Please note change of date to the SECOND Wednesday in September

The Speaker:  Mike Burton

Mike is a former newspaper journalist and teacher, now retired. He spent many years in New Zealand, working as a reporter for the national daily newspaper. Much of his teaching career was at Uppingham School, where he was Director of Studies and taught History. 

The Talk: The Bayeux Tapestry Story

Two centuries ago the world woke up to the amazing survival of a beautiful, ambiguous and occasionally rather funny historical record, which has returned to England for the first time since its creation less than 20 years after 1066.  A giant embroidery, a medieval comic strip which tells the story of one of the most important events in English History.  But the so-called tapestry has itself had an action-packed life.  But did an impressive English Queen, a brilliant embroiderer, subtly manipulate the story it tells in order to dampen Norman triumphalism and uphold the reputation of the English?