Details of talks given by Richard Westwood-Brookes
I am an author and expert on Elgar and many other British Composers, having been a Co-Founder of the British Music Society. I have been giving talks about Elgar for more than 50 years to groups all over the country, but I also now give talks about my 30 years in the auction business, specialising in selling autographs and historical documents. My talks are always 'down to earth' and injected with a good deal of humour to make the event entertaining for everyone. The Elgar talk is usually titled 'The Composer You Thought You Knew' and is aimed at introducing our most famous classical composer in a way that most people have never thought about him. The talks about my time in the auction business not only highlight some of the fantastic items I have sold over the years, including Gandhi's Glasses, Napoleon's Wallpaper, Churchill's personal microphone and Hitler's invasion plans for the UK, but also feature some of the people I have dealt with over the years - some endearing, some tragic, some downright irritating and some totally bizarre - but again the whole talk is injected with a great deal of humour to make the event entertaining for all.