Sun Jester 

Arsenic pervaded almost every aspect of life in C19th Britain, leaving a toll of illness, death and murder. We explore everyday uses of arsenic in the home, in manufacturing, and in the realm of medicine; the tragedy of accidental poisonings and the sinister application by those with malice aforethought.

Horror and humour combine in tales of how early doctors and scientists experimented with anaesthesia. To transform surgery from terrifying ordeal to pain free experience resulted in alarming degrees of both bravery and recklessness.

This talk explores attitudes towards women throughout history. We will look at how such attitudes became embedded, specifically in western society, and now have a global impact. Stories of women who, in the past and more recently, have used their wits, their courage, their humour, to survive and thrive in a world where men seem to hold all the power. If you thought that the fight for women’s equality was over and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 made it all fair, think again! 

A darkly humorous look at medicine in the 19th Century. The reign of Victoria saw the development of chemical medicine from medieval alchemy, to modern pharmacy. Chemists lent their ingenuity to provide anything customers wanted. Some made fortunes, some made disastrous mistakes.

An often light-hearted examination of some of the cons, swindles and outright thievery practiced on unwary visitors in 16th Century London. Both shocking and amusing - and you thought the city was dangerous now!

From the Bronze Age to the present day, we investigate the significance of swords in fact and fiction using handling examples from our own collection. We examine their design and adaptation to changing technology and use. A lively look at how we managed to kill each other in the age before gunpowder!

In the mid-19th century, many of London’s poorest inhabitants earned their living on the streets of the capital, by legal and sometimes not-so-legal means. From Crossing Sweepers to Costermongers, we introduce some of the more colourful characters of Victorian London, real people, many of whom may have inspired the stories of Dickens.

Even if you don’t like honey, you will be awed and inspired by just how much use humans have made of honey over the last 10,000 years and how vital bees are for the future of food production and our natural world. 

The Romans were very clever but their ideas on medicine and surgery relied largely on magic and folklore. This talk is accompanied by real artefacts and authentic replicas which give insight into how the Romans thought the body worked and what they did to treat disease and injury. Prepare to be surprised!

Or is it? Most people think of archaeologists, kneeling in holes in the ground, painstakingly uncovering the past with brushes and trowels. Although the objects they uncover are hugely important, archaeology has also embraced exciting new technologies to revolutionise our understanding of the past. This talk looks at how some of these new methods have been used to revitalise the story of our ancestors

A chance for a little known and misunderstood queen to be seen as the complicated, passionate and determined woman she was. A spotlight on how invisible women can often be in history.

Using the latest discoveries in British archaeology, we introduce a series of our personal highlights from the ancient past, through the amazing evidence for some of the earliest inhabitants of these islands, “First Peoples”, “Neanderthals” and “Hunter Gathers to First Farmers”. Three topics available as one-off or as a series.

Look around you, can you imagine a world without string, thread, rope, baskets, mats and clothes? Things we totally take for granted in the modern world. Yet needles were invented long before the discovery of metal, and the production of all these items, seldom found in the archaeological record, depended for millennia on generations of women working to spin and weave the fabric of human society. Discover the impact of this invisible history.

The astounding story of a Bedfordshire man involved in almost every major event in the first half of the 20th century. A regular visitor to Cliveden, his friends included Nancy Astor, Winston Churchill, Amy Johnson and Lawrence of Arabia. His influence was far-reaching and yet, sadly, he is virtually unknown today.

Some of the most successful spies of WW2 were the unlikeliest of candidates. Not all were glamorous playboys in the vein of James Bond, in fact they included a professional safe breaker, a chicken farmer and a bank clerk. Here are the amazing stories of a few of the brave (and sometimes bizarre) individuals who helped bring about the Allied victory.

We can learn a lot from the past and how our ancestors lived, loved, fought and died. That evidence is still visible, often in unlikely places. All we need is curiosity and to be observant. During 2020 many of us spent time on local walks and probably discovered nooks and crannies that we never knew existed. You don’t need to be historians or archaeologists to see the clues. This talk is based on where Sun Jester live in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Since 2001, for the general public, the imagery of Middle Earth has been dominated by Peter Jackson's films and the work of Alan Lee, the films' conceptual designer. This two-part series will look at how JRR Tolkien's work had been interpreted by earlier artists. As well as Tolkien's own artwork, it will be focusing on the influence the books had on artists from the 1950s to the 1990s, including behind the "Iron Curtain", the Soviet Union having banned the Lord of the Rings as a "Subversive Text" in the 1970s. Discover which artists Tolkien personally approved of....and those he did not!