Saturday 10th January 2026
Maytree: Unique Retreat for the Suicidal.
Speaker: Mrs Paddy Bazeley
25 years ago, Paddy Bazeley and Michael Knight conceived a project to offer something radical and unique to those experiencing an acute suicidal crisis. They were both Samaritans, which brought home the glaring and often fatal gap in services. Their idea, which they turned into a reality, was a sanctuary where someone could stay for a few days and be supported with befriending, respite, nurture, time, space, and loads of uninterrupted opportunity to talk and talk – and hopefully rediscover hope and see a way forward of facing the world again. In 2002, Maytree opened a homely house in Finsbury Park. Thanks to the wonderful volunteers, it more than fulfilled their expectations. Its pioneering model has won wide recognition and acclaim.
Saturday 14th February 2026
There are always alternatives! A geographer’s take on political options.
Speaker: Danny Dorling
In 1926 the Prime Minster claimed: ‘The General Strike is a challenge to Parliament and is the road to anarchy & ruin’. The idea that There Is No Alternative (TINA) was continued by Thatcher in the 1970s and Starmer in 2024: ‘There is no alternative: change takes time.’ In every case there’s an alternative. In every case an alternative always transpires, the world changes, but often not in the way many want. Danny, professor of geography at Oxford, whose latest book is The Next Crisis.: What we think about the future, will talk about control, anarchy, ruin and hope.
Saturday 14th March 2026
Who does history belong to? The continued importance of the fight for history for all.
Speaker: Gaverne Bennett
Gaverne is the creative director/author of The Guardian’s most successful wall chart series, The Black History Timeline, and The British Library’s Black Literature Timeline, which went to every secondary school in the UK. He also developed a timeline for the National Gallery, marking its 200th anniversary, to make its collection more accessible as well as creating award-winning timelines on the 1929 Wall Street Crash & International Women’s Day. Gaverne will discuss why, in this dark time of book banning, understanding history has never been more important for finding a way out of, and going forward from, the present predicament we find ourselves in. He will also outline why the principle that history belongs to all of us has never been more important.
Saturday 11th April 2026
Brightening from the East.
Speaker: Ken Worpole
Writer and social historian Ken Worpole, born in the Salvation Army Mothers’ Hospital, Hackney in 1944, and christened at St John’s Church E11 in 1945, attended Davies Lane primary school before his family moved to Canvey Island. He and his wife, Larraine, have been community activists in Hackney since the 1970s. Ken’s written several influential books on architecture, landscape and public policy. He will talk about the key influences on his life: the early writings of John Berger, the anarchist journalism of Colin Ward and key figures in the History Workshop movement like Sheila Rowbotham and Raphael Samuel. These and many others are recorded in his new book, Brightening from the East: Essays on landscape and memory, as are many other episodes in the rich 20th century social history of east London and its extensive coastal outreaches.
News From Nowhere Club 