Ealing

2022 talks

TALKS RECORDINGS

Information on the Recordings of our 2022 talks that are available on our Ealing u3a YouTube channel is shown below. The details of how to access the individual talks have been published in our regular Newsletters but, if you missed that information and would like to view any of these recordings, please contact the Webmaster.
- "Why fungi are better than plants" with Lee Davies (3rd November)
- "Making fish oils in plants – how GM can help make crops more nutritious" with Professor Johnathan Napier (27th October)
- "Food in the Novels of Thomas Hardy" with Dr Kim Salmons (6th October)
- "The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission" with Ashley Byford-Bates (22nd September)
- "Social connections, health and well-being in later life: What do we know?" with Dr Snorri Rafnsson (8th September)
- "Two Men and a Boy - The story of the discovery of Tutankhamun" with Neil Stevenson (25th August)
- "100 Years of the BBC – Milestone moments in the life of the nation’s broadcaster" with Robert Seatter (11th August)
- "Sir Ernest Shackleton - the Man and the Myth" with Stephen Scott-Fawcett (28th July)
- "What is Architecture?" with Nigel Clarke (14th July)
- "Coffee - from Bean to Cup" with Dr. Aaron Davies (23rd June)
- "Ealing Council Waste Management and Recycling presentation" with Catherina Pack and John Arnold (9th June)
- "Living with Plastics" with Emeritus Professor Roland Clift (26th May)
- “Fear of Falling .. or Falling from Fear” with Dr. Toby Ellmers (12th May)
- “A Considerable Seaport – British New York 1664-1783” with David Evans (28th April)
- “Ealing, the Cradle of British Rock Music” with Bob Salmons (31st March)
- “Somewhere to Live - Rising to the Global Urban Land and Housing Challenge” with Geoff Payne (10th March)
- “Teak, the King of Timbers” with Jean Brewster (3rd March)
- "The Love of Dangerous Men - Part 2" with Tony Nicholson (27th January)
- "Sex-Magic, Werewolves and Love-Knots: 12th Century English Lays for Modern Times" with Jordan Campbell (13th January)

AUTUMN TERM 2022

The AUTUMN term started on Thursday 8th September. Our Thursday morning meetings are held as 'hybrid' meetings, where some members attend the talks in Ealing Green Church whilst we also broadcast them over Zoom for members to watch from home. For this term we are now having three talks per month, with Coffee mornings on the other week in the month. Details of the past talks this term are shown below and it also includes information on any recordings of these talks that are available. All speakers were present in Ealing Green Church, unless otherwise shown.

• Thur 8th Dec (EGC & Zoom) - A Seasonal Entertainment (A series of readings suited to this time of the year. To see the detailed list, click on A Seasonal Entertainment) with various Ealing U3A Members. This was followed by coffee/tea + mince pies and other refreshments. We also showed on-screen in the Church and to members viewing from home a rolling display of all the pictures that were entered in the 2022 Photo Competition.

• Thur 1st Dec (EGC & Zoom) - Mahogany: Colonies, Pirates, Furniture and Guitars (This talk explained the origins and characteristics of mahogany, the national symbol for the Dominican Republic and Belize, formerly British Honduras. The growth of the timber trade alongside other territorial aspirations in Central America led to constant conflict between Spain and Britain. This resulted in ‘buccaneers and pirates’ roaming the Caribbean while the British seized the land later known as Belize. The talk ended with the story of The Most Notorious Tonewood in the World and the impact of mahogany on music today - with surprising details) with Jean Brewster, Ealing u3a member and ex-University of West London lecturer in Linguistic Science. Jean was present in Ealing Green Church for this talk.

• Thur 24th Nov (EGC & Zoom) - My Life in Radio (This talk revealed what it takes to make a great radio programme. Karen Pirie, a journalist for more than 35 years, has worked in radio for nearly 20 years having made 100s of programmes for Radio 4 and explained what a producer actually does, what makes a great radio interviewee and how to decide what to cut and what to keep? We heard choice clips from some of Karen’s most entertaining and important programmes including one that led to a change in the law) with Karen Pirie, Radio producer at BBC Radio 4 until 2011, now working freelance. Karen having made 100s of programmes for Radio 4, she is currently one of the producers of 'The Reunion' series and she was present in Ealing Green Church for this talk.

• Thur 10th Nov (EGC & Zoom) - Painting and Mathematics (An illustrated look at pictures in a different way with well, and less well known, paintings and artists from all periods. No knowledge of maths needed beyond the concept of addition and division) with Graham Tigg, member of Hammersmith & Fulham u3a and currently their Treasurer, who was present in Ealing Green Church for this talk.

• Thur 3rd Nov (EGC & Zoom) - Why fungi are better than plants (Plants are always the superstars of any Botanic Garden or Museum that wants to highlight life aside from animals but there is nothing plants or animals can do that can’t be beaten by fungi. They are weirder, more important, and far more interesting than plants (and animals too I would argue). They are the foundation of any healthy ecosystem and the hardest working and most vital group of organisms on earth) with Lee Davies, the Fungarium Collection manager at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew who was present in Ealing Green Church for this talk.

A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 27th Oct (Zoom & EGC) - Making fish oils in plants – how GM can help make crops more nutritious (For over two decades now we have been evaluating the production of fish oils in GM plants, to provide a sustainable source of these important nutrients independent of oceanic sources. This has ultimately led to the production of a transgenic oilseed crop which contains over 20% omega-3 in its seed oil. This represents probably the most complex plant metabolic engineering trait to attempt the transition from a research phase into development, regulatory approval and commercialisation. This talk considered how the focus and effort placed on this transition can be achieved without comprising curiosity-driven research) with Prof Johnathan Napier, Science Director at Rothamsted Research (Harpenden), also an Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Professor at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling. He is passionate about the importance of public engagement in gaining social license for new technologies and is a regular contributor to discussions about GM food and agriculture. Prof Napier gave his talk over Zoom.

Professor Napier has provided us with a copy of his presentation from this talk - click on Making Fish Oils in Plants to view this. A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster.

• Thur 13th Oct (EGC & Zoom) - Photographic Competition Results and a brief talk on Photographic Techniques with judge Michael Lurie, who was present in the Church.

• Thur 6th Oct (EGC & Zoom) - Food in the Novels of Thomas Hardy (An overview of the representation of food in Thomas Hardy’s novels, looking specifically at the production and consumption of food in 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', 'Tess of the d’Urbervilles' and 'Jude the Obscure'. The talk provided the historical context to the use of food in the novels and touched upon Hardy’s own eating habits) with Dr Kim Salmons, Associate Professor of Modernist Literature at St Mary's University, Twickenham. Dr Salmons is the author of two books on Food in Literature, one on Joseph Conrad and the second on Thomas Hardy. Her latest publication is the co-edited volume, 'Migration, Modernity and Transnationalism in the work of Joseph Conrad' published by Bloomsbury (2021). A member of the Guild of Food Writers and a committee member of the Joseph Conrad Society UK, Dr Salmons lived for 23 years in Ealing before moving to Twickenham last June.

Dr Salmons has provided us with a copy of her presentation as a PDF file - to view this, click on Food in Thomas Hardy novels. A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster.

• Thur 22nd Sept (EGC & Zoom) - 'The History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission' (The talk gave an overview of the origins and history of the Commission, its goals and the continued work it undertakes along with its educational charity, the Commonwealth War Graves Foundation) with Ashley Byford-Bates of the CWGC who was present in Ealing Green Church for this talk. Ashley is a volunteer speaker for the CWGC, he joined last year and this is the third talk he has given. A passionate “armchair military historian”, Ashley joined the CWGC as a way to continue to celebrate and amplify the work they do through talks and presentations. He often spends time visiting some of the memorials and researching the backgrounds to the fallen and their service.

A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster.

• Thur 8th Sept (EGC & Zoom) - 'Social connections, health and well-being in later life: What do we know?' (There is growing interest in healthy ageing and well-being in later life – these outcomes matter for individuals as well as national policy. The research on the different conditions and circumstances that shape these outcomes and experiences is increasing. Among these, good social relationships are consistently related to better health and wellbeing among older adults) with Dr Snorri Rafnsson, Associate Professor of Ageing and Dementia in the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of West London.

A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster.

SPRING TERM 2022 TALKS

For this term we continued to have talks fortnightly. Details of the talks for this term are shown below and it also includes information on any recordings of these talks that are available.

• Thur 14 July (EGC & Zoom) - What is Architecture? (This talk compared the theory and practice of architecture either side of the break with the classical tradition, when that tradition was supplanted by the international style in the early 20th C, and to see if we can discern the principals of the art. In the light of that enquiry, to consider whether the profession and practice of architecture has survived the break!!) with Ealing u3a member Nigel Clarke. Nigel has a BSc in Architecture planning and building and a Diploma in Architecture, both from UCL; he worked in practice, mainly as a self-employed sole practitioner, for around 50 years and is now semi retired.

A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 23 June (EGC & Zoom) - Coffee: from bean to cup, and beyond (This talk explores the journey of a cup of coffee from its wild origins, where it is cultivated, and the rest of its journey through to the consumer. It looked at the history of coffee culture and the future of coffee, and some the best ways of enjoying the world’s favourite beverages) with Dr Aaron Davies a Senior Research Leader of Crops and Global Change at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew who was present in the Church for this talk. His area of research expertise is coffee, to which he has devoted over 20 years of his career. He is currently focused on the development of new coffee crops in a changing world. He has described numerous new species of coffee, and has travelled widely in Africa, Madagascar and Asia to undertake research.

Dr Davies has now provided us with a copy of his presentation; this has had to be split into 3 PDF files due to it's size - to view these, click on Coffee presentation 1, Coffee presentation 2 and Coffee presentation 3. Additionally, a recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 9 June (EGC & Zoom) - Ealing Council Waste Management and Recycling (an insight into waste management in Ealing which included the legislative context and drivers, the strategies developed to meet challenges and the systems and approaches in place and planned for the future) with Catherina Pack (Waste & Street Services Manager - the Council’s lead officer for waste management policy, strategy development and systems design. The Council’s waste and recycling representative at sub regional, London and national level) and John Arnold (Contracts and Performance Manager - responsible for service design and managing the performance of waste, recycling, street cleansing and graffiti/flyposting removal contracts). They were present in the Church for this talk.

Catherina and John have now provided us with a copy of their presentation as a PDF file - to view this, click on Ealing Waste Management presentation. Additionally, a recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 26 May (EGC & Zoom) - Living with Plastics (The problem of plastic pollution, mainly but not only of the oceans, came to public attention through work on the industrial ecology of plastics; i.e. analysis of how these materials enter, flow through and eventually leave the economy. This talk mapped and quantified the flows of plastics through the economy, to examine where and how plastics “leak” from the economy into the environment and provided the background to the attempts to formulate international agreement on a treaty to limit plastic pollution. This analysis revealed why measures to reduce plastic pollution are often misdirected. It showed why mass recycling of plastics is not a solution to the problem, why plastic pollution will continue to be a problematic for small island states in particular, and why international action is needed to clean up the legacy of plastic pollution) with Emeritus Professor Roland Clift, CBE, FREng, a chemical engineer who has spent much of his working life on government policy and company strategy to address environmental issues. He is a past member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and of the Science Advisory Council of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He was the Founding Director of the Centre for the Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey. He has been one of the pioneers in the field of Industrial Ecology and is a past-President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology. He now lives in Victoria in the Canadian Province of British Columbia where he is working on a book, to be published in late 2022, on the technical, economic and behavioural changes needed to achieve “the sustainability transition”. Professor Clift spoke to us from Sweden for this talk.

Professor Clift has now provided us with a copy of his presentation as a PDF file - to view this, click on Living with Plastics presentation. Additionally, a recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 12 May (EGC & Zoom) - Fear of falling... or falling from fear? The influence of psychological factors on balance, walking and falls (Fear of falling is highly common but how does this influence balance control and ultimately ones' risk of falling? This talk will present the latest research that explores how fear of falling alters the way that individuals control their balance and walking, and will try to answer the question: Are these changes protective or maladaptive? The talk concluded with simple strategies that can be used to improve balance and walking, and reduce the negative impact of fear of falling) with Dr Toby Ellmers, PhD who is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at Imperial College London. His research explores how psychological factors, such as fear of falling and attention, influence balance and an individual's risk of falls. His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society, and has been published in leading journals including the BMJ and Age and Ageing.

Dr Ellmers has now provided us with a copy of his presentation as a PDF file - to view this, click on Fear of Falling presentation. Additionally, a recording of this talk is available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 28 April (EGC & Zoom) - A Considerable Seaport – British New York 1664-1783 (The full title of this talk was: 'A Considerable Seaport – Useful and Exceedingly Necessary to Our Kingdom of Great Britain – British New York 1664-1783'. It covered how New York developed under British rule and how some of the challenges it faced were met) with David Evans, who spent his life working in Air France both here and in France. He was responsible for commercial training in the UK and Ireland. David is also a Cities of London and Westminster registered guide and he last gave a talk to us in February 2000. He has previously spoken to us about Neutral Lisbon during the Second World War, the birth of 20th Century Fox, and Spain in the 1940’s under Franco.

A recording of this talk is available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

WINTER TERM 2022 TALKS

For the Winter term, we continued to hold 'hybrid' meetings, where there are a limited number of members who attend the talks in Ealing Green Church whilst we also broadcast them over Zoom for members to watch from home. Details of the talks we had this term are shown below. This also includes information on any recordings of these talks that are available.

• Thur 31 March (EGC & Zoom) - Ealing - The Cradle of British Rock Music (The founding of the Ealing Blues Club as Britain’s first dedicated electric Blues Club on 17th March 1962 by Alexis Korner & Cyril Davies is regarded as being the catalyst which kicked off the British Rhythm’n’Blues scene which in turn would develop into Rock Music. The Club would be responsible for the forming of The Rolling Stones and Cream and be where acts like The Who and Manfred Mann would play their early gigs. The talk also covered ‘What is The Blues’ and what made it so attractive to a generation of baby-boom musicians) with Bob Salmons, a native of Ealing who continues to perform as a musician under the stage name ‘Robert Hokum’. Bob founded the Ealing Blues Festival in 1987 which is now London’s longest running Blues Festival and is part of The Ealing Summer Festival. He is a Director of The Ealing Club Community Interest Company which was responsible for the Heritage Plaque at 42a The Broadway (opp. Ealing Broadway station), the site of the former Ealing Blues Club. Bob was a Consultant to and appeared in the film, ‘Suburban Steps To Rockland - The Story of The Ealing Club’ and also in the film ‘Rock’n’Roll Island’ about the gigs on Eel Pie Island, Twickenham.

Bob has now provided us with a list of reading material referred to in his talk and other related info - to see this click on British Rock talk material. Additionally, a recording of this talk is available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 24 March (EGC & Zoom) - EALING u3a AGM followed by a Talk on Canadian Artist, Lawren Harris: Between Our Mundane World and the World of Spirit (Lawren Harris [1885-1970] was an outstanding Canadian artist whose works ranged from early paintings of houses in his neighbourhood to stunning visions of the high Arctic in mid-career to vivid mind-expanding abstracts later in life. He was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Seven – a group of artists who could arguably be credited with developing a unique-to-Canada style of painting. This talk explored not only his complex life, but also attempted to explain why Ealing u3a members should be interested in this special artist’s incredible body of work). This talk was by Ealing u3a Member Ann de Beaupre who has a Masters Degree in Land Use Planning and had a career as an emergency preparedness director with the federal government - none of which has anything to do with Lawren Harris! A post-retirement trip to Canada’s high Arctic, especially to Sirmilik National Park where Harris travelled in 1930, inspired Ann to further explore the work of this artist.

For copyright reasons, we did not record Ann's talk nor can we share her presentation. However, Ann has kindly supplied a list of links to websites where some of Works of Lawren Harris can be found.

• Thur 10 March (EGC & Zoom) - Rising to the Global Urban Land and Housing Challenge (Despite millions of people being lifted out of poverty during recent decades, finding somewhere decent and affordable to live is proving increasingly difficult in urban areas around the world. This is not by accident, but by design, since the forms of economic management that have held sway for four decades are intended to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a small elite, excluding the vast majority from meeting their basic needs. They force countless vulnerable, yet enterprising groups to migrate in search of a better life, and also ignore the rich cultural traditions and practices that provide a sense of belonging and identity that is a key feature of all places we love to visit or live in. Since the planet can no longer sustain unlimited economic growth, and humanity is facing an existential crisis, land and housing have become an expression of this crisis. However, the Covid pandemic has provided a wake-up call to encourage us to change the way we treat both the planet and each other, and many examples exist of innovative, demand-sensitive approaches that provide the basis, not just for meeting the need for land and housing, but for providing a better quality of life) with Geoff Payne, a housing and urban development consultant with five decades of experience covering all regions of the world who has undertaken research, consultancy and capacity building assignments for international development agencies, governments and academic institutions, published widely and contributed to numerous international conferences. The talk provided a summary of his book on this subject, published on 15 March, and it was illustrated with examples.

A recording of this talk is available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 3 March (Zoom only talk) - Teak - the King of Timbers (Do you have a teak bench in your garden? Ever wondered why it is so good for gardens and boats? This talk began with a consideration of the long-recognised properties of teak and its link to gold in ancient times. As the ‘king of timbers’ teak also has an interesting connection with the king of an Asian kingdom, plus surprising links to Hollywood and silk. A brief outline of how teak was traditionally logged in the teak forests of Asia followed, ending in the fate of retired elephants) with Jean Brewster an Ealing U3A member who taught English Studies/Applied Linguistics in various institutions, including what is now The University of West London, Nottingham University and the Institute of Hong Kong. Jean has lived in various countries such as Malaysia, Belize, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Qatar and has an interest in cross-cultural issues.

A recording of this talk is available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 24 February (EGC & Zoom) - Overlooked Female and Over-promoted Male Artists (In art history, women are consistently neglected and overlooked and examples of this trend can be found up to the present day. In the talk there were paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Picasso and from females Angelica Kauffman (18th C), Artemisia Gentileschi (17th C), Sofonisba Anguissola (16th C) and Remedios Varo (20th C). Without a doubt you will have heard of the men, but it's unlikely you'll be aware of the women, even though their work is easily comparable) with Colin Lomas, Ealing u3a Member who following a three-part career in education - school maths teacher, training teachers and working in a Further Education college, studied art history at the Victoria and Albert museum where he subsequently became a volunteer guide which he still does. In 2010 Colin began giving art history lectures to U3A groups and similar, and he is now employed by the WEA (a national adult education service) as a lecturer in art history.

Colin did supply us with a copy of his notes relating to his talk; click on Female and Male Artists notes to see these - they include links to the video clips that were part of this talk.

• Thur 10 February (EGC & Zoom) - My Ancestors and Their Professions (A detailed talk with fascinating sepia photographs provided the audience with interesting facts about the history of the infrastructure of India and the various professions of her grandfathers on the Indian railways, telegraph, founder of one of the first English medium schools in India and the military involvement of two of her great grandfathers who fought in the third Anglo Mysore war, all seen through the eyes of their granddaughter) with Jenny Mallin, who spoke to us from her home in Hampshire. Jenny is an award-winning author for her 'Best in World' cookbook memoir "A Grandmother's Legacy", and delivered a fascinating insight into five generations of her family who lived in India during the days of the British Raj. Jenny’s career has been the culmination of several instinctive paths in her life influencing her continued interest in both research and travel from her early days in television production at the BBC where she picked up skills in how to present but also carved out a career there in researching. With almost thirty research trips to India over the past thirty years, she has both explored and uncovered the history of her ancestors and their interesting path.

• Thur 27 January (Zoom + EGC) - The Love of Dangerous Men – Part 2 (Back in 1999, Tony Nicholson moved into an old house in North Yorkshire. He discovered a small door in the attic and beyond it, a huge bird’s nest. Mixed in with the straw, he came across an astonishing collection of Victorian photographs, souvenirs and letters, and an amazing love story emerged. In this second part of the talk, Tony recaped the story so far, before revealing what happened next. What became of the three main characters? Annie, whose letters were found in Tony’s attic? Gus, the great love of her life? And Agnes, the mysterious ‘vile woman’?) Tony Nicholson, who spoke to us from his home in Saltburn, was a university history lecturer and National Teaching Fellow who retired a few years ago and now spends time researching and writing, giving talks (when pandemics permit), gardening, walking, and anything else that takes his fancy.

A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster

• Thur 13 January (EGC & Zoom) - Sex-Magic, Werewolves and Love-Knots: 12th Century English Lays for Modern Times (with Jordan Campbell, a storyteller who focuses primarily on stories from the Caribbean and Africa and has also fallen in love with stories from around the world. Recently, he has been exploring English tales and presented two of his favourite British lays collected by Marie de France in the 12th Century). Jordan Campbell was a Primary school teacher for 6 years who freelanced as storyteller and educational programme facilitator and currently works as an Outreach Officer at the University of West London. He completed a Masters in Anthropology at UCL and recently won a Wellcome Trust scholarship to study a second Masters in Medical Humanities at Birkbeck, which he is currently completing part-time.

A recording of this talk is now available on the Ealing U3A YouTube channel - for information on accessing this please contact the Webmaster