Writer and Blackheath resident Blake Morrison will delve into the many literary works in which Greenwich and Blackheath have featured.

Learn more about the ways in which the rich history of Blackheath and the UNESCO World Heritage site of Maritime Greenwich have inspired writers and artists through the years from Shakespeare to the present day.

TICKETS: £10 from the Halls box office 020 8463 0100 or www.blackheathhalls.com

Doors Open at 7pm and we hope that the Bar will be permitted to open. The talk will be held in the Great Hall so that we have room for social distancing and will start at 7.30pm. Please bring a mask, it may be a requirement for inside gatherings at this time.

This a joint evening with the Friends of Blackheath Halls.

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REVIEW

At last, an evening well worth waiting for. This talk was due to go ahead as the lockdown came into effect in March 2020 but we rescheduled and Blake Morrison our local author gave us a tremendous evening.

The occasion was sold out, the Blackheath Halls organised it efficiently, and we were socially distanced throughout. Members could see friends and listen to a fascinating summary of the many literary associations of Greenwich and Blackheath. The earliest author Blake mentioned was Chaucer, a Commissioner based at Deptford who described the area as a series of “walls and ditches”. In Byron’s poem “Don Juan” the hero arrives on a high hill, which he names as Shooter’s Hill, overlooking domes and steeples and is promptly robbed by highway men. Pepys visited Blackheath and Greenwich and described it as an area of “orchards and nightingales” but by HG Wells’ time, he described the area as a “congestion of houses”.  Conrad placed the botched bomb plot of 1894 in Greenwich at the centre of his novel “The Secret Agent”.  Greenwich at that time was regarded as the centre of science and astronomy and was well known around the world.

Blake told us many, many interesting facts which the Halls have recorded and a transcript of his talk will appear on our website.  Thank you Blake for a most enlightening and enjoyable evening.