Little Gidding
Saturday 6 July and Sunday 7 July 2013
Note: all timings are approximate and may be subject to change. The details of speakers and talks are confirmed, but may be subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances.
Saturday 6 July 2013
| 2.00pm | Prufrock and other humorous poems Peter Cochran and Jenny Sargent read Prufrock and some of Eliot’s lighter poems. |
| 2.40pm | Valete: Family Memories
Graham Fletcher is the nephew of Valerie and T S Eliot. |
| 3.40pm | Afternoon tea The AGM of the T S Eliot Society (UK) will take place during this break, beginning at 4.00pm |
| 4.30pm | MY FAVOURITE ELIOT Festival-goers are invited to read a short piece or extract from the works of T S Eliot. (It would be helpful if you could notify us if you are interested in contributing to this. Please email eliotfestival@littlegidding.org.uk). |
| 5.00pm | Annual Little Gidding Lecture of the T S Eliot Society Genesis of Murder in the Cathedral Kenneth Pickering Kenneth Pickering is honorary professor of drama and theatre at the University of Kent. He is the author of (amongst other books) Drama in the Cathedral, a chronicle of the Canterbury Festival at which Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral was first performed. |
| 6.00pm | Supper Supper in the garden at Ferrar House with its delightful views of Little Gidding Church and south over the Huntingdonshire countryside. |
| 7.30pm | EVENING DRAMA Excerpts from Murder in the Cathedral Peter Cochran and Jenny Sargent in a dramatic reading of excerpts from the play Murder in the Cathedral. |
| 8.30pm | End of Saturday’s programme. |
Sunday 7 July 2013
On Sunday the Festival will be joined by members of the T S Eliot International Summer School taking place at the University of London.
| 11 am | Welcome drinks |
| 11.30 am | ‘Little Gidding’ Poets Robert Crawford and Daljit Nagra read ‘Little Gidding’ A moment always much anticipated at the Festival each year is the reading of ‘Little Gidding’ on the lawn in front of Little Gidding Church. |
| 12 noon | Publishing update Professor Ronald Schuchard and others give the latest details of the publication of the complete works. |
| 12.15pm | Lunch |
| 1.15pm | Eliot and Popular Music Nancy and Guy Hargrove Nancy Duvall Hargrove is William L Giles Distinguished Professor Emerita of English at Mississippi State University. She is the author of Landscape as Symbol in the Poetry of T S Eliot (Mississippi, 1978) and T S Eliot’s Parisian Year (Florida, 2010). Guy Hargrove is retired Professor of Voice at Mississippi State University and an accomplished tenor singer. |
| 2.00pm | Annual Little Gidding Lecture of the International Summer School Lyndall Gordon What might have been and what has been: Eliot’s Search for Perfection in Four Quartets. Lyndall Gordon is a Senior Research Fellow at St Hilda’s College, Oxford; she is the author of Eliot’s Early Years and T S Eliot: An Imperfect Life, which have recently been republished together under the title The Imperfect Life of T S Eliot (Virago, 2012). |
| 3.00pm | Afternoon Tea |
| 3.45pm | Festival Choral Evensong in Little Gidding Church |
| 4.30pm | End of Festival programme |
The T S Eliot Festival is organized by the Friends of Little Gidding and the T S Eliot Society, with financial support from Old Possum’s Practical Trust.