Wren Conversations: Wren and his Contemporaries

Overview

Led by Harry Mount, architectural historian and editor of The Oldie, the evening will include a discussion about the context Wren was working in, and other key figures of the period, such as Nicholas Hawksmoor, Robert Hooke and Grinling Gibbons; the role and influence of the parishioners, the Church and the King; and diarists, Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. 

Chair: Harry Mount

Harry Mount, the Oldie editor, has recently written Et Tu, Brute? The best Latin Lines Ever (Bloomsbury) with John Davie. Other books include A Lust For Window Sills; and Amo, Amas, Amat and All That. He writes for the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Spectator and many other newspapers and magazines. He was a leader writer and New York correspondent at the Telegraph.

Panellists include:

John Goodall

John Goodall is the architectural editor of Country Life. He is responsible for writing and commissioning the celebrated series of architectural features published in the magazine every week.

John has been involved in various television series on history and architecture. He was the series consultant for the BBC1 television series on architecture presented by David Dimbleby, The Way We Built Britain (2007).

Griff Rhys Jones

Griff Rhys Jones is a presenter, writer and broadcaster. In the early 1980s he worked on the BBC television comedy sketch shows Not the Nine O’Clock News and Alas Smith & Jones alongside Mel Smith. Griff is a passionate advocate of heritage preservation, appointments include President of Civic Voice, President of the Victorian Society, Patron of the Stour and Orwell Trust.

Dr Anna Keay

Dr Anna Keay is a 17th century historian, She read modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford, where she won two academic  scholarships. Her PhD on court ceremonial in the reign of Charles II was supervised by Professor John Miller at Queen Mary, University of London

From 1996 to 2002 Anna worked as a curator for Historic Royal Palaces, which looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Banqueting House in Whitehall. From 2002 until 2012 she was Properties Presentation and then Curatorial Director of English Heritage, responsible for curating and presenting to the public 420 historic sites across England, from Stonehenge to Kenwood House. She is now Director of The Landmark Trust.

Ticket proceeds will go towards the Square Mile Churches and World Monuments Fund Britain.

Supported by William J. Loschert KSG