This year digital technology has brought us closer together than ever. With geography no object, we’re inviting experts on the Romantic era from all over the world to tell us all about the exciting things they’re up to. We’ll be exploring their thoughts on everything Wordsworthian, from poetry and artefacts to nature and the modern world, as well as finding out about their new books and research. We’ll also be investigating some of the themes raised in the free online course William Wordsworth: Poetry, People and Place. They’ll bring their enthusiasm, we’ll bring the questions – and we’d like to share your questions with them too!
This series is hosted by Jeff Cowton, Curator & Head of Learning at Wordsworth Grasmere, and Simon Bainbridge, Professor of Romantic Studies at the University of Lancaster.
For further information, please contact Hannah Catterall, Events Officer at Wordsworth Grasmere, at h.catterall@wordsworth.org.uk
Disparate Romantics: Jonathan Bate
8 October, 7.30pm, £5
Professor Sir Jonathan Bate, award-winning biographer, joins Jeff Cowton and Simon Bainbridge to talk about his new book Radical Wordsworth, which explores Wordsworth’s radical life as a thinker and poetical innovator. He will reflect on what he learned when making his BBC Radio 4 series ‘In Wordsworth’s Footsteps’.
Jonathan Bate CBE is Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and Foundation Professor of Environmental Humanities at Arizona State University. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford, where he was Provost from 2011 to 2019.
Book details here
Disparate Romantics: Stephen Gill
22 October, 7.30pm, £5
Professor Stephen Gill joins Jeff Cowton and Simon Bainbridge to discuss his new edition of William Wordsworth: A Life, what it’s like to revisit this work after nearly three decades, and how far his understanding of Wordsworth has changed.
Stephen Gill is Professor Emeritus at Oxford University and Supernumerary Fellow at Lincoln College, Oxford, and a long-serving member of the Wordsworth Trust. His publications include The Salisbury Plain Poems, which inaugurated the Cornell Wordsworth Series, Wordsworth and the Victorians, Wordsworth’s Revisitings, and edited collections including William Wordsworth: Selected Poems and William Wordsworth: The Major Works.
Book details here
Disparate Romantics: Kerri Andrews
12 November, 7.30pm, £5
Dr Kerri Andrews joins Jeff Cowton and Simon Bainbridge to discuss her new book Wanderers: A History of Women Walking, which traces the footsteps of ten women over the past three hundred years who have found walking essential to their sense of themselves, as people and as writers – including Dorothy Wordsworth.
Kerri Andrews is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Edge Hill University. She has published widely on women’s writing, especially Romantic-era authors, and is a keen hill-walker and member of Mountaineering Scotland.
Book details here
Disparate Romantics: Robert Morrison
26 November, 7.30pm, £5
Professor Robert Morrison joins Jeff Cowton and Simon Bainbridge to discuss his new book The Regency Revolution, which has been longlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association prize for the best in non-fiction historical writing.
Robert Morrison is British Academy Global Professor at Bath Spa University and Queen’s National Scholar at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He is the author of several books including The English Opium-Eater: A Biography of Thomas De Quincey.
Book details here
Disparate Romantics: Saeko Yoshikawa
3 December, 7.30pm, £5
Professor Saeko Yoshikawa joins Jeff Cowton and Simon Bainbridge to discuss her new book William Wordsworth and Modern Travel, and the history of tourism in the Lake District.
Saeko Yoshikawa is a professor in the Department of English Studies at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan. She is also the author of William Wordsworth and the Invention of Tourism: 1820-1900.
Book details here
Disparate Romantics: Nick Mason
10 December, 7.30pm, £5
Professor Nick Mason joins Jeff Cowton and Simon Bainbridge to discuss William Wordsworth’s Guide to the Lakes and his work on the new digital edition hosted by the Romantic Circles website. He will also be talking about editing an edition of Dorothy Wordsworth’s Lakeland writings with Professors Paul Westover and Michelle Levy.
Nick Mason is Professor of English at Brigham Young University. He specializes in 18th- and 19th-century British literature (especially Romanticism), book and periodical studies, and contemporary European literature and culture.
Book details here