Winter 11 Featuring: The Buckingham Palace Awards Ceremony ...

FEBRUARY
Wednesday 8 February,
10.30 am – 1.00 pm
International At Home and
Lunchtime Concert
Enjoy a mid-morning coffee at February’s
International At Home, an event that brings
together members of the ESU and the
international community, to be hosted by a
special guest of honour (details to be
confirmed nearer the time). The event will
also provide the opportunity to tour ESU
Dartmouth House, a Grade II* listed building.
At 12 noon, there will be a concert in the
Long Drawing Room by pianist and ESU
alumna Yulia Chaplina. Yulia, a recipient of an
ESU scholarship to Prussia Cove in April
2011, has given concerts at St Martin in the
Fields as part of the Royal College of Music
Series and has won first prize in competitions
in Paris, Andorra, Kiev, Kharkov and St
Petersburg since her debut performance
aged seven. Recently, she has undertaken
concert tours in Italy, France, Poland and
Japan. Her lunchtime performance will
feature music by composers including Bach,
Chopin and Haydn.
Tickets to both events are complimentary, but
please register your attendance with Susan
Conway by no later than Friday 3 February.
A donation of £5 is suggested for those guests
attending the lunchtime concert.
Thursday 9 February, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
Meet the Author
William Curley: Couture Chocolate
William Curley is ‘Britain’s Best Chocolatier’, a
title he has held for five consecutive years by
the Academy of Chocolate. Brought up in
Fife, William’s career began with an
apprenticeship at Gleneagles, followed by six
years at numerous Michelin-starred
establishments, working with respected chefs
including Pierre Koffman at La Tante Claire,
Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’
Saisons and Marco Pierre White at The
Restaurant.
Following the release of his first UK book in
October 2011 entitled Couture Chocolate;
William will give a fascinating talk on the
evolution of chocolate from bean to bar, the
recent revolution in the high-end chocolate
industry and his thoughts on the future of this
highly lucrative market. There will be chance
to taste some of his couverture chocolate as
well as the opportunity to purchase copies of
Couture Chocolate.
Tickets: £15 to include a glass of wine and a
selection of nibbles.
Friday 10 February, 7 pm
SSE Reunion
The ESU is cordially inviting all alumni of the
SSE (formerly BASS) scholarship for a drinks
and canapés reception at ESU Dartmouth
House.
Tickets: £25; Dress code: smart casual
Contact: Kate Bond, 0207 5291571
kate.bond@esu.org
Wednesday 15 February
Lindemann Trust Fellowship applications
deadline
Thursday 16 February, 6.30 – 8.00 pm
Book launch
Lord Ian Strathcarron: Innocence and War
- Mark Twain’s Holy Land Revisited
In 1867 the Daily Alta California
commissioned Mark Twain to cover the story
of the world’s first luxury cruise, a six-month
round tour to the Holy Land from New York
on board the Quaker City, an ex-Civil War
Mississippi side-wheel paddle steamer. The
captain, crew and passengers were highly
respectable Presbyterian Christians on a
mission; the Islamic Holy Land was under
loosening Ottoman control. The
interchangeable infidels saw Mark Twain as a
distracting influence, and he saw them as
wonderful source material: “manna from
heaven” for comments on the folly of the
human condition. The resultant The
Innocents Abroad was Twain’s bestselling
book in his lifetime and is still regarded as a
classic of travel writing and a masterpiece of
satire on political and religious excess.
Join us at ESU Dartmouth House for an
exciting book launch as ESU member Ian
Strathcarron gives a talk on his journey to
retrace Twain’s famous steps across the Holy
Land in Innocence and War, a place where
‘the religious is political and the political is
religious, where natural beauty meets
man-made squalor and where hope and
despair hang from the same tree’.
Tickets: £15 to include a glass of wine and
selection of nibbles. Copies of Innocence and
War will be on sale at the event.
DIALOGUE 58