Chaucer – Seven Olympians

Geoffrey Chaucer

  • 2 hours including a short interval
  • Tuesday 7 September 2021 at 630pm

Venue: Temple Methodist Church, Upper High Street,  Taunton TA1 3PY                                                      

Chaucer at the Taunton Literary Festival 2021

Geoffrey Chaucer was a Renaissance man long before the Renaissance. Sheer creative curiosity deployed his thoughts into a world vision. He obviously feasted on the humour and invention of Boccaccio’s Decameron, whose characters took it in turns to tell stories before Chaucer's ever did. Chaucer is a virtuoso verse-storyteller of the most disarming clarity. The Canterbury Tales may always be the star turn, but should not be allowed to upstage four captivating early dream-poems and a Troilus and Criseyde which has been dubbed ‘the first English novel’.

"You made my mind dance".
Carla Steenkamp
after Chaucer Night at the Brympton Festival, Yeovil
"You gave Chaucer to us not only with a huge breadth of knowledge but managed to present the entire subject as a great romp through the Middle Ages".
Caroline Vero, London
after Chaucer Night in Gipsy Hill, London
"How much I enjoyed the Chaucer evening! My knowledge of Chaucer was minimal; however your talk has made me really interested. I feel equipped now to begin reading Chaucer myself”.
Hanne Busck-Nielsen
after Chaucer Night in Oxford
"Thank you for risking the journey and the unknowns. And thank you for a superb evening, one of the very best. You helped me, among many things, to relax into the Sonnets and swim in the one I am reading and let the poet and his words take me to wherever. In so doing you shifted something within me: it used to be apprehension, nervousness, uncertainty, and 'will I get what I am supposed to get?' Now I shall invite the words and the magician to talk to me and then join in; and the fun will begin".
Jeremy Harvey
after Shakespeare The Poet, Graham Fawcett's last live lecture in Taunton, October 2020

Tickets £12
From Brendon Books

Click below to make a booking (opens in a new window)

Request Booking
Have a Question?

Feel free to contact me - I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Scheduled Events

Check all current events

Contact Us

...if you're interested in an event that isn't scheduled

Donate

Make a donation to Graham's work

Top picture:

William Blake (1757–1827)  Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrims Copper engraving, with additions in watercolor by the artist. Third state, 1810–20

Lower picture: Geoffrey Chaucer, from the 15th-century Ellesmere manuscript of The Canterbury Tales.

Comments are closed.