1. art and entertainment
2. shows and events
3. festival

9 Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS. Tel: 0121 236 3591
2015 Summer Programme
Contents
Courses / Classes / Meetings
Pages 2 - 5
Concerts / Music
Pages 6 - 7
Other Events / News
Pages 8 - 10
Important Dates
Monday 4th May
Closed for Bank Holiday
Monday 25th May
Closed for Bank Holiday
Monday 31st August
Closed for Bank Holiday
1
Courses / Classes / Meetings
Day School - Waterloo 200 Day
Saturday 20th June
The course tutor is Richard Stone MA and Dr Trevor James.
This year we celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Duke of Wellington’s famous
victory at the Battle of Waterloo. This Day School will look at some important
aspects of this important event.
09:45 – 10:15
Registration and Coffee on arrival
10:15 – 11:30
The life and achievements of the Duke of Wellington Trevor James
11:30 – 12:30
The life, the loves and military career of Sir Henry William
Paget, lord of the manor of Burton-upon-Trent and 1st
Marquess of Anglesey. Paget was second-in-command to
the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, charge of the combined
English, Dutch and Belgian cavalry - Richard Stone
12:30 – 13:30
Lunch
13:30 – 14:30
The Paget story continues - Richard Stone
14:30 – 15:00
Coffee/tea break
15:00 – 16:00
The Battle of Waterloo - Trevor James
Course fee: £28.00 (to include lunch, tea and coffee).
The Dickens Fellowship
Meetings are held at the BMI on the second Wednesday of the month at 7.00pm.
Visitors are always welcome.
13th May
Dickensian “Romantic Encounters” Jeff McDonald
10th June
Annual General Meeting
8th July
12th August
“Dombey and Son” Brian Titton
“Dickens Elsewhere” Rose Curley
Further details are available from Secretary Mrs D Ward on 0121 357 6593
2
Monday Lectures
Lectures start at 1.00pm unless otherwise stated.
May
Republicanism.
Graham Smith, the CEO of Republic, explores the institution
of Monarchy and the democratic alternatives.
18th May
The Work of William James Bloye 1890 – 1975.
Described as Birmingham’s unofficial civic sculptor William
Bloye dominated commissioned sculpture in the city for over
30 years. Equally at home in stone or bronze his best
known works include the reliefs for the Hall of Memory, the
Boulton Watt and Murdoch group in Centenary Square and
Dudley’s spectacular Apollo Fountain. This talk to be given
by Brendan Flynn will examine his career and his major
achievements in stone and bronze.
11th
My Life in Ambridge.
Mary Cutler, the longest serving script writer on the Archers
talks about her 36 years on the team.
1st June
8th June
15th June
Since April 1979 Mary Cutler has seen out several script
editors, quite a few characters and actors. Having been
involved with some memorable plot lines from love triangles
to fatal accidents she will give a brief insight into how this
remarkable programme is put together and kept on the road
six nights a week and every week of the year.
Schubert’s Piano Sonata B flat Major.
John Humphreys the well-known Birmingham pianist and
teacher at the Conservatoire will perform and talk about this
monumental work.
‘God Bless Us Everyone’ Charles Dickens and Religion.
Charles Dickens’s published works offer plenty of examples
of those aspects of nineteenth-century religious practice of
which he did not approve. It is more difficult to approach his
own relationship to belief because of his deep sense of
privacy and discretion about such matters. As he wrote in
one of his last letters on the day before he died, he ‘never
made proclamation of his faith from the house tops’.
In this talk, Dr Tony Williams will explore some of Dickens’s
attitudes to belief, illustrated from his fiction, journalism and
correspondence.
Dr Williams is Associate Editor of the International Dickens
Fellowship’s journal, The Dickensian, and a Senior
3
Honorary Research Fellow in Humanities at the University
of Buckingham.
22nd June
Fraudulent Attorneys up to no good in Regency Leeds.
Geoffrey Forster the former librarian of the Leeds Library
tells that there were many; one of whom had a secret life
and a very public death.
29th June
The Mosley Effect: Sir Oswald Mosley, the Birmingham
Labour Party and the Chamberlain Brothers.
Professor Roger Ward writes that the most prominent of the
high status recruits to the Labour Party in the 1920s were
the Mosleys Oswald and his wife Cynthia (‘Cimmie’),
daughter of Lord Curzon. ‘Cimmie’ became MP for Stokeon-Trent, while Oswald (Sir Oswald from 1928) set his
sights on the Chamberlain fortress at Birmingham. In 1924
he stood against Neville in Ladywood, losing by only a hotly
disputed 77 votes. Between 1924 and 1929 he financed
and dominated the Birmingham Labour Party (BLP), leading
it to a spectacular success in 1929. Entering Ramsay
MacDonald’s government in 1929, he failed to convert the
Labour Party to his ideas and resigned to form the New
Party. In 1931 the BLP was smashed universal hegemony
restored, and the Chamberlain Brothers could breathe
again!
6th July
This Hazy City: Louis Mac Neice and the Literary Life of
Birmingham in the 1930s.
The poet Louis MacNeice taught classics for several years
at The University of Birmingham. This lecture given by the
author William Palmer will examine his life and work in the
city and his relations with prominent Midland writers of the
time.
13th July
Did Dostoevsky meet Dickens?
This question stands at the centre of a recent literary and
historical controversy. This lecture to be given by historian
Dr Trevor James will not say much about either Dostoevsky
or Charles Dickens: rather it will explore the Transatlantic
controversy which arose from attempts to verify whether this
meeting had happened or not.
Admission £3 / Members Free
The lecture programme may be subject to change without notice. Coffee and
refreshments are available in the Coffee Lounge at the BMI.
4
Literature Study Days
Fridays from 10:00am to 4:00pm.
1st
May
Discoveries:
A few poems, a play, a novel and a film – all of which we
confidently expect to discover during 2014-15.
Advance booking is essential. Contact Philip Fisher at the BMI for places.
The course fee is £15 per day / BMI members £14
Art Classes
The Institute runs a live art class on Monday evenings under the tutorship of Terry
Mullett.
Please Contact the BMI Reception for further details.
5
Concerts / Music
Piano Recital by Marie-Louise Taylor
Friday 22nd May at 1:00pm
Marie-Louise Taylor has performed as soloist and chamber musician for music
clubs and venues around the country including the Adrian Boult Hall, Royal
Holloway College, CBSO centre, Artrix Arts Centre, Bromsgrove, the Gateway in
Shrewsbury as well as St Johns Smiths Square and the Wigmore Hall in London.
After studying at the Royal Academy of Music she gained a scholarship to the
Kodaly Institute in Hungary. She has taught piano for The Royal Welsh College of
Music, the Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham University and the RNCM
Junior School. Marie - Louise is currently on the staff of the prestigious Chethams
School of Music in Manchester.
This recital at the BMI pays personnel homage to the Scottish composer/pianist
Ronald Stevenson who died in March.
Beethoven
Liszt
Rondo in C Major
Les Jeux d'eau a la villa d'Este
Chopin tran Liszt
Paderewski trans Stevenson
Bridge tran. Stevenson
Stevenson
Grainger
Chopin
Meinen Freuden
‘Gypsy Song’
Go Not,Happy Day
‘Keening Sang For A Makar’
Rosenkavalier. Ramble
Barcarolle op 60
Tickets (at the door) £7 / Concessions £5 / Students £2
The Midland Chamber Players - Live at Lunchtime
Fridays at 1:10pm – 2:10pm
15th May
THE LIONEL AND RAENA GREEN BIRTHDAY CONCERT
SCHUBERT - “The Trout” Quintet
Tickets £7 / Concessions £6 / Students £2
6
Concerts of Recorded Music
Concerts of Recorded Music are held most Wednesdays from 1.00pm–2.00pm.
The first meeting in the summer programme will begin on 6 May 2015.
For further information please contact Mr Trevor Robinson (0121-422 5239).
7
Other Events / News
Art Exhibitions
May
Midland Painting Group.
An exhibition of paintings of a variety of styles and mixed
media.
June
Nicholas Sims.
A series of oil paintings of the countryside: North Devon and
nature in and around Sutton Coldfield.
July
Birmingham Printmakers.
A group of artists that produce prints using a range of
traditional and contemporary printmaking techniques. Our
membership includes professionals, and non-professionals
who love the diversity and creative possibilities that
printmaking offers. We have been offering workshops in
Birmingham for over 30 years.
Friday Morning Club
The Friday Morning Club meets from 11.00am-12.00noon every Friday and offers
a selection of musical, literary and video presentations. The second Friday of
each month is reserved for informal poetry readings on subjects chosen by
members.
All members of the BMI are welcome to attend free of charge. For others there is a
charge of £1.00
1st May
Ian Thomson: A Brummie Abroad
8th May
Random Readings
15th May
Models and Memories
22nd May
Rupert Hooton: School Days in World War 2
29th May
John Smith: Music from World War 1
5th June
Philippa Clarkson: London Life
12th June
Random Readings
19th June
Bill Hales: Perfect Partners
26th June
Social Coffee Morning
8
Reading Group
The BMI reading group meets in the Institute’s coffee lounge from 2.00pm until
3.30pm on the third Thursday of the month beginning 21st May 2015.
The cost for tea, coffee and biscuits is £1.85 per meeting.
However, as the group is currently full, anyone wishing to put their name on a
waiting list should, in the first instance, enquire at the reception desk.
Library News and Recent Additions
The Institute has received a bequest of over 4000 books from the estate of a
former member Mr Robert Deeley. This collection, which consists of books in the
fields of Architecture, Church History, Landscape, Archaeology and Topography, is
housed separately. This collection has now been catalogued and may be visited
by arrangement with the Administrator.
HISTORY AND LITERATURE
Hugh Brogan “History of the USA”
R Freeman “Unsinkable”: “Churchill and the First World War”
Nick Lipscombe “Wellington’s Guns”
Peter Marsh “The Chamberlain Litany”
A Tucker “On the Trail of the Great War: Birmingham 1914-1918”
Michael Rosen “Shakespeare and his Work and World”
FICTION
Penelope Lively “Heat Wave”
Barbara Pym “Civil to Strangers”
ARCHITECTURE AND BIOGRAPHY
P Ballard “Birmingham Victorian and Edwardian Architects”
R A Gabriel “Scipio Africanus: Rome’s Greatest General”
Stephen Roberts “Sir Benjamin Stone”
List of Council Members 2015
Ms Lindsey Davis, President
Mr B W Abell, Vice President
Mr A Wilkins, Vice President
Mr T J P Ryan, Hon Treasurer
Miss C Potts, Hon Secretary
Mrs G Arnold
Professor R G Arnott
Mr H Carslake
Mr J Claughton
Mrs D Cornwallis Doran
Mrs A Duggan
9
Mr D Greengrass
Mr J B Hall
Mrs I Field
Mr W Hales
Rev D Hewlett
Mr M Killeen
Lord Mayor
Hon Alderman J Whorwood
Dr Michael Lawrence
Professor Dilwyn Porter
10