The Blake Society at St James’s Piccadilly
Programme
2004

Tuesday 13th January 2004
Blake’s Trial for Sedition
Sir Stephen Tumim
On the 200th anniversary—almost to the day—of William Blake’s trial for Sedition in Chichester, Sir Stephen Tumim, a former Judge & HM Inspector of Prisons with a distinguished contribution to Law, Education & the Arts, will talk about the Trial.
(St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London; 7.30pm.)
CANCELLED.

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Wednesday 28th April 2004
William Easton
William Blake & the Context of Late Eighteenth Century Attitudes to Slavery
A discussion of some of the texts & contexts of slavery 1786-1793. Will Easton surveys secondary or critical sources on Blake’s most recognised ‘slavery’ works: Visions of the Daughters of Albion; ‘The Little Black Boy’ & the images Blake engraved for the counter Surinam slave-revolt soldier John Gabriel Stedman. Less popularly recognised instances of slavery in Blake are pointed out while William welcomes suggestions from Blake Society members of any further examples of this theme in Blake’s canon.
Having written on Blake at Master’s degree level, Will Easton is a year through his PhD at Nottingham Trent University.
(City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St Ann’s Street, London SW1P 2DE; 7.30pm.)

Wednesday 12th May 2004
David Worrall
‘Blake’s “Book of Thel” and Sierra Leone’
Blake’s production of the etched illuminated poem, “The Book of Thel”, in 1789, coincided with the closest stage of his involvement with the Swedenborgian church.  William & Catherine Blake were present at a conference in London, organised by Charles Bernhard Wadström & August Nordenskjold, when the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg agreed to form themselves into a New Church.  Also in 1789, Wadström & Nordenskjold had well-developed plans to establish a colony at Sierra Leone, of the west coast of Africa, which would be based on the Swedenborgian principles of conjugial [sic] love.  In “The Book of Thel”, Blake can be seen pondering on the possible success of such a colony, particularly in its inclusion of women in a passive role.
David Worrall is research professor at Nottingham Trent University & Vice-President of the Blake Society.
(City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St Ann’s Street, London SW1P 2DE; 7.30pm.)

June
Angus Whitehead
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Tuesday 20th July 2004
Magnus Ankarsjö
“Oxford Street in Jerusalem”: City—Woman—Utopia in Blake’s Jerusalem
The talk will focus on Blake as an urban, London-centred poet & artist, giving a reading of Jerusalem as a three-fold symbol in the context of utopia & gender.
Magnus Ankarsjö completed his PhD last year at Gothenburg University with a thesis entitled ‘“Bring me my Arrows of Desire”: Gender Utopia in Blake’s The Four Zoas’.  He is currently living in London & pursuing a project on Blake & Swedenborg.
(City of Westminster Archives Centre, 10 St Ann’s Street, London SW1P 2DE; 7.30pm.)

Sunday 15th August 2004
Bunhill Fields
‘His eyes Brighten’d and He burst out in Singing of the things he saw in Heaven’
As ever we meet at Bunhill Fields on the anniversary of William Blake’s death. We meet by Blake’s grave, at 12 noon, probably then repairing to a nearby public house.
Bunhill Fields Cemetery has entrances in City Road & Bunhill Row, London EC1. Nearest tube: Old Street exit 5; buses 43, 141, 214, 271 all stop outside the cemetery in City Road.

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