Articles featuring Madingley Hall | LeisureCourses.net - short courses & residential study breaks in great locations - Part 4
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Advanced Italian: A cultural grand tour of Italy
Listed on April 8, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesA weekend on Italian language, literature and culture, offering those with a fair or good knowledge of Italian the opportunity not only to practise and improve their language skills, but also to read, translate and discuss a selection of work by Italian writers and to watch original audio-visual material related to the topic of the...
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John of Gaunt
Listed on April 8, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesJohn of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340-99) is one of the most high-profile, and best-documented, English noblemen of the Middle Ages. This course will explore his life as a way into topics such as the Hundred Years War, the Great Revolt of 1381 (in which Gaunt was public enemy number one) and developments in the...
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French crime fiction: from Vidocq to Vargas
Listed on April 8, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course examines the French side of cross-Channel competition and exchange, through key authors who have influenced crime writing since its establishment in the mid-19th century. The themes will be: i) the growth of French detectives in in inquisitorial system of justice; ii) the educational importance of the historical past on the events of the...
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Prehistoric Britain: an archaeological introduction
Listed on April 8, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe course will look at all aspects of prehistoric development in Britain. We will explore topics such as Bronze Age burials, flint and metal implements, Stonehenge, megalithic burial mounds, stone circles, Iron Age hill forts and settlements, agriculture, fields and farming. We will discover how prehistoric societies developed from their early origins into the formalised...
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A history of English furniture, 1500-1830
Listed on April 3, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesA history of English furniture from its beginnings in 1500 through to the beginning of the Victorian period using, as a framework, the woods principally utilised, and combining this with art and social history. The course will aim to provide an appreciation of English furniture, and there will be an opportunity to handle some items.
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An introduction to coaching
Listed on April 2, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesCoaching is an increasingly popular and widely used approach to developing people in their working and personal lives. This introductory course will provide an understanding of the nature of coaching and introduce you to the key skills and techniques in both organisational and personal development settings.
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Quentin Tarantino: the good, the bad and the cult
Listed on April 2, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesControversial, provocative and endlessly quotable, the films of Quentin Tarantino are celebrated and criticised in equal measure. This day course will take a close look the director’s style, influences and central themes. What makes his work so successful but so divisive? If you’ve ever wondered what a reservoir dog is, this is the course for...
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Writing fiction for children of primary school age
Listed on April 1, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesFunny, adventurous, wacky, imaginative, interesting books aimed at children between 6 and 11 years old are always on publishers' wish-lists. This course aims at helping you develop characters, plot, style and ideas, never losing sight of the current market, to get your children's book written and published.
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Masters of British landscape from Gainsborough to Goldsworthy
Listed on April 1, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesLandscape is everywhere; an obvious subject for painters and one which has inspired many of our greatest masters, from Gainsborough, Constable and Turner to the Pre-Raphaelites and Stanley Spencer. Come and spend a weekend exploring their struggles, their triumphs, and the passion that drove them to change the ways we look at nature forever.
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Tracing the origins of the British using genetics, linguistics and chroniclers
Listed on April 1, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe origins of the British seem to have been securely laid out since Bede in AD 731, who described the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, and since Buchanan in AD 1582, who suggested that the early British were from Gaul, ultimately leading to the modern concept of an Iron Age 'Celtic' Britain. However, the traditional views...
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The Spanish Civil War
Listed on April 1, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis year sees the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The war was a major event in 20th-century Europe and attracted passionate interest across the world. This course introduces you to debates over the war's origins, its effects and the causes of Franco's victory as well as the passions roused in...
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Music for the cinema: the neglected art
Listed on April 1, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWhat exactly does music do for films when we wouldn't expect it in the theatre? Why is it no longer the force it once was? From the closing years of the silent era to close on a hundred years of 'the talkies', we trace and analyse the role of music 'in the film cast' with...
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Peace, conflict and international society
Listed on March 20, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe news seems dominated by war, violence and conflict, but these forces also lie at the heart of how and why the world operates as it does at the level of international politics. If you have ever wondered why peace is so elusive and conflict so prevalent, then this course will help you understand such...
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The English economy before the Norman Conquest: agriculturalists, artisans and aristocrats
Listed on March 18, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesHow did people make a living when there was no money in England, and how did goods circulate with no market? Come and explore fundamental questions like these on this weekend course, and trace how Anglo-Saxon towns, trade and coinage began and developed as the early Middle Ages progressed.
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Why are the Americans more religious than the British?
Listed on March 18, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesAs the race for the Presidency hots up, are you baffled by the role religion continues to play in American life? This course will set you straight. Learn about the history that has shaped American religious sensibilities, explore the data of religious practice today, and enter the American mind.
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Intermediate Russian: The 1917 Revolution – facts, fiction, arts
Listed on March 18, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis weekend is designed for those who already have a reasonable conversational grasp of Russian. You will be able to expand your knowledge of contemporary Russian language, culture and society and gain more confidence in speaking and writing. The sessions will be mostly in Russian and will include, besides language exercises, a look at current...
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Sustainable Development Goals: what difference will they make to international development?
Listed on March 18, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWe are at the cusp of significant changes in both thinking and delivering 'international assistance' as a result of the new set of targets known as the Sustainable Development Goals. With reference to case studies, this course explores the consequences of the changes ahead by looking in turn at the criteria and targets set for...
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Viking Britain
Listed on March 18, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesFor over 300 years, the Vikings were profoundly involved in British society and politics, and their legacy can still be felt throughout the British Isles. This course will introduce you to the history, archaeology, art and literature of the Vikings, and show how the idea of 'Viking Britain' continues to resonate to this day.
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Astronomy days: Rocky worlds and gas giants
Listed on March 13, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesHow do planets form? Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? In the first of a new series of astronomy day schools, we will explore the planets and other rocky bodies of our solar system, catch up on the rapidly advancing hunt for planets around other stars, and discuss the origins of life and the...
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The Anglo-Saxon Fenland
Listed on March 13, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe Anglo-Saxon fenland was colourfully described by the great Clifford Darby as 'a frontier region...the resort of brigands and bandits' in whose empty wilderness saints like Æthelthryth of Ely and Guthlac of Crowland established their new monastries. The course critically examines these assumptions in the light of recent research which suggests fenland history was more...
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Stories to live and die for: the literary prize winners
Listed on March 12, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesFiction enables us to consider some challenging, vital and creative issues and moments in life, and to imagine how things could be otherwise. We will be reading and discussing prize-winning contemporary fiction including Eimear McBride's challenging A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing (2013), which explores the life of a young Irish girl. We will also look at...
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Reading Classical Latin: Ovid and love
Listed on March 11, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesOvid claims that there are a hundred reasons why he is always in love and in reading Amores Book 2, we shall discover some of these reasons. But we shall also encounter a dead parrot, his girl Corinna's jealousy and her abortion, and Ovid's wish to be a signet ring. Anyone with a sound basic...
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Reading Classical Latin: Suetonius on Caesar
Listed on March 11, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesSuetonius's Life of Divus Iulius provides a miscellany of 'facts' from Julius Caesar's life. We discover the origin of veni vidi vici, meet his lovers, see him scorning religion, learn of his oratorical skills and follow him to his assassination on the Ides of March. Anyone with a sound basic knowledge of Latin will be...
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John’s gospel: where children can paddle and elephants can swim
Listed on March 11, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesJohn's gospel contains some of the most well-known phrases in the New Testament: 'the Word became flesh', 'I am the bread of life'. But there are also puzzles: why does John's Jesus die on a different day to the Jesus of the other gospels? Is the gospel anti-semitic? Is John's Jesus more divine than human?...
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O rare Ben Jonson
Listed on March 11, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThe appearance in 2013 of Ian Donaldson's brilliant life-and-works book on Shakespeare's friend and only serious rival Ben Jonson proves a wonderful stimulus for the study of three of his sourly evergreen comedies, The Alchemist, Volpone and Bartholemew Fair, and his tragedy Sejanus, recently and successfully revived at Stratford. There will be many laughs and...
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One day, one novel: Wuthering Heights
Listed on February 28, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis day school is part of the 'One day, one novel' series for 2015-16. Each day school focuses on one novel and through a series of lecture and class discussions, helps you to study the novel in great depth, getting to know the author and the text as closely as possible.
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One day, one novel: Pride and Prejudice
Listed on February 27, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis day school is part of the 'One day, one novel' series for 2015-16. Each day school focuses on one novel and through a series of lecture and class discussions, helps you to study the novel in great depth, getting to know the author and the text as closely as possible.
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New Testament Greek
Listed on February 26, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis course is aimed at students who have been studying Greek for a year or more. We shall read and discuss a selection of extended passages from the New Testament Gospels and Epistles, aiming to understand both their language and their historical background. We shall also by way of contrast look at some shorter extracts...
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Advanced French: Monsieur de La Fontaine
Listed on February 26, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesThis weekend course is held entirely in French. It focuses on various topics illustrated through literature and art, often related to present cultural events, and aimed at language improvement. The texts, chosen from a wide range of classic and modern writers, will be used as a basis for discussion throughout the sessions. A variety of...
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Immortality and eternity: different conceptions of the afterlife
Listed on February 26, 2016 by Madingley Hall in Featured CoursesWhat answers come from having more life? In this course, an alternative picture will be considered to the dogmatic view of eternal life as 'more life'. Through retrospective analysis of the teachings of Christ and that of 19th and 20th century philosophers, we will expose a profound and equally valid interpretation of eternal life as...
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