Speaking on Saturday, December 20, 2025, we have :
1st: Speaker to be confirmed
2nd: Speaker to be confirmed
Date & Time: Saturday 20th December 2025
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
Speaking on Saturday, September 6, 2025, we have :
1st: Darran Rees – Love Letter to Romania
Details to be confirmed.
2nd: Olivia McGregor – Guiana
Olivia McGregor was the recipient of the Royal Geographical Society’s 2024 Neville Shulman Challenge Award and will be talking about her journey to the savannahs and rainforests of Guyana.
Olivia travelled to The Lost World, one of the last wildernesses on Earth, a land steeped in exotic myth and legend that served as inspiration for Jurassic Park. Among its inhabitants were the Makushi people, indigenous to the region, with a rich culture dating back 11,000 years.
The Makushi people are at a crossroads, caught between traditional ways of living in close connection with their natural environment and the influences of the modern industrialised world. Olivia will talk about how they are adjusting and the implications of this for everyone. Their survival could be humanity’s own.
Date & Time: Saturday 6th September 2025
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
1st: Stuart Bradford – Across Russia from Moscow to Kamchatka
Stuart Bradford lived and worked in Russia for over seven years, a period which was the inspiration for his book Caviar Vodka and Tears. He will share some of his travel experiences in this huge and varied country, from Moscow overland to Vladivostok, and also the magical and remote region of Kamchatka.
Join Laura for on a mythical journey through the real world. Together we will travel through tiny archipelagos and explore mystical Mediterranean islands thought to be the setting of Odysseus’s epic journey.
We will encounter sea monsters and sex goddesses, fragile masculinity, toxic gods, polyamory and plenty of narcissism as we look again at this old text with fresh eyes. Together, we will explore what myths are, the importance of the stories we tell ourselves, and the magical task of mapping imaginary worlds.
Laura Coffey is not a classics scholar, she cannot read Ancient Greek, often finds herself utterly lost, and so is an unlikely author of a book on mapping The Odyssey.
Stephen Fry said it’s “a magical and hugely captivating journey – a simply marvellous read, hugely recommended”.
Laura’s book Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey, has also been selected by Wanderlust and Citizen Femme as a top travel book for 2024, and by Blackwells as recommended summer reading. It has been long listed for the Anglo Hellenic League Runciman Award
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
1st: Oliver Smith – On This Holy Island: A Modern Pilgrimage around Britain
Acclaimed travel writer Oliver Smith embarks on an epic adventure across sacred British landscapes – climbing into remote sea caves, sleeping inside Neolithic tombs, scaling forgotten holy mountains and once marooning himself at sea. Following holy roads to churches, cathedrals and standing stones, this evocative and enlightening travelogue explores places prehistoric, pagan and Christian, but also reveals how football stadiums and music festivals have become contemporary places of pilgrimage.
The routes walked are often ancient, the pilgrims he meets are always modern. But underpinning the book is a timeless truth: that making journeys has always been a way of making meaning. So often, Oliver finds, “the unravelling of a path goes in tandem with the unravelling of the soul.”
2nd: Maria Hickey – Japan
Date & Time: Saturday 3rd May 2025
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
1st: Christopher Forse – Fifty years of Travel in South East Asia
Five decades of travel through an exotic land of beautiful landscapes, beautiful cultures, beautiful people and tragic recent histories.
Chris Forse, a former resident of Hong Kong, describes his five decades of travel through the exotic landscapes and cultures of this beautiful part of the world, where until quite recently only five countries (The Philippines, Thailand. Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia) were open to foreign travellers. He has hiked in jungles in Thailand, taken boats deep into Borneo and down the Mekong River in Laos, crossed tragic Cambodia by bus, and travelled overland through Sumatra and Java to exotic Bali. He was among the first to travel to Vietnam on an individual visa, later to explore Burma/Myanmar, a land that time forgot. As in his talk on Thirty Years of Travel in China, he witnessed the enormous changes that economic development (and mass tourism) has brought, for good or ill.
2nd: Jacqui Trotter – – Homegoing: Part 4
Jacqui Trotter talks about her journey overland back home from London to Australia.
Date & Time: Saturday 5th April 2025
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
1st: Anthony Britton: A summer 2024 road trip to the Aegean, via the Carpathians and the Black Sea.
In June 2024, Anthony and Julia set off on a long round road trip to Eastern Europe. They explored their Polish roots, visited World Heritage sites in Romania, discovered what King Charles likes about the Carpathians and trailed the Black Sea coast to the Aegean. They met families who remember the Cold War and those whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change.
2nd: Simon Johnson – Cycling a Camino Route by Accident
Exploring the Longest Spanish Pilgrimage Route
Join Simon Johnson as he shares his captivating journey of cycling a thousand kilometers solo along the Camino de Santiago’s southern route—from Seville to Santiago de Compostela. With no prior experience in long-distance cycling or any detailed planning, Simon embarked on this unexpected adventure, filled with challenges, surprises, and moments of self-discovery.
In this talk, Simon will recount his mishaps, lessons learned, and the unique joys of cycling through Spain’s diverse landscapes, historic towns, and spiritual pathways. Discover how the combination of the Camino’s rich cultural heritage and the spontaneity of unplanned travel turned his journey into a deeply rewarding experience. Whether you’re a cyclist, a Camino enthusiast, or simply curious about adventure travel, this talk will inspire you to embrace the unexpected and take on your own journey—on two wheels or otherwise.
Screenshot
Date & Time: Saturday 1st March 2025
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
1st: Elizabeth Mioduchowski – Travelling in Russia
Elizabeth will discuss travelling in Russia, a land of vast landscapes, rich history, and dynamic cultural and political significance. This talk will explore the multifaceted identity of the world’s largest country, examining its history and contemporary challenges.
Elizabeth travelled in Russia before the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) advises against all travel to Russia due to the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
2nd: Sarah Cook – Cycling Journey in Chile
Sarah has kindly offered to give a talk she gave to her local cycling club a few months ago about her Cycling Journey in Chile.
The talk by Olivia McGregor on Guiana has had to be postponed.
Date & Time: Saturday 1st February 2025
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
