s difficult, any good edition will be fine. If possible, please buy your books from independent bookshops, or use Hive or bookshop.org, which support independent booksellers. Thank you.
Links
• Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain.
• Monk's House, National Trust.
• Charleston, National Trust.
• Paula Maggio, Blogging Woolf.
• Notes on Leonard Woolf.
Optional trip to Monks House, Saturday 8 August 2026. Information and booking details to come shortly.
Course fees
Full price £1300
Members VWSGB £1200
CAMcard holders £1200
Students on a low income £1150
Fees include VAT of 20%.
Photos by Jeremy Peters @jezpete
Bookings open soon.