A new term has begun, so inevitably…

Goodness me - the first two weeks of the new term have flown by! It’s been wonderful to catch up with old friends and, of course, to meet those of you who are embarking on your first course with Robert - welcome, one and all!

But just as (with a hat-tip to Mr Shakespeare) well-apparelled April always on the heel of limping winter treads, so our thoughts have already turned to next term. We’re in the final stages of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s of our full post-Easter programme, and shall reveal all as soon as we can.

As advance notice, we have had to revise our registration fees. From now on, full ten-week courses will be £110 for an individual registration, and £176 for two people sharing the same screen, and tw0-session short courses are £40/£64.* We trust that you’ll know this isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly, and very much hope that you agree that this is still a reasonable rate for Robert’s Pearls of Wisdom and twenty or five hours of informed historical entertainment.

*[For more on this and why, please click here.]

As several of you have asked what’s coming up, I’m delighted to be able to announce four new courses right away. So without further ado…

Why, that handsome shepherd looks familiar. So does the Grumpy Star of Bethlehem…

First up, we’re especially pleased to announce a completely new type of Wright History course.

Some very good friends, with whom Robert and I have worked and performed for many years as Ars Ludendi (including at our wedding!), have kindly agreed to run a four-week course under the Wright History banner: The York Mystery Plays: History, culture, and performance.

That they are good friends is, however, less relevant here than the fact that they really know their stuff and convey it exceptionally well. Between them, our fellow Ars Ludendi members have what I think must be a uniquely rounded familiarity with and understanding of the plays - informed, variously, by academic research, extensive involvement over many years in performance of the plays, and having directed the whole pageant in recent years.*

*[If you’ve seen the waggon plays, you can probably just about begin to imagine how epic a task the latter is!]

The prospect of a course along these lines was very enthusiastically received during last summer’s A History of York (and hopefully will be similarly so in the course’s current outing), and we’re delighted to be able to snaffle our friends’ expertise and offer it unto you before they are in the full throes of preparation and rehearsals for this summer’s pageant (watch this space for further news on June’s extravaganza!). Regardless of whether you’re especially interested in York or the plays specifically, however, this course offers a fascinating case-study of the relationship between culture and community, which we think will be of interest to many of you.

Secondly, in the light of the continued positive comments on our online short courses, we’re delighted to announce Japan meets the West. This is in direct response to Wish List suggestions from quite a few of you, and we hope that you’re as excited about it as we are!

Additionally, February will see Robert heading to Pickering for an In Real Life day school for WEA: Age of Charlemagne. He’s looking forward to catching up with everyone in the flesh (as it were) - especially those of you who don’t do online courses. He’s also looking forward to breakfasting on a fabulous bacon roll the next day, having visited one of his favourite butchers while he’s there.

The landing of King Harald Hardrada near York, and the defeat of the Northumbrian army, Matthew Paris (?), La estoire de seint Aedward le Rei, c.1250-1260

Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Ee.3.59, f.32v

For a digitized version of this fabulous manuscript, see here: https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-EE-00003-00059/1

Finally, I’m pleased to give advance notice that Yorkshire Battles - a new short course for PLACE - is on the horizon. It’s not yet open for booking, but will take place on Wednesday evenings for four weeks, from 20 April. For those of you unfamiliar with PLACE, it’s an Education & Research Centre focussing primarily on the people, landscape and cultural environment of the historic county of Yorkshire. Robert has long enjoyed the support and encouragement of PLACE and its denizens, and we’re delighted to have been invited back. We’ll let you know as soon as we know that it’s available to book. In the meantime, for details of PLACE, see here.

To see all our new courses now available in calendar order (along with the courses already underway) click here. Alternatively, click on the relevant course title[s] in this post to go directly to the relevant page[s].