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ALL WRAPPED UP: A CHRISTMAS CONFECTION Caroline Bacon, Former Curator of Cecil Higgins, and Manager of Rothsay Education Centre Taking Christmas, Winter and the Nativity as our theme, we will look at a number of artists from Breughel to Damien Hirst and their response to Christmas (or winter) through a variety of art media. An opportunity to discover how the concept and image of Christmas has changed over the centuries. Branch social activities are arranged in order to raise funds…

The vine project aims to enable vulnerable children and young people in choir Zulu Natal, South Africa to get the best education possible. Kate Stross was inspired to become a supporter of the project in late 2011 and has since visited South Africa regularly.

An extraordinary range of musical activities, both forced and voluntary, took place in the Nazi ghettos and camps, from the earliest internment centres established in 1933 until the liberation in 1945. The musical works these prisoners created are extraordinary documents from the time: fragments recovered from the rubble of war and genocide; monuments to the lives that were destroyed. In this talk, which will feature many film extracts, Shirli Gilbert, professor of Modern History at Southampton University with a specialism in Jewish History and particularly the Holocaust, will highlight original music from this period, including some rare post-war recordings. The songs offer rich insight into victims’ experiences, conveying the uncertain and shifting perspectives of prisoner communities as they made sense of lived reality.

The Rise of China as a challenge to liberal teleology: can China be both rich and communist? Speaker Professor Yongjin Zhang, University of Bristol

Lunch followed by a talk by Rod Spokes on Norwich Architecture 1938 to present.

New Year’s Party Join us for a glass of wine to celebrate the new year!

THE RT HON BARONESS D’SOUZA, Former Lord Speaker of the House of Lords Our speaker has had a distinguished career in science – anthropology, brain chemistry and human nutrition. She has, in addition, a wide range of other interests – human rights, development, gender equality. She was created a Life Peer in 2004 and sat as a crossbencher in the House of Lords, being elected Lord Speaker for 5 years from 2011 to 2016.    Baroness D’Souza is therefore well qualified…