and some of our speakers ...

Zsuzsanna is Hungarian by birth, English by existence, human by inclination, humorous by nature - and a writer and photographer by profession. Her books and articles have been published in various languages, in the UK, US, Hungary, Germany, Russia and Singapore. She has worked as an academic, journalist, editor, and broadcaster; she has translated and edited over 100 feature films, from James Bond to Shakespeare, Her broadcasting experience includes European-wide satellite television series on intercultural communication and management.

Caroline is a regular contributor to the UK premier royalty magazine 'Majesty' and she has also written for 'The Daily Telegraph'. She was one of the specially commissioned group of essayists who wrote the acclaimed collection of pieces published to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Diana, Princess of Wales' death and HM The Queen's 80th birthday. She has filmed a BBC mini-series on British stately homes and acts as an historical advisor to several BBC stations.

Chris read modern European History at Cambridge and then joined the coal industry where he was involved in restructuring and privatisation. After gaining an MBA at Manchester Business School, he worked in Eastern Europe, Africa, Ukraine and Russia on projects funded by the European Union or the British government. He lectured widely for Hull University on its post graduate business courses.

Terry Barfoot has lectured for some 25 years in Music and History, much of this time in adult education. He now works freelance as a lecturer and writer, and is Publications Consultant to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He also leads residential Music courses both in the UK and abroad for various organisations, including Oxford University, Dillington House, the Farncombe Estate and the Earnley Concourse.

Apart from he running his own company, Arts in Residence, Terry is a prolific writer. He is author of Opera: A History (The Bodley Head, 1987) and has written articles and notes for many music publications including BBC Music Magazine, Classical Music, Opera Now, Musicweb International.

Jill Billington qualified at Reading University with a BA Hons in Fine Art (Sculpture). Subsequently she changed direction and became a garden designer thirty years ago and is now a Fellow of the Society of Garden Designers. Her practice has included small and large domestic gardens in UK and abroad and she has won awards at the Chelsea Flower Show, for the Sunday Times and Scottish National Trust, for Floreales D'Angers in France and for a Garden Festival.

Jeremy Black is a prolific historian with specialties in world military history, the history of tourism, and both the eighteenth and twentieth Century. Educated at Cambridge and Oxford, he is Professor at Exeter having previously been Professor at Durham. He received his MBE for services to stamp design.

Ann Clements read History of Art and English at Manchester University, then worked for the Whitworth Art Gallery, and later for the Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art. She was an associate lecturer for Surrey University, has spoken at the V & A Museum and for the National Trust’

Ann is a regular lecturer with NADFAS both in the UK and overseas and has also lectured on many cruise ships.

Mark is a lecturer, tour leader & broadcaster of many years experience. His particular area of interest is the Classical World of Greece & Rome, with a special passion for military matters. He has lectured at the Institute of Archaeology, is a NADFAS lecturer & has been a Guest Speaker on numerous cruises in the Mediterranean, Baltic & Black Seas. He has led & still leads numerous overland tours to the Middle East & Spain. He has presented TV documentaries for the BBC, CHANNEL 4 & various other channels, on subjects such as “The Real Spartacus”, Vespasian- the man who saved Rome, & The defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Adrian is a teacher, lecturer, composer, pianist, organist and music examiner. He is currently working on a Doctorate in Education at the University of Strathclyde. His research interests are wide including Creativity and Co-operative Learning, European Music and Culture, Nationalism in Music and Organ and Choral Music. He has contributed articles and reviews to the Musical Times, the British Journal of Music Education, and Music Journal.

A graduate of Selwyn College, Cambridge, Nicholas trained for the Anglican ministry at Ripon Hall, Oxford. Inspired by a period working on the staff of Coventry Cathedral he has gained a wide experience of international matters. He has studied in Brazil, Japan, Uganda and the United States.

Formerly bishop-elect for the Diocese of Lake Malawi in Central Africa, Nicholas knows Africa well. He has lectured widely on international and historical issues.

Other interests have included several years as the London Area Chaplain for the Actors’ Church Union with particular responsibility for the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and the Strand, now known as the Novello.

Nicholas was Director of Communications for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and has been Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire & Peterborough since 2000. He has written and edited over 15 books and is a regular lecturer on natural history and the art and history of the study and conservation of wildlife.

Ben Howkins has had a prestigious career in the wine industry. In 1963 he became the youngest person to be awarded the Vintners Scholarship. In 1972 he was international sales director of Croft Port shippers and in 1978 became marketing director of both sherry and port operations. He was Managing Director of Morgan Furze in 1980 and is a member of many organisations including the Royal Household Wine Committee.

In 1992 he became wine adviser to Lord Rothschild and in 1993 he co-founded the Royal Tokaji Wine Company in Hungary.

Ben has lectured on port and wine in many capacities and has written wine articles for both trade journals and consumer press. He is author of the widely acclaimed book on port Rich, Rare & Red.

Colin is an accredited lecturer with the Royal Horticultural Society and flower judge for the Surrey Guild of Horticultural Judges. For 35 years a Film Editor and Director at BBC Television specializing in travel and documentary programmes. As a photographer he has travelled the world and recorded the great botanic gardens and their plants.

Katherine originally trained as an agricultural scientist at Oxford, where she took her doctorate in 1985. More recently she has studied medieval history and historical research techniques, and this diverse background has led her to explore the links between superficially different subjects. She has written on science, history and theology, and is the author of three books tracing historical journeys and their cultural background, which give an insight into life in the dark ages and medieval times. Her latest book is on British civilian internment in France during the Second World War.

Katherine Lack has lectured widely, and led tours to sites of historic and spiritual interest. She is currently based at Birmingham University, and is working on a detailed study of rural life in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Herefordshire, as part of a research project into what motivates people to migrate. For more information, visit her web site at www.KatherineLack.co.uk

Nicholas Merchant’s career has mirrored his abiding interest in Antiques. He has worked for some of the major Auction Houses in London and in the provinces, where his wide knowledge of his subject was sought after as a Valuer and in advising clients on the sale of their goods.

His particular interest is English 18th century furniture and Country Houses. However, his interest is broad and he likes to discuss objects, not just for themselves but in their historical context. Lecturing has taken Nicholas to the United States, South Africa, Europe and all over the United Kingdom including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Since joining the panel of lecturers of the NADFAS in 2004 his convivial style of lecturing has resulted in over 250 lectures all over the world.

Janette is a well known horticultural lecturer having attended the De Montfort University to study horticulture and garden design. She is a talented, innovative designer, who not only provides inspiration and practical advice, but is now making a considerable name for herself as a professional speaker. She had made Radio broadcasts for the BBC, a series of garden makeovers for Yorkshire Television lectured for various education authorities.

Sandra was educated at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA and at the Courtauld Institute in London where she studied under the famous English architectural historian Sir John Summerson. She was assistant Curator at the Royal Institute of British Architects Drawings collection, where she contributed to Encyclopedia Britannica for which she wrote the articles on Robert Adam and part of Neo classicism. For many years she wrote the articles on Architecture and on Art Exhibitions for the Britannica Book of the Year.

Patrick read classics and history at Cambridge before joining the Diplomatic Service. He spent most of his 37 year career either in the Middle East or dealing with its crises from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

After learning Arabic at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies outside Beirut he was posted to the British Embassy in Cairo in 1968. He then served in the Embassies in Lima, Peru and Tripoli, Libya. From 1980 to 1983 he was Executive Director of British Information Services in New York. He was Ambassador to the State of Qatar (1987 -1990), High Commissioner to Zambia (1994-1997) and finally Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1998 -2003). After retiring in 2003 he spent 5 months in 2004 in Basra as Regional Coordinator of the Coalition Provisional Authority for the 4 southern provinces of Iraq.

Richard Parkinson was trained at Oxford, and after holding a teaching positions and a junior research fellowship, he joined the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum, where he has worked ever since. His personal research interests centre around the interpretation of Ancient Egyptian literature and the history of sexuality, and he is regarded as the leading international authority on Middle Kingdom poetry. He teaches regularly in England and Germany, and lectures internationally. As well as articles in specialist journals and popular Museum guides, books include Voices from Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Middle Kingdom Writings (1991), the award-winning The Tale of Sinuhe and other Ancient Egyptian Poems (1999); Cracking Codes: The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment (1999); Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfection (2002); Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among Other Histories (2009).

Nicholas originally trained in Classics and Archaeology at Oxford and has taken part in 30 excavations in Britain and abroad. He has been a NADFAS lecturer since 1991 and has written five books on Art History and French Impressionism. He has led archaeology tours in France, Italy, Greece, Crete and Turkey and lectured on many cruises.

Born in 1940 in Quetta, former British India. Educated at Cheltenham College, the Sorbonne and St Edmund Hall Oxford (Politics Philosophy and Economics). He is an honorary fellow of his College and a Senior Associate Research Fellow at King's College, London (International Policy Institute). In 1999 he was awarded an Hon D Litt by Nottingham University.

Since leaving the Army, he has written and lectured extensively on peacekeeping and leadership to audiences around the world. His book about the UN in Bosnia, 'Fighting for Peace, was published in Nov 1998. His second book, ‘Washington’s War’, compares the American War of Independence with the US led war in Iraq.

Jamie was Director of The Gathering 2009, which was the centre-piece event of the Homecoming Scotland programme. He is currently working as a consultant, specialising in ancestral tourism. He has spent over 12 years living and working overseas, mainly in South Africa. In 1995 he inherited one of Scotland’s oldest titles and took his seat in the House of Lords as an independent Crossbench Peer. During 1998 he became actively involved in the Scottish devolution debate, joined the Conservative Party and in May1999 stood for Edinburgh North and Leith in the inaugural Scottish Parliamentary elections.

He is a member of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a High Constable of the Port of Leith, and Vice-convenor of the Standing Council of Scottish Chiefs.

Michael Scott is the Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow in Ancient History at Darwin College,Cambridge. He has worked extensively in Greece, Turkey and around the Mediterranean, and specialises in ancient Greek politics and religion. He is the author of a recent popular history of the ancient world From Democrats to Kings and also a monograph for Cambridge University Press on the ancient sanctuaries of Delphi and Olympia.

Michael has presented several TV documentaries for the History Channel, filming in Greece, Turkey and Egypt. He ran the route of the ancient Marathon in Athens in 2007 and has acted as guest lecturer and site guide for adult, university and school tours. His website address is www.michaelcscott.com

Robert Shearman is a dramatist for theatre, radio and TV. He has received many international awards for his theatre work, and his work for BBC Radio won him a Sony last year. But he's probably best known as a regular writer for the BAFTA winning revival of the television series Doctor Who. He is also a director for the stage, his most recent production being the centre piece at the Old World Theatre Festival in Delhi.

Tracey started life in the theatre and then went into the travel industry. She has since travelled most of the world in various capacities.

As a Tour Manager she visited the Baltic and U.S.S.R. She was once Cruise Manager on the Nile and was able to watch the High Dam being built which involved the moving of Abu Simbel. She has taken Safaris to Africa and Tours to India.

Tracey is a London Blue Badge Guide. She has been a Foyle’s Lecturer and is currently lecturing on cruise ships.

After studying History at Cambridge University Peter Williams spent more than 30 years in the British Army (Coldstream Guards) and enjoyed an unusually varied career. In the 1980s he spent time in Berlin and East Germany as a military spy in the British military liaison mission to the Soviet forces in Germany for which he was awarded an MBE. Between 1993-4 he commanded his Coldstream Guards battalion in Bosnia on UN peacekeeping operations and was awarded an OBE in 1994.

His final posting was from 2002-05 in Moscow at the end of which he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) and awarded US, Belgian and Russian medals.

Peter is a member of the Guild of Battlefield Guides and gives talks on cruise ships and to schools and other audiences about Cold War and other current and historical issues.