A series of lectures are taking place in October to celebrate the OU´s 40th anniversary.
6th October – Deborah Bull & Lord David Puttnam
London – Charlton Athletic Football Club
6.30 pm – 8.30 pm
Deborah Bull, CBE is an English dancer, writer, and broadcaster. She was born in Derby, grew up in Kent and Lincolnshire and was then educated at the Royal Ballet School.
A ballerina winning the Prix de Lausanne 1980 and a member of the Royal Ballet from 1981 to 2001, becoming Principal Dancer in 1992. Early in 2002, Bull was engaged as the Creative Director at the introduction of the ROH2 programme at the Royal Opera House.
She has published three books, presented many ballet and dance programmes for BBCTV - including the dance/science series The Dancer´s Body (2002) and a programme in a series on paintings Private Life of a Masterpiece (2004) and written as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph from 1999 to 2001, and a contributing editor for Harpers & Queen in 2000.
She also served as a member of Arts Council England from 1999 to 2005, and from 1 August 2003 to 31 December 2006, served as a Governor of the BBC. This will be an interview style presentation rather than a lecture with Lord David Puttnam as the host. Registration will be available in September.
15th October – Prue Leith
Gloucester – Oxstalls tennis Centre
6.30 pm – 8.30 pm
Prue Leith, OBE is a restaurateur, caterer, TV cook, broadcaster and cookery writer. In 1960, Prue Leith started a business supplying quality business lunches, which grew to become Leith’s Good Food Limited, with a turnover of £15m in 1995. In 1969, she opened Leith’s, her famous Michelin starred restaurant. In 1975 she founded Leiths School of Food and Wine which trains amateur and professional chefs. She has been a cookery editor and food columnist for the Daily Mail, Sunday Express, The Guardian and The Mirror. She is also a judge on the BBC television programme Great British Menu. In November 2006, Prue Leith was named to head the School Food Trust, the British government´s campaign to replace fatty foods with fresh fruit and vegetables in schools.
She also chairs The Hoxton Apprentice and 3Es Enterprises, and is Chair of the Board of Governors of Ashridge Management College. As well as many cookery books, including Leith´s Cookery Bible, she has written four novels, Leaving Patrick, Sisters, A Lovesome Thing, and Choral Society. Additional details including presentation titles and registration will be available in September.
21st October – Philip Pullman
Milton Keynes – Berrill Lecture Theatre, Open University
6.30 pm – 8.30 pm
Philip Pullman, CBE is the best-selling author of His Dark Materials (a trilogy of fantasy novels), as well as a number of other books. In 1970 Pullman began teaching children and writing school plays. His first published work was The Haunted Storm, which joint-won the New English Library´s Young Writer´s Award in 1972. He nevertheless refuses to discuss it. Galatea, an adult fantasy-fiction novel, followed in 1978, but it was his school plays which inspired his first children´s book, Count Karlstein, in 1982. He stopped teaching around the publication of The Ruby in the Smoke (1986), his second children´s book, whose Victorian setting is indicative of Pullman´s interest in that era.
Pullman has also been a part-time lecturer whilst continuing to write children´s stories. He began His Dark Materials about 1993. Northern Lights (published as The Golden Compass in the US) was published in 1995 and won the Carnegie Medal, one of the most prestigious British children´s fiction awards, and the Guardian Children´s Fiction Award.
Pullman has been writing full-time since 1996, but continues to deliver talks and writes occasionally for The Guardian. He was awarded a CBE in the New Year´s Honours list in 2004. In September 2008 Pullman hosted "The Writer´s Table" for Waterstone´s bookshop chain, highlighting 40 books which have influenced his career. Additional details including presentation titles and registration will be available in September.
