Glossop Guild for enquiring minds
Spring Venue Based Courses
January 2025 ~ April 2025
When the Romans Reinvented the Gods: The Cults of Mithras & ISIS
2 Tuesday Afternoon Lectures
Tutor: Birgitta Hoffman
Tuesday 28th January & 4th February 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4 pm Fee: Members £13, Non-members £16
The Romans didn’t just adopt other gods, occasionally they took foreign deities and grafted onto the old cult a very new and more Roman religion, making it more appealing to their own needs. The most famous of these are Mithras and Isis, one originally Persian, the other Egyptian, but by the time they came to Britain, both were thoroughly Roman. Come and explore what was so special about these two gods.
Mithras sacrificing a bull
Goddess Isis
British Museum, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Jeff Dahl, CC BY-SA 4.0 &
In the Shadow of the Masters: Donatello - The Body Beautiful
Thursday Afternoon Lecture
Tutor: Frank Vigon
Thursday 30th January 2025 *
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm
*NB: A reminder for those who have booked the final part of the Spring 2024 four part course which was rescheduled from last term. New bookings are full for this course.
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This is the 4th session of Frank Vigon’s course held in the Autumn term, when he presented 3 Artists: Artemisia Ghentileschi Michelangelo and Durer as part of An Exploration of Uniqueness: endeavouring to understand how these individual artists brought their own style and perspective of representational art to change our own perceptions for ever. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t attend the 3-week course in the Autumn, Donatello is truly a stand-alone session.
Donatello
Aspects of Global War
3 Thursday Evenings
Tutor: Kevin Harrison
Thursday 6th February 2025
Glossop Labour Club, Chapel Street, Glossop. SK13 8AT
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Thursday 13th & 20th February 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
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7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £19 Members, £23 Non-members
Now on the cusp out of living memory, the Second World War continues to intrigue us. We will investigate three aspects of that conflict that, it is hoped, will feed that intrigue:
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Britain & Espionage IV: The Special Operations Executive (SOE): irregular warfare & ‘Setting Europe Ablaze’: How to strike at an enemy. The story of the eccentric method of waging war against the Nazis and their empire
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Churchill becomes Prime Minister & the crisis of May 1940: How ‘anyone but Winston’ became ‘Winston is the only one’ as Britain and its allies appeared to be stumbling towards defeat against Nazi Germany
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Lee Miller (1907-1977): Photographer and witness to the early 20th century and the subject of a recent film Lee starring Kate Winslet: How a glamorous model and society photographer became one of the most important recorders of war and war crimes
D-Day Landings
Making Sense of Brexit: the Grand Illusion or the Liberation of Britain?
2 Tuesday Evening Lectures
Tutor: Simon Bulmer
Tuesday 11th & 18th February 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £13.00 Members, Non-members £16.00
Simon continues the story of Britain’s troubled postwar relationship with European integration starting with the referendum in June 2016, where 51.89 per cent of those voting chose to leave the EU. Who voted for Brexit? Why did it take till 1 January 2021 to fully leave the EU? Why did implementing Brexit cause so many problems for British politics, e.g. costing Prime Minister Theresa May her job? Why did Northern Ireland play such an important role in the implementation of Brexit? Did we get the promised benefits? And why is the new Labour government so reluctant to challenge the settlement despite opinion polls consistently suggesting a majority of the public think Brexit was a mistake?
Simon will attempt to help find some answers to these and other questions over the course of two sessions. Everyone has their own opinions on this divisive topic, so there will be a lot to discuss!
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Jim Linwood from London, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Film Day School: La Bete Humaine
Tutors: Alan Sennett & Creina Mansfield
Saturday 22nd February 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
10.30 am ~ 3.30 pm Fee: £25 Members, £32.50 Non-members
Released in 1938 just as Europe was sliding towards disaster, La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast) captures many of the dark themes of Zola’s 1890 novel. In 1938 France was in deep political crisis, Spain gripped by Civil War and Hitler was revealing his aggressive intent. This day school will show Jean Renoir’s 1938 masterpiece in two halves, setting it in historical context, considering Zola's original novel, exploring the film's production history and discussing its huge significance. We will consider both novel and film within the shifting climate of France’s Popular Front period as optimism gave way to pessimism and fear.
Artificial Intelligence: from Alan Turing's Dream to Today's Hands-on Reality
Tuesday Afternoon Lecture
Tutor: Mike Milligan
Tuesday 25th February 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £7.00 Members, £10.00 Non-members
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We will take a journey through the evolution of AI (Artificial Intelligence) from Alan Turing and his Turing machine to its current rapidly evolving realisation. We will cover the basics of AI by getting “under the bonnet”: it’s all done by mathematics, but mathematics applied on a scale such that AI companies are considering building their own nuclear power stations to power their dedicated AI computers. We will explore cutting-edge developments, such as generative AI, and discuss their ethical implications. As a case study, we will have a live demonstration of how to use (free) AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft CoPilot and Claude to produce talks for the enquiring minds of the Glossop Guild in prose and poetry. It’s easier than word processing!
mikemacmarketing, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Trauma within the Police
Thursday Evening Lecture
Tutor: John Richardson
Thursday 27th February 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
7.30 pm ~ 9.30 pm Fee: £7 Members, £10 Non-members
John will give an outline of what trauma is and its impact on the individual officer leading to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other psychological conditions. His own story has involved witnessing PTSD via serious incidents and from discussions with victims both inside and outside the police. John will also give an outline of Police Care a charity he works with and the peer support work he is involved with.
Police Clash by Ashley Dace,
CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
From Cowpox to Moderna: a History of Vaccinations
Tutors: Bob Callow
2 Tuesday Afternoons
Tuesday 4th & 11th March 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £13 Members, £16 Non-members
In 1796, Edward Jenner (1749~1823) tested the theory that milkmaids who had cowpox seemed to be immune from smallpox. The two diseases were so similar that immunity against one could be transferred to the other. Jenner coined the term ‘vaccination’ for a procedure whereby material from an infected skin lesion was inserted under the skin of a healthy recipient to provide immunity.
The pandemic of coronavirus in 2019 led to intensive efforts to produce a vaccine. Co-operation between the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca led to the creation of a vaccine that was relatively cheap and thermally stable. in the USA an alternative vaccine involved the use of messenger RNA (mRNA). Initially it was expensive to make and had to be stored at very low temperature; later it became more stable and more easily stored. mRNA vaccines have a great advantage in being readily adaptable to new strains of pathogen. New mRNA vaccines are now being designed to tackle a widening range of human conditions including cancer.
Covid Vaccinations - Estado de São Paulo
Governo do Estado de São Paulo, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Rise & Fall of Oscar Wilde
3 Thursday Afternoon Lectures
Tutor Creina Mansfield
Thursday 6th, 13th & 20th March 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
1.30 pm ~ 3.30 pm Fee: £19 Members, £23 Non-members
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Will Wilde was a brilliant scholar whose flamboyant style and wit had made him an international celebrity while still in his youth. He wrote essays, poems, one novel and clever, witty plays that brought success and adulation. But the elegant aesthete had his wings clipped and fell to earth, cadging off his friends and estranged from the family he loved. We shall look at his life and works, concentrating on his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Oscar Wilde 1854-1900
An American Miscellany - an Adventure in Realism & Impressionism
3 Tuesday Afternoon Lectures
Tutor: Frank Vigon
Tuesday 18th, 25th March & 1st April 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
2.00 pm ~ 4.00 pm Fee: £19.00 Members, £23.00 Non-members
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The problem with America is that it will be nice when it’s finished!
Sometimes we have a very haughty view of the American children that we have spawned from England to New England. We have taken a very European view of art and there is a tendency to look down on our American cousins in much the same way as we take a very paternalistic view of primitive art from Africa and the South Seas.
It can now be argued that this is a very short-sighted view and consequently there is much we miss of the genius and vision of American art at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century.
This course will look at the work of three great giants of American art, Thomas Eakins, William Merrit Chase and John Singer Sargent. We will trace the influences that shaped their work and the impact that they had upon the future.
They reflect the tension between the work of society art, contemporary art and the wonders of American Impressionism. This will shock, amaze and surprise you. And above all, hopefully bring you to a recognition that American Art has much to offer in terms of discovery and exploration.
The best is yet to come!
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Gassed - John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925)
The Wrestlers
Thomas Eakins (1844- 1916)
The Genius of J.G. Farrell
2 Thursday Afternoon Lectures
Tutor: Creina Mansfield
Thursday 27th March & 3rd April 2025
Bradbury Community Centre, Market Street, Glossop, SK13 8AR
1.30 pm ~ 3.30 pm Fee: £13.00 Members, £16.00 Non-members
We shall look at Farrell’s three ‘Empire novels’- Troubles (1970), The Siege of Krishnapur (1973) and The Singapore Grip (1978).
"Had he not sadly died so young", Salman Rushdie said in 2008, "there is no question that he would today be one of the really major novelists of the English language. The three novels that he did leave are all in their different way extraordinary.”
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