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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250624T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250624T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20250415T104825Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250422T154345Z
UID:10001194-1750788000-1750793400@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Käthe Schuftan\, ‘Prophetess of Spirit’: the rediscovery of a forgotten artist
DESCRIPTION:“She believed in creative energy . . . She has lived\, and always with her art and her great energy tried to provoke everybody else to live\, in the light of freedom\, in the light of spirit; and if\, therefore\, we could have a way of remembering her\, let us always remember her as a prophetess of spirit and of freedom. That is all that she would want from us.” \nFrom the eulogy given by Eugene Halliday at Käthe Schuftan’s funeral \nThis is the story of the German Jewish refugee artist Käthe Schuftan (born Breslau 1899) who arrived in Manchester in June 1939 after suffering greatly at the hands of the Nazis and having had much of her work destroyed. She became an important figure in the artistic community of Manchester\, teaching and inspiring young artists and exhibiting her work\, but following a retrospective organised by a close friend after her death\, her work disappeared and she was forgotten. But not by an eight year old child who\, over fifty years later\, discovered documents which led her to retrace Käthe’s steps\, meeting people who had bought her paintings which had eventually resurfaced decades after her death\, thus leading to the rediscovery of the life of this remarkable woman. \nHephzibah Yohannan is an artist and writer\, once the child who was eight years old when Käthe Schuftan died\, too soon\, in 1958. She is currently working on the biographies of Käthe and of her friend the artist\, writer and psychotherapist Eugene Halliday; and is the editor of the Halliday Review and of the Melchisedec Press\, an independent publisher. \nImage: Portrait of Käthe Schuftan by Eugene Halliday \n  \nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/kathe-schuftan-prophetess-of-spirit-the-rediscovery-of-a-forgotten-artist/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Fine Art,Lectures,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Feature_KatheSchuftan.png
LOCATION:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250626T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250626T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20250409T150638Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250409T150747Z
UID:10001192-1750960800-1750966200@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Kosher Giraffe Trilogy: A talk by Hugo Max
DESCRIPTION:‘There’s an old Jewish joke that giraffe meat would be kosher\, if only we knew where to cut the neck…’ \nIn his latest publication Austrian-British multidisciplinary artist Hugo Max explores the internment of his great-grandfather as an ‘enemy alien’ on the Isle of Man during the Second World War. \nThis book showcases a triptych of exploratory narrative films and accompanying projects that include documentaries\, paintings\, writings\, musical performances and collaborations that were created in the process of researching his family history. \nInspired by the creative spirit of the refugee community who were held in requisitioned hotels on the island\, these projects consider the intersection of fact and fiction in family memory and celebrate creativity as a source of cross-cultural communication and hope. \nTo mark the publication of his new book Kosher Giraffe Trilogy\, Max will share the journey of his research as the fourth-generation descendant of an internee and will discuss the featured films and paintings. \nHugo Max (b. 2002) is a British-Austrian filmmaker\, painter and musician. He graduated from The Ruskin School of Art / Magdalen College\, Oxford in 2023 with a degree in Fine Art and studied film at the Friedl Kubelka School for Independent Film\, Vienna. \nHis filmography as a writer-director includes Dissonance\, a short film observing a string quartet in rehearsal; he also performs live improvised scores to silent films on solo viola at venues across the UK. He has lectured on improvisation and multidisciplinary practice at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.\nHugo is the author of three books: Kosher Giraffe Trilogy (2024)\, The Dissonance Book (2023) and The Stanley Series(2020). \nImage: film still \nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/kosher-giraffe-trilogy-a-talk-by-hugo-max/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Fine Art,Lectures,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Feature_Giraffe.png
LOCATION:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20250630T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20250630T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20250509T101348Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250509T101348Z
UID:10001195-1751306400-1751311800@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:The Glyndebourne Émigrés
DESCRIPTION:Nils Grosch\, Professor of Musicology at the University of Salzburg\, Austria\, will give a talk to mark the publication by Clemson University Press (USA) and Liverpool University Press of The Glyndebourne Émigrés: Operatic Mobilities in Southern England\, 1934-1940\, an anthology of essays edited by Prof. Grosch and Beth Snyder and the first book to explore in depth the important but hitherto under-examined role played by the emigrés in the early years of Glyndebourne Opera. \nIt remains a little-known fact that despite the popular perception of Glyndebourne as representing the quintessence of Englishness\, it would almost certainly never have come into existence had it not been for the involvement of refugees from Nazi Europe – most notably Artistic Directors Fritz Busch and Carl Ebert\, and General Manager\, Rudolph Bing\, but also conductor Hans Oppenheim\, singers Irene Eisinger and Ina Souez\, and répétiteur Jani Strasser\, among others. \nIn its first years of existence\, the Glyndebourne Festival Opera set out to internationalize English opera culture\, both by attracting international artists and leading proponents of a new concept of opera production and by giving émigrés the chance to further hone skills developed in Central Europe and beyond. \nImage: book cover (detail) \nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/the-glyndebourne-emigres/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Lectures,Music,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Feature_GlyndebourneEmigres.png
LOCATION:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251030T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251030T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T085238Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T090445Z
UID:10001198-1761847200-1761852600@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Hans Hess: The Goods have become the Gods
DESCRIPTION:To mark the recent publication by the Manifesto Press of Volume 3 of Hans Hess: Selected Writings\, Dr. Lucy Burke\, Academic Director of the new Hans Hess Foundation\, will introduce us to an important but hitherto under-examined art historian\, curator and left-wing cultural activist. \nBorn in Erfurt in 1908 into an affluent and cultured German-Jewish family (his father Alfred was the owner of a successful shoe-manufacturing company and an important collector of avant-garde art)\, Hans Hess spent a year at the Sorbonne before going to the USA\, familiarising himself with advertising techniques and the relatively new discipline of market research. \nPurged by the Nazis from his job at Berlin’s Ullstein publishers\, he left Germany in May 1933. He went first to Paris where he worked as an advertising copywriter\, then to London where he worked with John Heartfield in the Free German League of Culture and edited the magazines inside Nazi Germany and Germany Today. \nWar saw him interned in Canada before finding work as Deputy Keeper of Art at the Leicester Museums and Galleries\, moving in 1946 to be curator at York Art Gallery and also artistic director of the triennial York Festival. In 1967 Hess was appointed Reader in the History and Theory of Art at the new University of Sussex and wrote extensively on art history\, Marxism and visual culture. Most of these thought-provoking texts remained unpublished in his lifetime and were only rediscovered a few years ago. \nDr Lucy Burke works in the School of English at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her current research explores contemporary cultural and historical representations of disability and care – focusing specifically on dementia and learning disabilities – and the role of the arts in social justice. Forthcoming monographs: Why Should We Care (Manifesto Press)\, and Dementia Culture (Liverpool University Press). Her interest in Hans Hess returns her to her PhD which explored class and cultural politics in the interwar period. \n\nImage: Hans Hess: Selected Writings \n\nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/hans-hess-the-goods-have-become-the-gods/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Fine Art,Lectures,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Feature_HansHessWritings.png
LOCATION:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251101T110000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251101T130000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20220208T120605Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T095214Z
UID:10001204-1761994800-1762002000@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Walking Tour - Modernist Hampstead
DESCRIPTION:Discover the revolutionary Modernist homes and idealistic architecture built in Hampstead in the 1930s such as The Sun House by Maxwell Fry\, and 66 Frognal by Connell Ward and Lucas. Much of the architecture echoed design trends in Europe and the walk includes passing housing by the émigré architects Ernst Freud and Erno Goldfinger. Elements of eighteenth-century architectural design were also an influence for some architects. \nPassing some more recent examples and of course striking non modernist Hampstead buildings\, this walk will finish at the iconic and idealistic Isokon flats in Belsize Park which were famous in the 1930s for enabling Bauhaus designers and refugees to live here to escape the Nazi regime. \nThis tour is timed to coincide with the opening hours of both 2 Willow Road (needs to be booked 2 weeks in advance) and the Isokon Gallery which you may like to visit afterwards \n  \n  \n\n\nBook here \n  \nMeet in the forecourt outside Wagamamma\, 58-62 Heath Street\, London NW3 1EN \n\n\n\n 
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/modernist-hampstead-3/
LOCATION:Forecourt outside Wagamamma\, 58-62 Heath Street\, London\, NW3 1EN\, United Kingdom
CATEGORIES:Architecture,Artforms,Walks,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Feature_Isokon.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251103T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251103T160000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T095957Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T095957Z
UID:10001205-1762178400-1762185600@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Walking Tour - Diverse London - Art and Refugees in Hampstead
DESCRIPTION:In the late 1930s the Hampstead Art scene rallied support to rescue artists trapped in Czechoslovakia under Nazi rule. Led by the refugee lawyer/artist Fred Ulman and his aristocratic English wife Diana Croft from their Downshire Hill house\, they formed the artist refugee committee. We learn about how their house became a refuge for artists and about the organizations that they were involved with. We visit sites Uhlman was known to frequent and discuss the role of his artistic friends and neighbours and consider other refugees who settled in Hampstead during this time. \nBefore or after the tour you may wish to visit the Isokon Gallery and/or 2 Willow Road (advance booking required). \n  \n\n\n\nBook here. \n  \n\nMeet in the forecourt outside Wagamama\, 58-62 Heath Street\, London\, NW31EN. \nYou can check travel options at the Transport for London Journey Planner. \n\nPicture: The Coffee Cup\, Hampstead which Fred Uhlman frequented by Marilyn Greene
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/walking-tour-diverse-london-art-and-refugees-in-hampstead/
CATEGORIES:Architecture,Artforms,Walks,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Feature_CoffeeCup.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251104T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251104T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T090435Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T090435Z
UID:10001199-1762279200-1762284600@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Comrades in Art – For Peace\, Democracy and Cultural Freedom
DESCRIPTION:In the autumn of 1933 a group of twenty-something largely unknown artists and designers felt impelled to begin organising against the threat of fascism and war. They determined to create a London-based artists’ auxiliary in support of progressive causes. \nWithin two years the Artists International Association had won the support of some of the best-known artists of the era from Laura Knight to Henry Moore and was staging the landmark exhibition Artists Against Fascism and War in Soho Square. By April 1937\, with a membership approaching a thousand\, the AIA organised the First British Artists Congress – an event that laid the groundwork for positive postwar developments. \nAndy Friend’s new book – Comrades in Art\, Artists Against Fascism 1933-43 sets the rich history of the AIA in a global context. In this talk he will discuss how recently re-discovered sources have shed new light on the role of political emigrés from its first founding meetings to the landmark For Liberty exhibition\, held in the spring of 1943. The young founders of the AIA succeeded in reaching upward generationally and outward politically to build a broadly based organisation with strong international links. In doing so they united artists of many different aesthetic persuasions in opposition to divisive populism\, authoritarianism and oppression – how they did so is a tale for our time. \nAndy Friend was involved in community politics in the 1970s and worked for the Greater London Council in the 1980s before becoming Chief Executive of the City of Melbourne in the 1990s. After returning from Australia\, he held senior positions in a number of major infrastructure organisations. In 2017 Andy published Ravilious & Co; the Pattern of Friendship and co-curated the eponymous Towner Gallery touring exhibition. In 2020 he wrote John Nash – The Landscape of Love and Solace (2020) and co-curated its accompanying Towner touring exhibition. Artists International – The First Decade\, curated by Andy\, is showing in the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Archive Gallery at Tate Britain until March 2026. Comrades in Art – a more extensive exhibition – will open at the Towner Eastbourne on May 6th 2026. \nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/comrades-in-art-for-peace-democracy-and-cultural-freedom/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Fine Art,Lectures,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Feature_ComradesinArt.png
LOCATION:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251113T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251113T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T090708Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T090801Z
UID:10001200-1763056800-1763062200@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Activism Through Art: Edith Tudor Hart in Britain
DESCRIPTION:Sociologist Larry Ray\, one of the contributors to the anthology Poverty for Sale: Edith Tudor Hart in Britain\, recently published by MuseumsEtc\, will give a talk about the life and work of photographer and committed communist Edith Tudor Hart. Born in Vienna\, she settled in the UK in 1933 and went on to produce a powerful body of images that bear witness to her profound sympathy for the young\, the underprivileged\, the disabled and displaced. \nThis major new publication\, described by one reviewer as “a reminder of the power of activism through art” and by another as an overdue “documentation of her important photographic contribution and her often tragic life”\, provides a comprehensive overview of the largely-unknown work of Edith Tudor Hart (1908-1973) during her forty years living in Britain. It is extensively illustrated with over 200 images (many published for the first time)\, original letters and documents held in leading international museums\, galleries and private collections – including pages from her recently discovered personal scrapbook. \nLarry Ray is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. He has published and taught extensively on social theory and philosophy\, postcommunism\, the politics of Holocaust memory in Poland\, the sociology of violence\, and photographic aesthetics. His book Violence & Society was first published in 2011; the second revised edition appeared in 2018 and includes an analysis of violence and the visual. His article on ‘Social theory\, photography and the visual aesthetic’ published in Cultural Sociology in 2020 won the annual SAGE Prize for Innovation/Excellence. He has a long-standing interest in the photography of Edith Tudor Hart\, and his essay ‘Social Realism and Edith Tudor Hart’ is included in Poverty for Sale. \n\nImage: Edith Tudor Hart \n\nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/activism-through-art-edith-tudor-hart-in-britain/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Fine Art,Lectures,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Feature_EdithTudorHartPortrait.png
LOCATION:
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251121T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251121T163000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T101918Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T101918Z
UID:10001206-1763733600-1763742600@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Walking Tour - Diverse London - City Public Art by Refugees and Immigrants
DESCRIPTION:Walking Tour \nThe City of London has always been home to immigrant communities. This walks winds its way through the City streets and highlights immigrants who made a mark here in a literal way as it is home to some of their sculptures and reliefs. We will discover the first official public sculpture\, the Monument which was carved by Caius Gabriel Cibber a Danish immigrant; a drinking fountain by French refugee\, Aimé-Jules Dalou; mosaics by Russian born Boris Anrep and perhaps the most significant contribution of sculptures are by a number of refugees from Nazi Europe who settled in the UK such as Naomi Blake\, Frank Meisler\, Oscar Nemon and Georg Ehrlich. The tour finishes with the most recent sculpture\, Unity\, 1992 by a Croatian refugee from former Yugoslavia\, Ivan Klapez. \nPlease note that a couple of sculptures may not be accessible to view due to security or building work issues. \n\n\n\nBook here. \n\nMeet outside the front of St Botolph’s Church\, Aldgate High Street London EC3N 1AB
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/walking-tour-diverse-london-city-public-art-by-refugees-and-immigrants-3/
CATEGORIES:Architecture,Artforms,Walks,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Feature_SanctuaryWalk.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251203T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251203T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T094603Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251015T094625Z
UID:10001203-1764784800-1764790200@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:The Refugee and the Survivor – a Family Story
DESCRIPTION:This illustrated presentation by Michael Lewis weaves together the story of his parents\, of his father\, a refugee from Nazi persecution and his mother\, a Holocaust survivor. It draws on her memoir\, A Time to Speak (1992) and Michael’s own book\, Flight from Prague – the Making of a Refugee (2025)\, which for the first time tells his father’s story. \nHarry Lewy and Helene Katz came from Trautenau\, today Trutnov\, then in Austria Hungary\, now in the Czech Republic. They were friends from childhood. \nIn 1938 Michael’s father fled for his life when\, after Munich\, his Sudetenland home was incorporated into the Nazi Reich. A refugee\, embarked on a life of uncertainty and fear\, loneliness and isolation\, unwanted and penniless\, he eventually found sanctuary and work in Belfast. \nIn 1938 his mother was married to Paul Herrmann and living in Prague\, having successfully completed professional training as a choreographer\, teacher and dancer. In 1942 she was deported to Terezin / Theresienstadt\, in May 1944 to Auschwitz-Birkenau and in July 1944 to Stutthof. She survived. Widowed and seriously ill\, she returned to Prague in June 1945. \nFinding her name on a list of survivors\, Harry made contact. In 1947 they married in Prague before settling in Belfast. The family changed its name to Lewis in 1949. Helen gradually recovered her health and had a distinguished career as an innovative choreographer and then author\, widely recognized and honoured as an inspirational figure. Behind her achievements against all the odds stood Harry’s quiet unstinting love and support. \nMichael Lewis was born in Belfast. He taught for 35 years in comprehensive schools\, becoming the headteacher of King Edward VII School in Sheffield between 1988 and 2008. After retirement he served for 14 years as a lay Employment Tribunal member\, a member of the Teaching Regulation Agency Teacher Conduct panel and of the Independent Ethics Panel of South Yorkshire Police. In 2009 The University of Sheffield awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. He lives in Sheffield\, is married to Petra and has two sons and three grandchildren. \n\nImage: Harry and Helen’s wedding\, Prague 16 June 1947 \n\nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/the-refugee-and-the-survivor-a-family-story/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Dance,Educational events,Lectures,Literature,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Feature_HelenLewisWedding.png
LOCATION:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20251210T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20251210T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T091010Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260128T085712Z
UID:10001201-1765389600-1765395000@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Creativity & Forced Migrations
DESCRIPTION:Burcu Dogramaci & Owen Hatherley in Conversation with Monica Bohm-Duchen \nCan it be a coincidence that two books examining afresh the profound impact of the refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe on British culture have seen the light of day within just a few months of each other? What\, more precisely\, was the nature of that impact? And how\, in particular\, was London changed forever as a result? These will be just three of the questions to be addressed by their authors in conversation with Monica Bohm-Duchen\, art historian and founding director of the Insiders/Outsiders project. \nLondon Exile: Metropolis\, Modernity and Artistic Migration by Burcu Dogramaci of Munich University\, was published by Leuven University Press in September. In the words of one reviewer\, the book “constitutes the definitive history of how the cultural workers who fled Nazi Germany―from artists\, photographers\, designers\, and sculptors to publishers and gallerists―were shaped by their emigration. It also tells the story of how these immigrants left indelible marks on their city of refuge… remaking it into the celebrated modern cultural metropolis that it is today.” \nThe Alienation Effect: How Central European Émigrés Transformed the British Twentieth Century by Owen Hatherley was published by Allen Lane earlier this year to considerable interest and has been described by one reviewer as “a brilliant work of history… Owen Hatherley makes a fierce and elegant case for British culture as a living tapestry made ever brighter by newcomers to our strange island.” \nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/creativity-forced-migrations/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Lectures,Literature,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Feature_LondonExileBooks.png
LOCATION:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260119T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260119T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251015T094312Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260115T181311Z
UID:10001202-1768845600-1768851000@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Paul Hamlyn: Outsider\, Innovator\, Dealmaker
DESCRIPTION:This talk examines the career of Paul Hamlyn (né Hamburger) (1926-2001)\, a story of personal ambition\, publishing innovation\, and industry change. Hamlyn was a visionary who made a lasting impact on twentieth-century publishing\, yet until now his story has received limited recognition in book history. An émigré who moved to the UK with his family at the age of seven from Nazi Germany\, Hamlyn became a publisher who accumulated significant wealth during his lifetime but is now mainly remembered for his philanthropy towards the arts. \nHamlyn’s career had three distinct phases. Initially\, between 1949 and 1970\, as an outsider\, he started selling remainders\, then began publishing reprints from other publishers before creating his own titles. Subsequently\, between 1971 and 1983\, at Octopus\, as an innovator\, he developed an illustrated mass-market publishing model that exploited technological advances\, capitalised on the expanding middle classes in key markets\, and embraced the opportunities presented by globalisation. The final phase was as a dealmaker\, from 1983 to 1987\, when\, in a dizzying fifty-month period\, he floated Octopus on the London Stock Exchange\, merged the youthful Octopus with the venerable Heinemann\, and sold the entire business to Reed International less than two years later. \nNearly twenty-five years after his death in September 2001\, Hamlyn’s legacy remains complex. In the academic field of book history\, he is limited to a small part that acknowledges his commercial success but neither celebrates nor examines it. From a publisher’s perspective\, Hamlyn’s legacy as an innovator in book publishing is underestimated. This talk will analyse both his commercial achievements and his publishing innovations. It will raise Hamlyn’s profile in post-World War II book history as a significant publisher deserving greater recognition for those innovations. It will also recognise the duality of his publishing legacy and why Hamlyn may not have received the reputation he merits. \nSince 2002\, Marcus E. Leaver has been a trade book publisher running businesses on both sides of the Atlantic\, primarily in the illustrated non-fiction and children’s publishing genres\, namely Chrysalis Books\, Barnes & Noble Publishing\, The Quarto Group and Welbeck Publishing Group. Since selling Welbeck in late 2022 to one of the major trade publishers\, he has completed an MA in the History of the Book at the University of London and started a new business\, Gemini Books Group. His dissertation was about Paul Hamlyn. \nImage: Paul Hamlyn\, circa 1985. Photo by Gemma Levine/Hulton Archive/Getty Images \nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/paul-hamlyn/
CATEGORIES:Artforms,Educational events,Lectures,Literature,What's On
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Feature_PaulHamlyn.png
LOCATION:
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260129T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260129T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251217T123810Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260128T085642Z
UID:10001207-1769709600-1769715000@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Romek Marber (1925-2020): The Man who Vowed Never to Return
DESCRIPTION:Romek Marber is probably most famous for the design of over seventy book covers for the Penguin Crime series in the 1960s as well as for the development of the Marber grid which made the layout of Penguin cover pages consistent across titles. \nHowever\, even most people who knew him had little idea of his back story. This was to change in 2010 with the publication of his memoirs of pre-WWII life growing up in a small town in Poland and his survival as a Jew under Nazi occupation. The title of his memoirs is No Return: Journeys in the Holocaust. World War II broke out when Romek was thirteen. By the end of the war he had survived life in the Bochnia ghetto\, experienced the disappearance of his twin sister\, mother and grandparents (to be murdered in Belzec)\, slave labour in concentration camps and being left for dead with typhus in a pigsty in Bavaria. After liberation Romek spent a year as a Displaced Person in Italy until he was finally able to join his surviving brother and father in the UK. In due course he would establish himself as one of Britain’s most talented and distinctive graphic designers. \nRomek’s niece\, Elaine Sinclair (born Marber)\, will provide background on Romek’s family and life in Poland and his experiences during WWII. Romek wrote his memoirs\, initially for the family\, as a result of her persuasion. She is an occupational psychologist. \nHer lifelong friend Naomi Games\, who also knew Romek well\, will describe Romek’s career and present some of his work. Naomi is the daughter of designer Abram Games. She has worked for many adult and children’s publishers and has written sixteen books\, including six about her father\, as well as producing a film on him and running his archive. \n  \nTo book\, click here. \n\nImage: Profile of Romek Marber\, Copyright Romek Marber Estate
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/romek-marber-1925-2020-the-man-who-vowed-never-to-return/
CATEGORIES:Design,What's On
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DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260209T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260209T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251217T123541Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260128T085621Z
UID:10001208-1770660000-1770665400@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Finding Ella Briggs: The Life and Work of an Unconventional Architect
DESCRIPTION:To mark the recent publication by Princeton University Press of a book entitled Finding Ella Briggs: The Life and Work of an Unconventional Architect\, its co-editors Despina Stratigakos and Elana Shapira and one of the other contributors to the volume Barbara Penner will introduce us to the life and work of this talented Austrian-born Jewish architect\, designer and writer whose influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. \nElla Briggs (1880–1977) trained with the Viennese Secessionists and brought their radical ideas to Gilded Age New York. She designed modernist housing for the masses in Austria\, was jailed as a suspected spy in Mussolini’s Italy\, and thrived in Weimar Germany before suffering persecution under the Nazis. Fleeing to London in 1936\, she contributed to England’s postwar reconstruction. Yet despite a long and prolific career\, her name is largely forgotten today. Finding Ella Briggs – beautifully illustrated\, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished research from archives around the world and with contributions from thirteen other international scholars – restores Briggs to her rightful place in the history of modernist design. \nDespina Stratigakos is SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University at Buffalo\, State University of New York. Her books include Where Are the Women Architects? and A Women’s Berlin. Elana Shapira is Lecturer in the Cultural Studies Department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. She is the author of Style and Seduction and the editor of Design Dialogue and Designing Transformation and (with Anne-Katrin Rossberg) Gestalterinnen. Barbara Penner is Professor in the Architectural Humanities at the Bartlett School of Architecture\, UCL. Her contribution to the present book is ‘London: Struggles\, New Beginnings and a Commission’. \n  \nTo book\, click here. \n  \nImage: book cover (detail)
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/finding-ella-briggs-the-life-and-work-of-an-unconventional-architect/
CATEGORIES:Architecture,Literature
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260216T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260216T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251217T124118Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260128T085017Z
UID:10001209-1771264800-1771270200@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:The Cassirers and their Circles
DESCRIPTION:The Cassirers were a remarkable German Jewish family – highly successful in business and leaders of European culture. Their circle included intellectuals\, artists and scientists from Einstein and Van Gogh to Thomas Mann\, Max Beckmann and Delius. Major collectors and patrons of the arts\, they introduced the Impressionists to Germany\, founded a famous progressive school attended by Thomas Mann’s son Klaus and Raymond Klibanksy and were instrumental in the foundation of the Warburg Library in Hamburg. Ernst Cassirer\, the philosopher\, is perhaps the best-known member of this generation\, but Richard Cassirer the neurologist\, and Paul and Bruno Cassirer\, the art publishers\, also made a significant mark on society. The Second World War and the Holocaust fragmented the family\, driving most of its members from Germany to Britain\, Sweden and America and much of the family’s wealth and art collections were stolen. But even in exile\, the family continued and continues to have an impact\, particularly in the arts and in academia. \nThis talk by Dr. Juliet Sychrava gives a brief overview of the family\, touching on its origins and focusing on some of the influential individuals who lived and worked between the end of the 19th century and WW2. In particular\, it looks at some of the paintings\, photographs and other objects that were significant in the family’s life\, and what they reveal both about the Cassirers and their times. It is a personal view from a Cassirer descendant which draws on family memories as well as published and unpublished material to look back from England today to the family’s heyday in early 20th century Germany. \nDr Juliet Sychrava holds a D Phil (English\, Philosophy) from Corpus Christi College\, Oxford. She is the author of Schiller to Derrida: Idealism in Aesthetics (Cambridge University Press 2010). She had a career as a financial journalist\, in corporate communications\, and in sustainability; she is now retired and is working on a book about her family. \n  \nTo book\, click here. \n\n\nImage: Ernst Cassirer and his granddaughter Irene
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/the-cassirers-and-their-circles/
CATEGORIES:What's On
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260225T180000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260225T193000
DTSTAMP:20260421T133658
CREATED:20251217T124328Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260128T084950Z
UID:10001210-1772042400-1772047800@insidersoutsidersfestival.org
SUMMARY:Thames & Hudson or Danube & Spree?
DESCRIPTION:To mark the publication of her book\, The Art of the Book: 75 Years of Thames & Hudson\, Dr.Anna Nyburg will give a talk about the history of the internationally famous London-based publishing house founded by refugees from Nazism. \nIn 1949\, Walter and Eva Neurath\, refugees from Vienna and Berlin respectively\, founded Thames & Hudson. Walter Neurath had been a successful publisher in inter-war Vienna\, driven by his urge to explain and show the world to people\, young people in particular. Gradually they progressed to focus on illustrated books\, on archaeology and ancient cultures before specialising in books on art and design. Seventy-five years later\, their original vision of creating a “museum without walls” still resonates. As well as publishing beautifully designed and produced books in collaboration with the world’s leading artists\, writers\, museums\, cultural institutions\, and fashion houses\, Thames & Hudson\, still a successful  independent publisher with contacts to the original family\, continues to evolve and innovate in a fiercely competitive environment. \nDr Anna Nyburg is an Honorary Lecturer at the Centre for Languages\, Culture and Communication at Imperial College London. She is a committee member of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies and a trustee of Insiders/Outsiders. She is the author of Emigrés: The Transformation of Art Publishing in Britain (Phaidon 2014) as well as many other publications. \n  \nTo book\, click here.
URL:https://insidersoutsidersfestival.org/event/thames-hudson-or-danube-spree/
CATEGORIES:Literature
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