7.30 pm Friday February 14 2025

John is an award-winning television director and reporter - and one of the world's leading disaster-historians. He has written six books on disasters - including A Disastrous History of the World (chronicling wars, earthquakes, famine and plagues), as well as a history of disasters impacting on London - and how the capital has survived fire, flood, disease and riot

For his appearance in Wootton, John will be talking about the history of assassinations from Egypt to the present day - a highly topical theme with the recent attempt on the life of Donald Trump and several assassinations in the Middle East

It is a long history and includes Julius Caesar, Good King Wenceslas, Thomas Becket, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, JFK, Martin Luther King, John Lennon, Kim Jong-nam. Their names pepper the history books. Then there are the ones who got away – Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Hitler, Stalin, Queen Victoria – all escaped assassination attempts, often many times.

John - who teaches communication around the world - spent years researching these events and many others for his book, Assassins’ Deeds: A History of Assassination from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day. He will ponder how history might have been different if their would-be killers had succeeded

Because dynastic ambition was so often the motive for assassinations, perpetrators were frequently spouses, parents, children or siblings. One Turkish sultan had 19 of his brothers strangled.

The powerful have always tried to protect themselves, but precautions often went wrong, as with the dozen or so Roman emperors who were murdered by their guards. On the other hand, many victims seem to have been surprisingly careless – Abraham Lincoln was killed after letting his bodyguard go for a drink.

At his Talk, John will tell the story of the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated and examine whether London was the scene of the first-ever assassination by firearms, and explore death by an umbrella, a booby-trapped toy and even a killer disguised as a bear

As well as writing extensively on disasters, John has also written Secrets of the Centenarians, which broke new ground, exploring what it is that determines which of us will live to 100, whilst his most recent book is a History of Fireworks.

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 March 14th 2025

John is one of the country's great comedy producers and writers, with his television work including Not The Nine O'Clock News, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Spitting Image, Blackadder and QI

At the start of his legendary career, John worked as a radio producer at the BBC, creating The News Quiz, The News Huddlines and Quote....Unquote (with Nigel Rees). He co-wrote the fifth and sixth episodes of the first radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas Adams (who wrote all the previous and subsequent episodes solo, as well as the television adaptation).

John then moved into television as a comedy producer at both the BBC and ITV. As well as being associate producer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, he created Not the Nine O'Clock News (co-produced with Sean Hardie) and produced Spitting Image - as well as all four series of the peerless Blackadder

The first series of QI, which John created with Stephen Fry in the chair, began in September 2003, with Sandi Toksvig taking over in 2016 - and the shows are still pulling in huge audiences. Back on Radio 4, John has presented several series of The Museum of Curiosity, which he co-created with producers Richard Turner and Dan Schreiber and former co-host Bill Bailey

John's book 1,411 Quite Interesting Facts to Knock You Sideways (one of a series of QI books) is a collaboration with John Mitchinson, who lives in Great Tew, and James Harkin, and contains gems such as - orchids can get jet-lag. Lizards can't walk and breathe at the same time. There are 177,147 ways to tie a tie. Traffic lights existed before cars. Sir Bruce Forsyth was four months older than sliced bread. The soil in your garden is 2 million years old.

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