Lecture Series: SUSANNAH FULLERTON: 4 LECTURES

Lecture 1: JOHN KEATS: ROMANTIC POET His life was tragically short, but Keats was blessed with a teeming, poetic gift which triumphed over both his personal suffering and savage criticism. Keats battled a difficult childhood, financial worries, the loss of a loved brother from TB, medical training, and then the knowledge that he himself would soon die from the disease that had killed his brother instead of being able to live and marry the woman he loved. Amidst all this, he created some of the greatest poems in the English language. Susannah Fullerton recites some favourites and recounts the tale of the short but amazing life of this poet.

Lecture 2: A.A. MILNE AND WINNIE-THE-POOH Alan Alexander Milne had several successful careers as a writer. He made his name as a comic writer for Punch, then went on to become a huge success as a playwright. He made another reputation as a writer of detective fiction, before he idled away a dull country house party by writing verses for children. Those popular verses led to the stories featuring his son's bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, and from that time his publishers didn't want him to write anything else. Milne did not wish to be remembered for his writing for children, but could not escape that fate. Nor could his son, whose life was ruined because he was Christopher Robin.

Susannah Fullerton tells the rather tragic tale of A.A.Milne and the hugely successful tale of the bear with little brain which he created.

Lecture 3: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING OSCAR: THE LIFE AND WORKS OF OSCAR WILDE "Somehow or other I'll be famous, and if not famous, I'll be notorious" declared the young Oscar Wilde: he proved to be both! Wilde's genius as a raconteur and coiner of epigrams made him the most quoted man in London. He translated his genius into stories, plays, poems and a novel and gained a place amongst the great Victorian writers.

Wilde once stated that he had put only his talent into his works, but had put his genius into his life. Susannah Fullerton discusses Wilde's extraordinary life story, his fall from fame and the creation of his great works of literature.

Lecture 4: ANTHONY TROLLOPE: HIS LIFE AND WORKS "I have always desired to hew out some lump of the earth and to make men and women walk upon it just as they do walk here among us." one hundred and sixty years after Trolloope wrote those words, his novels are as popular as ever, but it did take Trollope a long time to get started as a novelist. Susannah Fullerton discusses his life, his amazing output of 47 works, and his creation of the imaginary county of Barsetshire.

Bookings can also be made for individual lectures ($27)

Code 062005 $97 Friday 7.30-9pm Mar 24, Saturday 2-3.30pm Mar 25, Sunday 2-3.30pm Mar 26 and Monday 7.30-9pm Mar 27

Bookings on 6488 2433 or online www.extension.uwa.edu.au

About the presenter: Susannah Fullerton is President of the Jane Austen Society of Australia, the largest literary society in the country. She is a well-known speaker on the NSW speaker's circuit and lectures regularly for universities, the State Library of NSW, WEA and other adult education centres. This year she will be leading a literary tour around England for Australians Studying Abroad. She is a member of the Australian Bronte Association, the Dylan Thomas Society of Australia and the Australian Byron Society.