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I am James Dickinson an historian living in Herstmonceux in Sussex. I give talks mainly on medieval history, fully illustrated with photographs and other pictures.This is now my ninth year of giving talks. It has given me great pleasure to speak to well over 200 groups on a range of subjects over the whole breadth of English medieval history. I hope by now people realise that medieval history is inherently interesting and not boring. The extraordinary and the bizarre are always just round the corner.History also informs our cultural background and sometimes explains why things are as they are today. Often historical stories are simply just good ones in themselves. In addition to my existing talks I have four new talks available from October 2025. The first is about the much maligned Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain. Whilst he made mistakes (and who doesn't?) he had a remarkable career as a public servant before becoming Prime Minister. Even in his dealings with Nazi Germany he had little room for manoevre and the controversial Munich agreement did at least give this country further time to re-arm such that the RAF was ready for war in 1939.My other three new talks are from the medieval period. The first about Alfred the Great and Anglo-Saxon Englsand, the second about the ancient city of Canterbury and the third about the tragic story of the Cathars, the Christian heretical sect in the south of France in the late 12th and 13th centuries.I hope that these talks will more than interest history and U3A groups in addition to my existing ones. I am going to keep my charges at the current rate for the foreseeable future. My basic fee is £65.00. This covers local talks near my home and also on-line talks by zoom. Where there is a small element of travelling time my fee will be £80.00. Where substantial travelling time is involved I will try to agree all-inclusive fees not to exceed £100.00 except for the most distant locations.

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