ADULT HISTORICAL PRESENTATIONS by BOB

In the following, each of which takes about an hour, I take the part of a

contemporary character and tell the story of the event or person as if I

were there at the time, incorporating stories where appropriate.    

Each of the following presentations will be given in the

Eagle Wing, Edgeworth House, Arlesey, SG15 6SX

1. Lovers on the Nile – with Sam and Florence Baker in 1870, searching for the source of the Nile in Africa.   In this, I look back after almost fifty years to when I was Sam’s secretary, sharing with him and the delectable Florence the heat, the flies, the thirst, and the fear of wild animals and hostile natives.    4.00pm Saturday 6^th February

2. Into the Heart of Africa - with Henry Morton Stanley.    In this I am a big game hunter who accompanies Stanley’s party on his circumvention of Lake Victoria and later adventures .   4.00pm Saturday 24^th April.

3. Prince of Travellers – with Ibn Battuta in the Moslem World, in which I am a pilgrim who travels the same road in the 1340s.   Battuta was the great traveller of the Medieval period, visiting virtually the whole of the known world, in some 40 years of journeys.     6.30pm Sunday 20^th June

4. Sojourn in Valdemosa – with Chopin and George Sand in 1839.   2010 is the 200^th anniversary of Chopin’s birth, as it is of Schumann’s.     I am a monk in the monastery the couple lived in during their time in Majorca.      4.00pm Sunday

5^th September.

5. Journey on the Silk Road.     In this I am a merchant making a journey from Chang-an (now Xian) to Kashgar in AD1328, describing the journey, the difficulties, the privations, the dangers and the strange customs of those I meet on the way. 4.00pm Sunday 3^rd October

6. Eusabius and Florestan – in 1856 I am a nurse in the lunatic asylum which is the home of Robert Schumann in the last year of his life.   We look back over his career, his marriage to Clara, and his music.     4.00pm Sunday 7^th November.