Page 12 - Floreat - Academic Enrichment Lent 2021

The Edge of Eternity
This focuses on the Cold War, including the arms race, JFK (Cuba and assassination), the Berlin Wall (the building and demolishment).
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
My favourite of Dickens’s work. It also caters for those interested in Law, as it involves the cases of Jarndyce v Jarndyce, which highlights in complexity of the law of Equity.
All Out War by Tim Shipman
This book charts the course of the United Kingdom’s referendum on its membership of the European Union. It is a first-class book which highlights the highs and lows of the Leave and Remain campaigns and the goings on at Westminster. The sequel, Fall Out, details the aftermath of the referendum and the disaster that is Theresa May’s premiership and the 2017 General Election. The final book in the trilogy will be released in May 2021.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh My favourite novel of all time.
The Shardlake novels by C J Sansom
Murder mysteries set in Tudor England, detailing the exploits of the hunchback lawyer, Matthew Shardlake, and his assistant Barak. Events include the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the downfall of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s trip to York, mad monks hell-bend on returning England to Catholicism, the Battle of the Solent and the sinking of the Mary Rose, the death of Henry VIII, and Kett’s Rebellion. So absorbing!
Mrs Bradshaw
TV Anything by Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton but my particular favourite is Psychoville – it is utterly hilarious and was followed up with a brilliant series called ‘Inside number 9’.
Dr Chapman
I have turned to my DVD stack for some light relief in the lock-down. With over 250 DVDs occupying the shelves (and that is only the films and not the TV box sets), you can see that providing a few recommendations from my collection may be tricky. So for today I focus on just one genre – the spy movie. Although I am a great lover of the all action block busters of the James Bond/Mission Impossible/Jason Bourne franchises for example, I want to focus on a just a few of the more hard hitting, often true, stories of espionage, deception and double agents.
So here are a few to get you going:
Recent Releases
Most recently these two films accurately recount the real events of two female spies.
Official Secrets tells the story of the GCHQ whistle- blower Katharine Gun who leaks a memo from the NSA with the United States enlisting Britain's help in collecting compromising information on U.N. Security Council members to blackmail them into voting for war against Iraq in 2003. Brilliantly explores the legality of Tony Blair’s decision to go war with Ralph Fiennes leading the charge as defence lawyer.
Red Joan – the ‘Granny Spy’ as she was dubbed played by Judi Dench. It is story of Joan Stanley a widow living out a quiet retirement in the suburbs when, shockingly, the British Secret Service places her under arrest. The charge: providing classified scientific information - including details on the building of the atomic bomb - to the Soviet government for decades. The action swaps between present and Cambridge from 1944 onwards. Gives a very clear insight into how the soviets set up their double agents into the British Secret Service post war.
Cold War Factual
For those of you interested in the division of east and West Germany and in particular the events leading to the construction of the Berlin Wall then recently my favourite has to be Bridge of Spies:
The film is the story of lawyer James B. Donovan (played by Tom Hanks) , who is entrusted with negotiating the release of Francis Gary Powers – a U.S. Air Force pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 – in exchange for Rudolf Abel (brilliantly portrayed by Mark Rylance), a convicted Soviet KGB spy held under the custody of the United States, whom he represented at trial. The name of the film refers to the Glienicke Bridge, which connects
Film Withnail and I. Mrs Browne
Book
Wild Swans by Jung Chang. Incredibly moving and at the same time unsettling.
For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway as well!
Epic book
Life is Beautiful. Gives a glimpse of the Holocaust but is really about the power of human love. Unforgettable. Might need a box of tissues at the ready!
What I Learned from my Teacher...
Floreat ⏐ Academic Enrichment Programme ⏐ Lent Term 2021 P12