Our celebrated speakers have been carefully selected for their knowledge of the art, history, archaeology, architecture, wine and cuisine of the areas we visit. Their informative and enlightening talks will entertain and bring to life the history of the remarkable civilisations and cultures of the Mediterranean and the Far East.
To view the guest lecturers for a specific cruise and date, select an itinerary in the box below.
RAYMOND ASQUITHThe Earl of Oxford & Asquith OBERaymond Asquith served 18 years in the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office. He spent three years in Moscow (1983-1985), seven years in the Cabinet Office covering Soviet and East European political, military and economic developments (1985-1992) and was a founding member of the British Embassy in Kiev (1992-1997). O' THE WILD CHARGE THEY MADE - Aug 29, 2013 |
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Prof TREVOR BRYCEEMERITUS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLANDEmeritus Professor Trevor Bryce (born 1940) is a Classicist and and Near Eastern historian. He has published extensively on the Classical and Near Eastern civilizations: his most recent publications are The Kingdom of the Hittites (new edition), The Trojans and their Neighbours, which includes a discussion on the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations, and The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and has held visiting Fellowships at Princeton, Oxford and Canberra. His university career has included appointments as Professor of Classics and Ancient History at the University of New England, Australia and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Lincoln University, New Zealand. He was recently awarded a Doctor of Letters Degree at The University of Queensland, a rare award showing his excellent knowledge and expertise in this area of history. Lecturing on:THOSE WHO SEEK PARADISE... - Jun 11, 2013 SICILY IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING - Jun 23, 2013 |
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Prof PAUL CARTLEGECambridge UniversityPaul Cartledge is the inaugural A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture in the Faculty of Classics at Cambridge University, where he has taught since 1979. He took his BA and DPhil at Oxford (his doctoral thesis on Spartan archaeology and history was supervised by Professor Sir John Boardman) and since 1981 has been a Fellow of Clare College Cambridge, where he is President of the Fellowship. He has written, co-written, edited or co-edited some 25 books, including The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, paperback 2002) and most recently Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2011). He is generally reckoned one of the world's top experts on ancient Sparta and was adviser to the UK Channel 4 TV series 'The Spartans' presented by Bettany Hughes (with whom he has collaborated on 4 TV documentaries) and to the blockbuster Hollywood cartoon movie '300'. He appears regularly on radio as well as TV. Between 2006 and 2010 he held a Global Distinguished Professorship in the Theory and History of Democracy at New York University. He has been awarded the Gold Cross of the Order of Honour by the President of Greece and is an honorary citizen of (modern) Sparta. Lecturing on:GOD CREATED THE KORNATI ISLANDS - Sep 21, 2013 |
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Dr DAVID CORDINGLYformerly NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUMDr David Cordingly read Modern History at Oxford and has a doctorate from the University of Sussex. He was Keeper of Pictures at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and is the author of several books on marine art and naval history. His book Life among the Pirates (American title, Under the Black Flag) became a best-seller in Britain and the United States. His other books include Cochrane the Dauntless, Marine painting in England, and the much acclaimed Billy Ruffian: the Bellerophon and the Downfall of Napoleon which was Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4. |
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Prof ROBIN CORMACKCOURTAULD INSTITUTE OF ART, LONDONEmeritus Professor Robin Cormack is the author of many publications on the art history and culture of the Mediterranean, particularly on the world of Byzantium. He teaches at the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, and the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. His current books in progress are on Classicism and on St Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai. His most recent book Icons was published by the British Museum, and focuses on how to study this art form from the collection in the museum. Robin was also curator of the highly successful exhibition "Byzantine 330-1453" at the Royal Academy, London in 2008/9. For him Sicily is the key to exploring the meeting of the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, the Arabs and Western Europeans in an extraordinary mix of ideas. Lecturing on:THOSE WHO SEEK PARADISE... - Jun 11, 2013 SICILY IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING - Jun 23, 2013 |
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KEVIN DEANARTIST & DESIGNERA versatile artist & designer who has illustrated numerous books, designed textiles, wallpapers and tableware. Having trained at the Royal College of Art, Kevin Dean has worked with leading retailers, publishers and museums.
Much of Kevin's work reflects his interest in plants and the natural environment. He draws almost everyday and his paintings and prints have been exhibited widely, both in the UK and abroad. |
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Prof GREGORY DOWLINGCa’ Foscari University of VeniceGregory Dowling graduated in English literature at the University of Oxford in 1978. Since 1979 he has lived in Italy. He has taught in Naples, Siena, Verona and, since 1981, in Venice. He is now Associate Professor of American Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. His academic publications include a book on American narrative poetry, a book on Byron’s Venice, a co-edited anthology of American poetry about Venice and numerous articles on British and American literature. He has written the sightseeing pages of the Time Out Guide to Venice. ITALY FROM DESIGNS BY MICHELANGELO - Oct 3, 2013 THOSE WHO SEEK PARADISE... - Jun 11, 2013 GRAND CRUISE TO THE ISLES OF LEGENDS & HEROES - Sep 9, 2013 GRAND CRUISE TO THE CITIES OF ANTIQUITY - Jun 11, 2013 GOD CREATED THE KORNATI ISLANDS - Sep 21, 2013 |
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KATE GARNONS WILLIAMSBIRMINGHAM UNIVERSITYKate Garnons Williams read Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Bristol and wrote her M.A. thesis on the Comedies of the 5th century dramatist, Aristophanes. Her first experience of teaching was at the English School in Nicosia, Cyprus, where her husband had been seconded to the UN for three years. During that time she used to guide parties of interested UN personnel to sites of archaeological interest all over the island, and during vacations she and her husband also visited ancient sites in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt as well as mainland Greece and the Greek islands.
I FOUND ROME A CITY OF BRICKS - Jul 3, 2013 GRAND VOYAGE TO THE BLACK SEA - Jul 3, 2013 |
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ROBERT A. E. GORDONCMG OBERobert Gordon is a recently retired British diplomat, whose particular speciality is Burma, where he was British Ambassador from 1995-99. He is currently President of the Britain-Burma Society as well as chairman of Prospect Burma, an educational trust which has sponsored university studies for over 1500 Burmese students. As Head of the FCO’s South East Asia Department from 1999-2003, he was responsible for policy work across all ten ASEAN member states, visiting the area frequently as well as lecturing at Georgetown University, Washington. |
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RAY HALEAuthor & Wildlife PhotographerHaving spent many years in the Private Sector as an Industrial Health and Safety consultant, Ray has finally had the opportunity to follow his passion. |
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Prof KENNETH J. HAMMONDNew Mexico State UniversityKenneth is Professor of Asian History at New Mexico State University. He received his PhD in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University in 1994, and has taught at NMSU ever since. He has designed and taught courses on the history of China and Japan, and on Southeast Asian history through the colonial and modern periods, with special emphasis on the history of Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia. He is also the founder of the Global History program at New Mexico State and teaches the Global History survey course covering the period from 1500 to the present. He has written and lectured on the role of Manila as a link in global trade between Spain and China in the early modern period, and on the development of Dutch and British colonialism in Indonesia and Malaysia. |
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Prof ELVIRA HAMMONDNew Mexico State UniversityCollege Associate Professor of East Asian History at New Mexico State University Elvira Hammond first traveled to Asia thirty years ago as a student in Beijing, China. After receiving her Master’s Degree in Chinese Language and Literature from Stanford University, she moved back to Beijing to work in educational travel throughout Asia for a decade. There, for example, she worked on developing collaborative initiatives between major museums in Thailand and Indonesia, including site visits in Bali. |
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ROBIN HANBURY-TENISONOBE, DL, Explorer and AuthorRobin Hanbury-Tenison is a Founder and President of Survival International, the world’s leading organization supporting tribal peoples. Named by The Sunday Times as "the greatest explorer of the past 20 years,” he has been on over 30 expeditions including the first two crossings of South America: by land from Recife to Lima in 1958 and by river from the Orinoco to the River Plate in 1965. In 1977, as leader of the Royal Geographical Society’s largest expedition, he took 115 scientists to study the rainforests of Sarawak. This research and his book, Mulu: The Rainforest, started the international concern for tropical rainforests. |
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PHILLIP HARDINGEmeritus Professor of Classics and Ancient History, UBCPhillip Harding was born in Harrow, England. He studied Classics at St. Marylebone Grammar School in London, St. Andrews University in Scotland (MA) and the University of California at Berkeley (PhD). He taught all aspects of Greek and Roman civilisation at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver for 36 years (1968-2004), during the last five of which he was Head of the Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies. He was Thomas Day Seymour Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1967-8), Visiting Scholar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (1975-6) and Visiting Professor of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley (1987-8). TIME FEARS THE PYRAMIDS - Oct 25, 2013 GRAND WONDERS OF ANTIQUITY - Oct 13, 2013 I FOUND ROME A CITY OF BRICKS - Oct 13, 2013 |
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DENISE HEYWOODJOURNALIST & LECTURERDenise Heywood is a lecturer, author, journalist and photographer. She worked in Cambodia as a journalist for three years, and has also worked in France and America. |
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GILLIAN HOVELLARCHAEOLOGISTAfter graduating in Latin and Ancient History at Exeter University and a career in BBC Television, Gillian became deeply involved in archaeology. As an author, historian, archaeologist, tour guide and public speaker of considerable experience and astonishing range, the Reithian mantra of ‘educate, inform and entertain’ remains central to her work; she specialises in lively, passionate and engaging history that connects with our lives today, enabling audiences to relate to archaeology and to find depth and colour in our modern lives through the past’s continuing influence on us today. |
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DUNCAN MACMILLANUniversity of EdinburghDuncan Macmillan is an art historian and art critic. He is Professor Emeritus in the University of Edinburgh where, formerly, he both taught and ran the University's art gallery. He is also Art Critic of The Scotsman. He has written a number of books and a great many exhibition catalogues and and has won several prizes for his writing. His major work, Scottish Art 1460-1990, was, for instance, Scottish Book of the Year in 1991. It is now the standard text on the subject. |
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Dr THOMAS MANNACKTHE CLASSICAL ART RESEARCH CENTRE, OXFORDDr. Mannack is Reader in Classical Iconography at the University of Oxford and an internationally known expert on Greek decorated pottery. He studied Classical Archaeology, Ancient History and European Archaeology in Kiel, Heidelberg and Oxford, and gained a first class doctorate at Kiel University. Dr. Mannack has taught Greek and Roman Art and Architecture in Oxford and at King's College, London, and regularly examined Finals papers in Greek, Egyptian, and Roman art for the University of Oxford. He has published books and papers in English and German on Greek pottery, including the Greek and Cypriote pottery in Winchester College, Greek sculpture, and the reception of ancient art. He has been invited to present papers by many universities and academies including New York, Berlin, Tours, Brussels, Munich, Copenhagen, Vienna, Basel and Zurich. |
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ANDREW MOOREUniversity of CambridgeAndrew won an industrial scholarship sponsored by Vickers Engineering to the University of Cambridge, where he gained an honours degree in Mathematics. From there his career took him into senior management with Marks & Spencer before being appointed Managing Director of one of Delia Smith’s companies. (Delia was of course one of the first British celebrity chefs). Andrew’s final senior position was as Chief Executive of Hymns Ancient and Modern, publishers of the eponymous hymnbooks and publisher of the hymnbook for the 2008 Lambeth Conference. The company also owns Church Times, the world’s largest selling Anglican newspaper.
SICILY IS THE KEY TO EVERYTHING - Jun 23, 2013 |
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Mr JAMES MORWOODWADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORDJames Morwood read Classics at Peterhouse, Cambridge's oldest college, before a year at Merton College, Oxford. For many years he was Head of Classics at Harrow School before moving on to teach Latin and Greek at Oxford University as a Fellow of Wadham College, where he was Dean and is now an Emeritus Fellow. He has written and co-written many books concerning the ancient world, his main interest at the moment being Greek drama. At Harrow he led many expeditions to classical climes, he has been on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, and he retains a deep love of Greek culture. Passionate about all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization, he has recently completed a book on the Emperor Hadrian. Lecturing on:THE ISLES OF GREECE - Sep 9, 2013 GRAND CRUISE TO THE ISLES OF LEGENDS & HEROES - Sep 9, 2013 |
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Dr OSWYN MURRAYBALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORDOswyn Murray is one of the leading historians of the ancient world; he has been lecturing on Mediterranean cruises since 1987, and has travelled widely in Russia and the Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea, and in modern Turkey. He was a Fellow of Balliol College Oxford for nearly forty years, and held the posts of Senior Tutor, Vice-Master and director of the Graduate Centre. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an honorary member of the Royal Danish Academy and the Scuola Normale of Pisa; he has been a visiting lecturer in Paris, and at Bryn Mawr and MIT in the United States. He is the author of Early Greece and history editor of the best-selling Oxford History of the Classical World; his books have been translated into many leading European languages and into Chinese. O' THE WILD CHARGE THEY MADE - Aug 29, 2013 |
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Prof ILI NAGYUNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND, TACOMAIli Nagy, lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America, recently retired from her position as Professor of Art History at the University of Puget Sound. She specializes in the art and archaeology of Greece and Rome, early Christian and Byzantine Art, and Etruscan archaeology. Professor Nagy is a fellow and trustee of the American Academy in Rome, where she also held the position of Director of the Classical Summer School, and she has served as Professor-in-Charge at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. GOD CREATED THE KORNATI ISLANDS - Sep 21, 2013 |
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PATRICK NIXONCMG OBEAfter studying classics and history at Cambridge Patrick spent most of his 37 year career as a diplomat either in the Middle East or dealing with its crises from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. TIME FEARS THE PYRAMIDS - Oct 25, 2013 GRAND WONDERS OF ANTIQUITY - Oct 13, 2013 |
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Prof JONATHAN PHILLIPSRoyal Holloway, University of LondonJonathan Phillips is Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of numerous books on the crusades, most recently Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusades which was published by the Bodley Head to very positive reviews and selected as a ‘History Book of 2009’ by The Sunday Telegraph. |
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ERNEST REABroadcasterErnie Rea is a celebrated broadcaster who specialises on the history of religions and the way that faith impacts on the contemporary world. His regular radio programme, Beyond Belief, was awarded the prestigious Sony Gold Award for the best Speech Programme on British Radio.
He worked for the BBC for 22 years in a variety of production and editorial roles. From 1989 -2001 he was Head of Religious Broadcasting for the BBC responsible for all their television and radio programmes nationally and locally. During this time, he spent much time in the United States, brokering co-production television deals with leading American broadcasters. He was closely involved in a variety of key national events, including the Funeral Service for Diana, Princess of Wales. He is in wide demand as a speaker at a wide variety of events, including international inter faith conferences, literary festivals, and academic symposia. THE GRAND TOUR.... - May 28, 2013 |
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NICHOLAS REEDART HISTORIANNicholas is an art historian and an archaeologist, graduating from Oxford and St Andrews in the 1970s. He is the author of five books about art, mainly on the French Impressionists, and has taken part in some thirty archaeological excavations, with fifteen articles published in journals on Roman history and archaeology. Nicholas has been a lecturer for the British National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies since 1991. He was invited by the Cultural and Heritage Commission of New Jersey to give some taster lectures and introduce the concept of NADFAS to the USA, and for this reason has lectured at several locations in New Jersey. He also gives talks on the American Impressionists, highlighting the French Impressionist scenes which Seward Johnson has reconstructed with life-size sculptures in full colour at Grounds for Sculpture near Princeton. THE GRAND TOUR.... - May 28, 2013 |
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ANTHONY REIDSOUTHEAST ASIA HISTORIANTony Reid has spent 40 years researching and writing Southeast Asian history, since his first degrees from New Zealand and PhD from Cambridge. Along the way he taught in universities in Malaysia, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the U.S. His eight books and some 30 edited collections on the subject span the 15th to the 21st centuries. Many of them have been translated into Indonesian, and the 2-volume Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450 1680 (Yale University Press, 1988-93) also into Thai, Chinese and Japanese. |
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Dr. JOYCE SALISBURYUniversity of Wisconsin - Green BayJoyce grew up in Brazil and Mexico, then moved to the States and obtained a PhD in Medieval History from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She was endlessly curious about what shapes people’s actions, and thus focused on the history of religion and aspects of social history, like the history of sexuality. Joyce was an award-winning teacher at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. When she retired, she could indulge her twin passions of writing books and giving lectures all over the world. |
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Prof DAVID TOMPKINSCARLETON COLLEGE, NORTHFIELD, MNDavid Tompkins is an Assistant Professor of History and the Director of the European Studies Program at Carleton College, where he teaches a broad range of courses on European history. In his own research, he specializes in the culture and societies of Eastern Europe. David spent his undergraduate years at Rice University (with stints in London, Vienna, and the south of France), and did his graduate work at Columbia University. O' THE WILD CHARGE THEY MADE - Aug 29, 2013 |
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Prof WILLIAM G. WAGNERBrown Professor of History, Williams CollegeA specialist on Imperial Russian and early Soviet history, Bill Wagner has been at Williams since 1980. He has written widely on pre-Revolutionary Russian law, religion, and women and currently is completing a book entitled Russian Sisters: Monasticism, Modernity, and the Nizhnii Novgorod Convent of the Exaltation of the Cross, 1764-1935. O' THE WILD CHARGE THEY MADE - Jul 15, 2013 GRAND VOYAGE TO THE BLACK SEA - Jul 3, 2013 |
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Dr CANDACE WEDDLEAnderson University, SOUTH CAROLINACandace Weddle is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Anderson University, South Carolina. She holds a Ph.D. in classical Art History from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, an M.A. in Medieval Art History from Tulane University in New Orleans, and a B.A. in Classics from Baylor University in her home state of Texas. I FOUND ROME A CITY OF BRICKS - Jul 3, 2013 O' THE WILD CHARGE THEY MADE - Jul 15, 2013 GRAND VOYAGE TO THE BLACK SEA - Jul 3, 2013 |
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Prof NANCY WILKIECARLETON COLLEGE, NORTHFIELDNancy Wilkie, lecturer for Carleton College and the Archaeological Institute of America, is a distinguished archaeologist and professor who has lectured on numerous educational tours and cruises throughout the Mediterranean. Nancy is the William H. Laird Professor of Classics, Anthropology, and the Liberal Arts, and Co-Director of the Archaeology Concentration at Carleton College (Northfield, MN), where she has been on the faculty since 1974. ITALY FROM DESIGNS BY MICHELANGELO - Oct 3, 2013 |
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GLORIA WYETH NEUMEIERFromm Institute, University of San FranciscoAfter Gloria Neumeier first taught in a dirt floored village school in Kenya in 1979, she and her late husband went on to some twenty years of teaching in Asia and Eastern Europe. Through assignments at universities and teachers' colleges and through agencies like the Soros Open Society program, they worked to understand and explain the divisions of the Cold War and Communist societies as well as the newly independent ones. China, Vietnam, Kosovo, Korea and Estonia were all fascinating laboratories of change in the late 20th and early 21st Century. In the last three years Gloria has worked with schools in Cambodia, Tamil Nadu, India and Burma/Myanmar, due to her everlasting interest in "nations in transition", and how globalization is affecting these SE Asian societies. |
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