My lectures are designed to be both informative, insightful and easy to listen to. I have a reputation for providing easily digestible knowledge and essential to my technique is using first class images, which I spend much time perfecting. For some talks most of the photos were taken by a photographer who travelled with me on tours and these have provided me with a remarkable way of recapturing the visits and thereby bringing the places alive. My style is intended to be relaxed and I have never used notes. I believe this spontaneity and informality makes me easier to listen to. It is only be achieved by knowing my subject well.
The subjects I talk about are varied and range from one-off talks on an artist, subject or place to mini series and "armchair travel", when I recapture journeys. Nearly all of my subjects relate in a way or another to Byzantium and its impact on world history and culture, a subject that I pursued academically. The thousand years and more of Byzantine history (330-1453 CE) span the medieval centuries and provide one of the vital links in the great chain of world history, that between the ancient and the modern world. Its roots are firmly in the Greco-Roman world which gradually became a medieval Christian world. The spiritual legacy and artistic creations of the Byzantine world spread through Europe, especially the Balkans and Russia and lived on after the fall of the capital city, Constantinople, to the Turks forming a part of the modern world. The influences are extensive, evident in Rome, Ravenna, Venice, Sicily, the Balkans, essential to Russia and visible in Ottoman architecture. Byzantine mosaics created a transcendent view of the world, icons which are so much a part of the Byzantine tradition provide spiritual access to sacred truths and had a profound influence on modern art.
The history and culture of Russia interests me greatly and the link to the Byzantine world is most evident in the medieval period before the establishing of St Petersburg. In order to understand some of the problems that have arisen in today's Russia it is important to understand early Russian history and how its religion and culture became politicised.
The subjects I talk about are varied and range from one-off talks on an artist, subject or place to mini series and "armchair travel", when I recapture journeys. Nearly all of my subjects relate in a way or another to Byzantium and its impact on world history and culture, a subject that I pursued academically. The thousand years and more of Byzantine history (330-1453 CE) span the medieval centuries and provide one of the vital links in the great chain of world history, that between the ancient and the modern world. Its roots are firmly in the Greco-Roman world which gradually became a medieval Christian world. The spiritual legacy and artistic creations of the Byzantine world spread through Europe, especially the Balkans and Russia and lived on after the fall of the capital city, Constantinople, to the Turks forming a part of the modern world. The influences are extensive, evident in Rome, Ravenna, Venice, Sicily, the Balkans, essential to Russia and visible in Ottoman architecture. Byzantine mosaics created a transcendent view of the world, icons which are so much a part of the Byzantine tradition provide spiritual access to sacred truths and had a profound influence on modern art.
The history and culture of Russia interests me greatly and the link to the Byzantine world is most evident in the medieval period before the establishing of St Petersburg. In order to understand some of the problems that have arisen in today's Russia it is important to understand early Russian history and how its religion and culture became politicised.
Please join my talks, listen to the recordings and enjoy discovering more about world cultures.