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Public Speaker in Lancashire, Christopher Robson.

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Not more than £50 within 10 miles of home Craft Sewing Painting etc Educational Famous People History War and Conflict

Christopher Robson

Location: Lancaster, Lancashire

About me...

I was educated at Cheltenham, the University of Oxford (Wadham College), and at the University of Leeds. Between 1972 and 2004 I was a teacher of history, and, later also of economics in secondary schools, and was a head of department from the age of thirty-three. My talks on local political, religious and military history are always put into a national and international context.

About my Talks...

My talks are about an hour long and are illustrated with power-point slides. I have two projectors and two laptops, though I’m quite happy to use the host organisation’s equipment when available. In fact I have a portable screen, but, if you have a screen and can hook it up to my computer by employing my memory-stick, that would be the better idea.

Fee:

My standard fee is £40.00, which is used to cover petrol expenses. However, for clubs with more than 100 members and venues outside a 40 miles radius of Lancaster, my fee is £60.00. I am prepared to give talks across the north-west of England, from Carlisle to Cheadle. Also, I am a frequent visitor to Gloucestershire, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Sussex, so, I can speak in any of those areas.

My Contact Details:

Phone:

01524 62465

Email:

glospurrblack7@talktalk.net

View Talks by Christopher Robson

Military History

Christopher Robson public speaker from Lancaster talks about the English Border reivers as cavalrymen in the ‘Rough Wooing’ of the 1540s, when Henry VIII tried to conquer Scotland.

Christopher Robson has a vast range of presentations about wars, armies and navies, and battles, always putting them into the correct political and cultural context of their time. His presentations in this area have included the theoretical background to the legends of Arthur as a warlord, the role of Athelstan as a general in 937 at Brunanburh, Oliver Cromwell’s deployment of cavalry at Marston Moor, the life and achievements of his ‘General-at-Sea’ Robert Blake, the career of John Churchill Duke of Marlborough, the Jacobite Risings, Frederick the Great’s seizure of Silesia, the victories of Admiral George Rodney, the conflict at Amiens in August 1918, the role of Bomber Command in forcing Germany’s unconditional surrender in May 1945, and an evaluation of Montgomery’s skills as a battlefield commander. My most popular talk is about the Border Reivers of the English Middle March, whose arrival on the battlefield of Flodden saved Lord Edmund Howard and the English cause, and who in the 1540s formed Henry VIII’s ‘King’s Band of Northern Horsemen’.

Local History

Christopher Robson public speaker from Lancaster talks about Waring and Gillow’s the furniture manufacturers, and James Williamson, who mass produced linoleum, in Lancaster.

Christopher’s aim is always to put local history into a national and international perspective, and therefore to avoid parochial antiquarianism. Such an approach marks his talks about industrial production in Lancaster from the 1730s to the 1960s. While working for Lancaster Adult College between 2006 and 2011, Mr Robson travelled around Lancashire giving talks about the localities he visited, among them Barnoldswick, Poulton-le-Fylde, and Preston. Given advance warning, he can deliver a presentation on any borough or parish in England

Literature

Christopher Robson public speaker from Lancaster gives a talk on Elizabeth Gaskell, the Victorian author who was the wife of a nonconformist clergyman in Manchester who was minister at the Cross Street Chapel, and who taught at Owen’s College, the original foundation of the famous northern university. ‘Mrs Gaskell’, as Elizabeth was always known, produced a number of novels, including ‘Mary Barton’, ‘Cranford’, ‘North and South’, and ‘Cousin Phyllis’. All these capture the essence of British society in the early Victorian period.

Mr Robson has given numerous lectures on English Literature, and he always strives to put the authors into their proper historical context. Over the past twenty years Christopher has delivered lectures on ‘Shakespeare and Lancashire’, John Milton, James Joyce, and Graham Greene. Given advance notice, he is capable of giving presentations on Robert Burns, Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Sean O’Casey, and Wystan Auden.

The Plastic Arts

Christopher Robson, public speaker from Lancaster, gives a talk on George Romney. Brought up in Ulverston, Romney became a painter in Kendal. On the failure of his marriage he moved to London, and achieved a national reputation as a portraitist. After Reynolds and Gainsborough, he was the greatest English painter of the 18^th century.

Mr Robson has a keen interest in the plastic arts. He has given a presentation on Rembrandt. Given enough notice, he is capable of giving a talk on Giovanni Bellini, Albrect Dürer, and Fernando Goya. Also Christopher is interested in architecture, and has given lectures on the design and fabric of medieval churches. Moreover, if asked, he could give presentations on Inigo Jones, Wren, Augustus Pugin, Gropius, and Frank Lloyd-Wright.

Feminism

Christopher Robson, public speaker from Lancaster, gives a presentation on Annie Besant, one of the originators of first wave feminism in Britain, and a socialist activist in the 1880s. She later was influenced by oriental mysticism, and was a founding member of the Theosophical movement, and of women’s freemasonry. Her views, which by the standards of western European culture are in the tradition of heterodox dissent, are examined in a detached and entirely fair way.

Mr Robson is also capable of giving a conspectus both of the suffragette militancy before 1914, and of Second Wave feminism. Ten years ago, on request, he gave a presentation on feminism in Chile.

Christian Themes

Christopher Robson, public speaker from Lancaster, gives a talk on Saint Luke. Luke’s gospel was written in Greek of a high quality, which matches that of the Acts of the Apostles, of which Luke was also the author. It seems that The Letter to the Hebrews was a Lucan achievement, again because of the excellence of its Greek. Mr Robson gives a putative sketch of Luke’s biography, as well as his place in the hellenophone communities in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Mr Robson has given presentations on John Bunyan and John Wesley, speaking about the latter in public on many occasions. He is capable of giving a talk on Edward Pusey and the Oxford Movement. Moreover, he has given a lecture on Francis of Assisi, a talk on Margaret Sinclair, and has made films on Margaret Clitherow and Edmund Arrowsmith. On several occasions Christopher has given talks on Christian-Muslim relations, and he has given numerous presentations of the plight of Christians in the Greater Middle East. It has to be said that Christopher is also keenly conscious of the philosophical and scientific objections to Apostolic Christianity, and has lectured on these.

Christopher Robson Contact Details:

Phone:

01524 62465

Email:

glospurrblack7@talktalk.net