Literary Lunch with Margaret Willes - 26 March 2024
Tuesday, 26 March 2024
LivCom off-site
Location: Christopher Wren Dining Room, Ye Olde Watling Pub, 29 Watling Road, London EC4M 9BR
Join us for our next Literary Lunch at the historic Ye Olde Watling pub where we will hear from Liveryman Margaret Willes.
Liveryman Margaret Willes is the former publisher at the National Trust who now writes books on cultural and botanical history. Titles include Reading Matters: Five Centuries of Discovering Books, Gardens of the British Working Class, The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, The Domestic Herbal: Plants for the Home in the Seventeenth Century and In the Shadow of St Paul's Cathedral.
Margaret's most recent book Liberty over London Bridge: A History of the People of Southwark was published by Yale University Press on 13 February 2024.
In this remarkable history of London’s liberty beyond the bridge, Margaret Willes narrates the life and times of the people of Southwark, capturing the Borough’s anarchic spirit of revelry. Populated by a potent mix of talented immigrants, religious dissenters, theatrical folk, brewers, and sex workers, Southwark often escaped urban jurisdiction—giving it an atmosphere of danger, misrule, and artistic freedom. Tracing Southwark’s history from its Roman foundation to its present popularity as a place to visit, through Chaucer, to Shakespeare, and on to Dickens, Willes offers an indispensable exploration of the City’s unacknowledged mirror image.
Georgina Brown is Manager of The Wilbur&Niso Smith Foundation. Before moving to London, Georgina worked in Dorset, Russia and the United States. Georgina is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow. She holds an Undergraduate degree in Writing, Directing and Performance from The University of York, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy from The University of Leeds. She is a graduate of The Berkshire Hills Internship Program, an intensive arts management program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Prior to life at the Foundation, Georgina has worked in the fundraising ranks of a symphony orchestra and may be the only person to have ever run away from the circus.
The cost of this lunchtime event, which starts at 1.00pm, is just £35 and includes a traditional two-course lunch, as well as the after-lunch interview with Margaret Willes and Georgina Brown. We are restricted to 35 attendees, so please book early to avoid disappointment.
Books will also be available to preorder and get signed on the day!