Becoming a Famous Author
How I got my first book published

Discover the truth about writers, publishers and bookshops. In a step by step exposé you will learn what I had to do to get my first book published.
Prepare to be shocked, entertained, amazed and amused.

(A humorous talk without slides.)

"very amusing and highly entertaining" – Princes Risborough U3A 

"a feather in my cap to have booked such an interesting speaker"
Shenfield U3A 

"We all thought your talk was brilliant, you did so well to hold the audience for
forty minutes without slides or Powerpoint..."
Chelmsford & District National Trust Group.

Passports, Assassins, Traitors and Spies
Passport stories from history

Thrill to a dramatic account of how the actions of a group of assassins brought about a change in the passport regulations; how the unmasking of a spy caused a modification in passport design and how, for one man,
the passport itself turned into a killer.

(A dramatic talk without slides.)
 

"Your presentation was dramatic, full of historic detail and delivered with your strong,
clear voice... a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon." – Basildon & Billericay U3A.

"very impressed at your abiity to talk for an hour without any visual aids or prompts."
Paddock Wood U3A

"your clarity of mind and expression were exemplary."
Shenfield U3A 

"You are indeed a natural storyteller and brought to life the characters..."
Bexley U3A 

"What a wonderful evening with your superb storytelling. There are not many speakers of your calibre who can hold an audience with words alone."
Peterborough Museum Society

Without Let or Hindrance
The story of passports

Do you see your passport as a necessary nuisance or perhaps an obsolete facility? What do you know of its history? Travel through the centuries to learn how passports went from copperplate and wax seal to digital photograph and plastic cover. Reflect upon the lives of those travellers stranded in wartime or merely off on a jaunt. They, all of them, hoped that their travels would be achieved without let or hindrance.

(A talk with Powerpoint slides.)

Please note: I am an accredited NADFAS lecturer and the lectures below are only available for Decorative and Fine Arts Societies of the said organisation. 

Secret Art in the Passport
How we use it to fox the forger

Using illustrations from my collection of historic passports I show you how passport design developed from the handwritten paper to the technically complex document we use today and how art and artisanship has played an important yet secret part in this longstanding desire to confound the forger.

Once you have seen how the forgers have responded to the challenge of secret safeguards, you will never look at your passport in the same light again.

(A lecture with Powerpoint slides.)

"Your lecture was well constructed and gently amusing. You immediately established a good rapport with the audience.... It was good to have a lecture that was so completely different from anything we had heard previously..."
Programme Secretary, the Arts Society, Turners Hill 
 

"My granddaughter said, 'it was actually very interesting.' 
Coming from a teenage girl that's quite an accolade!"
Programme Secretary, Bushey Arts Society.

"Thank you so much for the excellent lecture you gave: it was hugely enjoyable and
very well received by our members." 
Programme Secretary Leamington Spa Arts Society. 

Fire, Smoke and Iron 
Spanish artists and the iron industry of Bilbao

Bilbao in Spain has been producing iron for centuries, drawing in workers from all over the country. Its rapid industrialisation in the nineteenth century was helped in no llittle measure by British capital and entrepreneurship. Ships carried Welsh coal to Spain and brought back Spanish pig-iron for the steelworks of South Wales. By 1985, it was all over. But the rise, heyday and demise of the Bilbao iron industry has been forever fixed in oils, water colours and bronze.

In this lecture I first show how iron is made into steel; I illustrate the machinery involved and explain the processes used. I then introduce you to the evocative paintings which have recorded this industry in its various stages and you are then able to understand what you are looking at and
recognise the activity depicted. 

(A lecture with Powerpoint slides)

'It was a great lecture, Martin, thank you so much.There were a lot of good
comments from our members'
Programme Secretary, Arts Society Bishop's Stortford

How Napier became the Art Deco Capital of the World

In 1931 an earthquake destroyed the town of Napier in New Zealand. Within two years it was rebuilt in the architectural style of the day – Art Deco.

This lecture introduces you to pre-earthquake Napier as a flourishing port and commercial centre; it then takes you through the unfolding of the earthquake, the running of the rescue operation and looks at the factors which influenced the rebuilding.

Finally, on a photographic tour of the town, you see the buildings
as they are today. 

(A lecture with Powerpoint slides)

"That was an exemplary demonstration of how to present a masterclass. Thank you."
Kingsbridge Arts Society

"I was born and lived in Napier and I did not know three quarters of what you told us."
Farnham Evening Arts Society