Events

The Lecture Series 2009

The Trustees of
THE SECOND WORLD WAR EXPERIENCE CENTRE
invite you to their

TENTH ANNUAL LECTURE SERIES 2009

RICHARD OVERY
IN THE CLOTHWORKERS' HALL,
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
By kind permission of the University

- and -

RODERICK BAILEY
PHILIP BELL
ANTHONY BEEVOR
in THE STATE APARTMENTS
THE ROYAL HOSPITAL CHELSEA
By kind permission of the Governor

Sponsored by Serco Defence, Science and Technology

PROGRAMME

RICHARD OVERY
‘Saving Civilization’
British Public Opinion and the Coming of War 1939
The Clothworkers’ Hall, the University of Leeds
Wednesday 30^st September

RODERICK BAILEY
‘To Die Without Flinching’
Captured SOE Agents in the Concentration Camps
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Tuesday 13^th October

PHILIP BELL
L’Heure Tragique’: Britain and France in 1940
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Tuesday 27^th October

ANTHONY BEEVOR
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
Tuesday 3^rd November

Lectures begin at 6.40 pm
Reception & Refreshments 6.00 pm & after the Lecture from 8.00 till 8.45pm

The Clothworkers’ Centenary Hall at Leeds University was formerly a 19th century Presbyterian chapel, now restored as a concert venue through the generosity of the Clothworkers’ Foundation. King Charles ll founded the Royal Hospital Chelsea, built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1682, for soldiers after long service or crippled in war. The Trustees of the Second World War Experience Centre are grateful to Serco Defence, Science and Technology, the Governor of the Royal Hospital, The University of Leeds and the Lecturers, for making these evenings possible.

Tickets £30 for each lecture.

Telephone enquiries (0113) 258 4993
email: enquiries@war-experience.org

Application Form - PDF (Adobe Reader required - free download here if you don't already have this)

Numbers are strictly limited so please apply as soon as possible.

Wednesday 30^st September
RICHARD OVERY
Richard Overy is Professor of History at Exeter University. He has written over 20 books on the Second World War, the history of air power and the Hitler and Stalin dictatorships. His most recent include The Battle of Britain (2000), Interrogations: the Nazi Elite in Allied Hands, 1945 (2001), Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia (2004) and most recently The Morbid Age: Britain between the Wars (2009). He was winner of the Wolfson Prize for History in 2005 and was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize in 2001 for a lifetime's contribution to military history. He is currently preparing a major history of bombing in the Second World War. .

Tuesday 13^th October
RODERICK BAILEY
A former Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony's College, Oxford, Dr. Roderick Bailey is a specialist in the study of Britain's Special Operations Executive, one of Churchill’s most celebrated wartime initiatives with its mandate to 'set Europe ablaze', and was appointed in 2003 to run a major project to acquire new material for the Imperial War Museum's SOE collections. Dr. Bailey's research so far has resulted in two notable publications: The Wildest Province: SOE in the Land of the Eagle, a study of SOE operations in the occupied Balkans, and Forgotten Voices of the Secret War, an oral history of SOE. He is currently engaged in a further SOE project..

Tuesday 22^nd October
PHILIP BELL
Philip Bell has written extensively on Anglo-French relations in the 20th century, including A Certain Eventuality: Britain and the Fall of France; France and Britain 1914-1940: Entente and Estrangement; and France and Britain 1940-1994: the Long Separation. He has lectured on these subjects in both countries. He is also the author of the standard work on The Origins of the Second World War in Europe (now in its 3rd edition) In 1999 he gave the annual Churchill lecture at Fulton Missouri (where Churchill made his ‘iron curtain’ speech in 1946). He is at present writing a book on ‘Twelve Turning Points in the Second World War.’

Tuesday 3^rd November
ANTHONY BEEVOR
Antony Beevor is the author of a number of books about the Second World War and the 20th Century including Crete – The Battle and the Resistance; Stalingrad ; Berlin - The Downfall 1945 (2002); and The Battle for Spain. His latest book and the subject of this lecture is D-Day: The Battle for Normandy. A former chairman of the Society of Authors, he has received an Honorary Doctorate from Kent University and is a visiting Professor at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Birkbeck College, University of London. His books have appeared in thirty languages.