7.30 pm Friday September 13th 2024

Drew makes a much-anticipated return to the Talks - ten years after his last appearance when he spoke about his remarkable project, called The Descendants, for which he spent years tracking down living descendants of famous people, such as Charles Dickens and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and recreating iconic paintings and photographs of them in minute detail, including elaborate copies of clothes and backgrounds.

For this latest Talk, Drew will detail his monumental project recreating photographs of black American Civil War combatants with their descendants. The project was three years in the making, following comprehensive searches of archives for photographs of black soldiers, where the identity of the person in the photograph could be verified. Working with genealogists from Wikitree’s U.S. Black Heritage Project,

Drew traced the descendants of the Civil War combatants and brought them together from all over the United States to be photographed in New York City using a period 5"x7" tintype process in an authentic daylight studio. The sitters had to stay perfectly still, which often meant using a neck brace for exposures of up to 40 seconds - and they wore custom, handmade costumes and sets were built especially; some of the props used were authentic Civil War items

The project had been commissioned by the Smithsonian Magazine in Washington DC and featured as its cover-story for the issue of February 2024. The resulting photographs this year won some of the world's most prestigious prizes, including a Sony World Photography Award in the Portrait Category, as well as First Prize in the prestigious Prix de las Photographie de Paris. The images were also Finalists for the Taylor Wessing Awards and will feature in the autumn in an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, opening on November 18th.

Attention to detail was just as acute with Drew's previous Descendants Project. Among sitters at the time were Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emeline Pankhurst; as well as Hugo de Salis, who lives in London and is descended from Napoleon Bonaparte. Also featured were Charles Bush, descended from Oliver Cromwell; Tom Wontner, a descendent of William Wordsworth; and Jeremy Clyde, the great great great grandson of the Duke of Wellignton Perhaps the high-point was the countless hours spent reproducing the silk dresses and embroidery worn by two sisters, both from the Strozzi dynasty and descendants of Lisa Gherardini - the woman sitting for Leonardo's masterpiece, the Mona Lisa. Drew also commissioned a copy of a chair that the Mona Lisa was using in order to complete the reproduction - but made in High Wycombe, not Tuscany.

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us

(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation

7.30 pm Friday October 11th 2024

Angela is one of the world's leading forensic scientists - with her findings helping solve notorious cases such as the killings of Stephen Lawrence, Rachel Nickell, Roberto Calvi, Lynette White, Damilola Taylor and Gareth Williams. She also took part in the investigation of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, finding no evidence to support theories of a conspiracy

Angela visited her first crime scene in February 1978, looking for clues about the murder in Huddersfield of Helen Rytka, later confirmed as a victim of Peter Sutcliffe, the so-called Yorkshire Ripper. She established her first company, Forensic Access, in 1986 - intended to provide services to criminal defence lawyers who could not rely on the Forensic Science Service at the time. Initially, she handled infidelity investigations alone but later moved into a well-equipped laboratory with staff - and soon began investigating murder, assault, and arson cases, as well as cold cases.

In 1991, when she was hired to re-examine the evidence on the apparent hanging-suicide at Blackfriars Bridge of Italian banker, Roberto Calvi. Angela had gained a reputation for unconventional methods and conducted experiments with her husband, who shared Calvi's proportions - proving that Calvi could not have hanged himself and that he was murdered.

Angela later founded Forensic Alliance and helped the Police on cases. In 1999, the company solved the 1988 murder of Cardiff teenager, Lynette White, after finding a microscopic flake of dried blood under two layers of new paint. It led to the release of five men who had been wrongly imprisoned for the killing. In 2021, Angela met John Actie, one of the five men - which was her first meeting with someone she had helped exonerate

The Police asked Angela to further review cold cases, including evidence in the 2000 killing of Damilola Taylor, aged ten. She used expensive techniques to find traces of Damilola's blood on the clothes of the two killers - an approach which also led to the conviction of serial killer, John Cooper, for the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path Murders of a couple out walking. Angela considers this one of the most satisfying cases in her career, saying the case would not have been solved without fibre examination. The same method proved successful when she was commissioned to investigate the 1993 murder of the black teenager, Stephen Lawrence

In 2010, Angela helped found Axiom International, which provides forensic and related advice to law enforcement agencies worldwide - and she has since worked in Libya, Iraq, Somaliland and Kosovo.[Angela was portrayed by Anastasia Hille in a 2021 TV miniseries about the Pembrokeshire Murders and was also played by Nancy Carroll in the 2021 series, called Stephen, a drama following the fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence. She was a guest on Desert Island Discs in October 2022.

If you are interested in attending this talk or would like to reserve a ticket please Contact us

(Children over 16 welcome) Entry is £10 in cash and includes free food, featuring delicious sandwiches and sumptuous rocky-roads., with wine and soft drinks available for a modest donation