Through an exploration of drama, diaries, novels and magazines, this Gardens Trust Wednesday five part series will examine how writers have used gardens and plants to evoke memories, capture ideas of taste and fashion, satirize attitudes, champion social change and give deeper meaning to the world. The chosen authors cover almost four centuries of literature and, through examining their words, we can gain new understandings of the roles, meanings and emotive power of historic landscapes and horticulture. This ticket link https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gardens-and-the-written-word-tickets-930348275737 is for the entire series of 5 talks, or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8 via the links on that page. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25). All purchases are handled through Eventbrite.

Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 1 week afterwards. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the first talk. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 weeks.

On Wednesday, October 23, Dr. Laura Meyer will speak on Jane Austen. 2017 marked two hundred years since the death of Jane Austen, at the age of 41, on 18 July 1817. Just like the English landscape garden, her novels have become one of Britain’s greatest cultural exports and made her one of the world’s most celebrated authors. Austen is justly famous for her sharp social satire, however, as this lecture will demonstrate, she was also highly attuned to the shifting sensibilities surrounding landscape.

Nature and landscape – whether real or imagined – and her characters response to these inform all of Austen’s novels, from Pride & Prejudice’s wickedly funny take on the Picturesque, to the lampooning of Humphry Repton in Mansfield Park. She was, after all, a writer who recognized that ‘to sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment’.

Dr Laura Mayer is an independent lecturer, writer and researcher, with an MA in Garden History and a PhD in eighteenth-century patronage. She has published extensively – particularly on Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, and Jane Austen’s contemporary, Humphry Repton – and works as a consultant for the National Trust and Land & Heritage. Laura shares Elizabeth Bennett’s appreciation of Gilpin’s Picturesque, as well as her talent for tramping about a garden inappropriately shod. She lectures regularly for Cambridge University Botanic Gardens and has been known to pen the odd limerick about Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Boston University’s Departments of Arts & Sciences and Pardee School of Global Studies, invite you to an exhibition and cooking demonstration at the Boston University Food Studies Program, 808 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, on October 11 from 9 am- 1:30 pm. Many of the finest pieces of art from Mesoamerica can only be seen outside of the region, in museums and private collections of North America, Europe and East Asia. Chocolate researchers Jose Lopez Ganem (Boston University), Dr. Carla D. Martin (Harvard University), and Dr. Kathryn Sampeck (University of Reading) of the Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute (FCCI) are on a mission to change this. Over the past year, the FCCI team has worked to secure the repatriation of more than 50 antique Mesoamerican pieces in collaboration with the governments of Mexico and Central America. In advance of the return of these pieces to their countries of origin, come view these examples of priceless cultural heritage, celebrate their impact on the history of cacao and chocolate, and taste traditional cacao and chocolate recipes.

BU Food Studies faculty Dr. Karen Metheny and Jose Lopez Ganem will present a snapshot on the intersection of Food Studies, Archeology, and Cacao and Chocolate, followed by traditional indigenous chef Estela Calzada demonstration of Pre-Hispanic cuisine; featuring dishes with nopales, grasshoppers, corn, squash seeds and blossoms, and cacao. This portion of the event will run from 10 AM to 1 PM. Due to the size of the space, a limited number of tickets will be available. You must have a ticket to attend. Free. Tickets available on Eventbrite HERE.