Thursday 3rd March 2022

Venue: Online

 

7-8.30pm GMT

Snowdrops, Primroses, Daffodils, Bluebells, Daisies.  The first signs of spring, of reawakening life, longer days, natural colour and warmth.  No wonder poems, myths, and paintings have blossomed and grown with the flowers.  Personal, practical, political, medicinal, emotional, ecological, spring flowers have provided many surprising benefits to humankind. This illustrated talk will pay tribute to the perennial wonder of spring flowers and introduce some of their surrounding stories and symbolic significance.

Fiona Stafford is Professor of English at the University of Oxford, where she works on literature of Romantic period and Environmental Humanities.  She is also a nature writer and broadcaster.  Her books include The Brief Life of Flowers, The Long, Long Life of Trees, Jane Austen: A Brief Life and Local Attachments.  She has also edited Emma and Pride and Prejudice for Penguin and Oxford University Press.  Among her radio series are The Meaning of Trees, The Meaning of Flowers and The Meaning of Beaches.  A walk and talk documentary about John Keats was commissioned for the bicentenary of his Scottish Tour.

Tickets £6

This is an online event. Ticket holders will be emailed links on the day of the event. The talk, pre-recorded to ensure quality, will premier on YouTube at 7pm but will be available to watch for those with the link afterwards. Please note the Zoom Q&A is live and will not be recorded.

If you do not receive joining details by midday (UK time) on the day of the event, please email info@chawtonhouse.org with your order number.