Talk by Tim Butcher in Stirling

Author and explorer Tim Butcher will be speaking at Stirling University’s Logie Lecture Theatre on Thursday 22^nd May.  He will talk about the story behind his new book The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin who Brought the World to War, the story of history’s most influential assassin: the man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand and sparked the First World War.

Nearly 100 years after the outbreak of the First World War, former Balkan war correspondent Tim Butcher retraces the journey of Gavrilo Princip – the teenage assassin who killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, setting the war in motion – and illuminates our understanding of one of the most misrepresented figures in modern history and how his Bosnian homeland continues to impact global history.

Tim trekked across Bosnia and part of Serbia on the trail of Gavrilo Princip, making a number of discoveries missed by a century of historians.

This talk has been organised by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

In a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, a teenage assassin named Gavrilo Princip fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history, when he killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Yet the events Princip triggered were so monumental that his own story has been largely overlooked.

Born a penniless backwoodsman, Princip's life changed when he trekked through Bosnia and Serbia to attend school. As he ventured across fault lines of faith, nationalism and empire, so tightly clustered in the Balkans, radicalisation slowly transformed him from a frail farm boy into an assassin.

By retracing Princip's journey from his highland birthplace, through the mythical valleys of Bosnia to the fortress city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding both of Princip and the places that shaped him.

The talk takes place at 7:30pm on Thursday 22^nd May at Logie Lecture Theatre, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA. Tickets are £8 for adults, £5 for RSGS Members and £3 Students and will be available on the door.

Scotland's First Professional Nature Photographer Laurie Campbell shares his photos of 'Wild Harris'

Photographer Laurie Campbell will share his stunning images from his time working for the North Harris Trust in talks for the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in Inverness, Perth and Stirling between 13th-15th January.

The evening’s presentation will show the results from a recent project where Laurie worked on a photography commission for the North Harris Trust to photograph the wildlife, landscape and a little of the culture of a community-owned 62,000 acre estate in this wild and beautiful part of Scotland.

Working through the seasons over the course of a year on the Trust’s 62,000 acre estate, he will describe his experiences of photographing species such as golden eagles in winter, and then from a tiny camouflaged hide thirty feet away on a cliff ledge overlooking their eyrie where he captured some of the most intimate photographs ever taken of these birds at the nest.

Although the commentary throughout the presentation will occasionally include some technical information about equipment and photographic techniques used, the style is equally aimed to be informative about the various habitats and subjects together with the fieldcraft skills required to get close to them.

This talk is kindly sponsored by Scottish Natural Heritage.

Born in Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1958 and with a life-long interest in the natural world, Laurie Campbell has dedicated over thirty five years to photographing Scotland’s distinctive wildlife and flora. In the beginning his aim was simple, to show what he had witnessed to others who might have neither the time nor the inclination to go out into the field and experience nature in as much detail for themselves.

After graduating from a four year degree course in photography at Napier University he continued accumulating stocks of photographs of wildlife and in 1985 became Scotland’s first full-time professional nature photographer. His imagery is published across a range of media and is widely recognised for its distinctive style and his preference for using natural light and belief in photographing subjects which are neither captive or manipulated but simply as he finds them in the field.

Laurie’s talk Wild Harris will take place at 7:30pm on:

13th January - Inverness - The Highland Council Chamber, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness, IV3 5NX

14th January - Perth - North Inch Community Campus, Gowans Terrace, Perth, PH1 5BF

15th January - Stirling - Logie Lecture Theatre, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Everyone is welcome. Tickets are £8 for adults, free for students, under 18s and RSGS members.

For more information about the RSGS talks and how to join the Society visit www.rsgs.org, contact us on enquiries@rsgs.org, find us on Facebook or follow the Society on twitter @RoyalScotGeoSoc.

Author Julie Davidson to share Mrs Livingstone's story in talks series

Author and Journalist Julie Davidson will share the enthralling story of the extraordinarily courageous and stoical wife of the world-renowned explorer and missionary, David Livingstone in a talk based on her book Looking for Mrs Livingstone in Aberdeen, Dundee, Dunfermline and Edinburgh between the 6th and 9th January.

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme.
In the history books, Mary Livingstone is a shadow in the blaze of her husband's sun, a whisper in the thunderclap of his reputation. Yet she played an important role in Livingstone's success and her own feats as an early traveller in uncharted Africa are unique.

She was the first white woman to cross the Kalahari, which she did twice - pregnant - giving birth in the bush on the second journey. She was much more rooted in southern Africa than her husband: he has a tomb in Westminster Abbey, London; she has an obscure and crumbling grave on the banks of the Zambezi in a destitute region of Mozambique.

In the thrall of Africa, Julie Davidson has travelled extensively over several years in the footsteps of Mary Livingstone, from her birthplace in a remote district of South Africa to her grave on the Zambezi. She explores the places the Livingstones knew as a couple and, above all, explores the detail of the life and family of this little-known figure in British - but not African - history.

JULIE DAVIDSON's varied and award-winning career in journalism, includes work for The Times, Observer, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Aberdeen Press & Journal, The Scotsman, The Herald (Glasgow), Cosmopolitan and House & Garden. Winner of 5 Scottish Press Awards, she was a TV presenter and has won several awards for travel writing.

Julie’s talk will take place at 7:30pm on:

6th January - Aberdeen - MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, AB24 5UA

7th January - Dundee - Tower Extension Building, University of Dundee, Perth Road, Dundee, DD1 4HN

8th January - Dunfermline - Carnegie Hall, East Port, Dunfermline, KY12 7JA

9th January - Edinburgh - Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE

Everyone is welcome. Tickets are £8 for adults, free for students, under 18s and RSGS members.

For more information about the RSGS talks and how to join the Society visit www.rsgs.org, contact us on enquiries@rsgs.org, find us on Facebook or follow the Society on twitter @RoyalScotGeoSoc.

From Deepest Africa to the Highest Himalaya: Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons

Our first speakers in the Inspiring People talks season for 2013-14 are Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons.  Travel writers and expedition leaders, Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons will share their experiences of Africa and the Himalayas in talks in Kirkcaldy on Monday 16th and Edinburgh on Wednesday 18th September.  

Siân Pritchard-Jones has been travelling in Africa for 30 years. She worked in computer programming and systems analysis for far too long, until overland travel and particularly the Himalayas captivated her on a trip to Nepal in 1982.

Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons met in 1983, on a trek from Kashmir to Ladakh. By then Bob had already driven an ancient Land Rover from England to Kathmandu in 1974 and led overland trips across Asia, Africa and South America as well as decrepit old tourist buses around India. He had also lived in Kathmandu as a trekking company manager. Before they met, Siân had worked in computer programming and systems analysis, but her heart had always been in the Himalayas, after a trip there on her way back from working in New Zealand.

Since they met they have been leading and organising treks in the Alps, Nepal, Algeria and Niger; they have hitched across Tibet, driven a busload of over-50s overland to Nepal, explored the Sahara and driven across Africa to Gabon. Some of this was real work, but luckily that ‘proper job’ has not materialised.

However, they regularly return to their first love, Kathmandu and the Himalayas, where they work with various publishers in Kathmandu, and have written guides on the Kathmandu Valley, Ladakh and Tibet.. During 2011 they revisited Tibet, this time driving the same old Land Rover back from Kathmandu to the UK overland via Lhasa, Kazakhstan, Russia and across Europe. It was with great relish that they returned to one of their former trekking haunts in Nepal - the Annapurna region - to research a new guide, and to contribute to Trekking in the Himalaya. 

Tickets are available on the door: £8 for adults, free for students, under 18s and RSGS Members. Kirkcaldy: 7:30pm on Monday 16th September in the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee Fife Campus, 5 Forth Ave, Kirkcaldy, KY2 5YS.

Edinburgh: 2:15pm on Wednesday 18^th September in Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9LE.

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme. For more information on the talks visit www.rsgs.org/events

The Ocean of Life - Talk in Edinburgh 2nd July

Professor Callum Roberts will speak about humanity's effects on the oceans in a talk at the University of Edinburgh's Appleton Tower on the 2nd July.  This talk starts at 6:30pm and is free to attend, you can register your attendance here.

Callum Roberts takes us on a voyage beneath the waves to reveal the seas as few know them.  He shows how human activities have for centuries been unpicking the fabric of marine life.  He suggests that we are transforming life in the sea, and with it undermining our own existence.  

The images he will share in this special lecture are not a catalogue of unavoidable disasters ahead.  They illustrate an ambitious plan to reverse long-term trends of depletion and degradation, recapitalise the value of the oceans to people and wildlife, and improve the quality of everyone's lives, especially of generations still to come.

"We don't have to look on helplessly as all that we love about the sea is sullied.  Change for good is within our reach".

Leo Hickman wrote in the Guardian last year "Callum Roberts' Ocean of Life is a manifesto for marine management.  The book calls for a new deal for the world's oceans – and explains why we need to save the seas to survive on land".

One part of the solution - so timely for Scotland - says Roberts, is the establishment of a network of marine protected areas (MPAs).  This summer the Scottish Government will propose via a public consultation a network of MPAs for Scottish waters.  Roberts will highlight a working example from the north east Atlantic to prove it can be achieved.  This was protected in a bold move for the protection of the high seas by the OSPAR Commission in 2010 - the International Year of Biodiversity. "It is now being policed for illegal fishing" he says.  

Roberts seeks a new deal for the world's oceans. For example, he is calling for an outright ban on fishing beneath 800 metres and a phasing out of bottom trawl and dredge fishing. But the focus is not entirely placed on the fishing industry. One problem he forecasts will become much more prominent over the next decade is deep sea mining.  As mining technology improves, and resources become ever more sought after, companies will push deeper into the oceans in search of minerals, metals and fossil fuels.  

Callum Roberts was consultant to the BBC Blue Planet, and The End of the Line, documentary based on Charles Clover’s book which deftly exposed catastrophic reduction in fish stocks globally. 

The event is being co-promoted by the Scottish Environment LINK Marine Taskforce - a coalition of 8 environmental organisations* - who are campaigning for a network of Marine Protected Areas to connect, protect and recover Scotland's seas.   See www.savescottishseas.org for more.

* Marine Conservation Society, WWF Scotland, Scottish Ornithologist Club, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, RSPB Scotland, Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust and The National Trust for Scotland.
The Ocean of Life is available from Word Power Books, 43 W Nicolson St  Edinburgh EH8 9DB 0131 662 9112 www.word-power.co.uk and on the night.

Romania: Learning to Love Europe's Wild Child. Tessa Dunlop.

Tessa Dunlop, a broadcaster, writer and historian with a special interest in Romanian culture and history, will speak on her 20 year odyssey through modern day Romania in talks in Kirkcaldy, Edinburgh and Glasgow on 18^th and 20th of February.

Tessa Dunlop has close ties to Romania. She first went to Romania aged eighteen shortly after the Revolution. Tessa is the author of the book To Romania With Love, the story of how one young Romanian boy and his country changed her life forever.  She is fascinated by the country’s history, including the story of Princess Marie, granddaughter of Queen Victoria who became the ‘Soldier Queen’ of Romania. Romania is a beautiful country riddled with corruption. 

Tessa Dunlop is a writer, broadcaster and historian with a passion for Romania.

These talks are part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme.
Tessa is a television presenter, radio broadcaster and historian. She is currently a presenter and historian on BBC Two’s Coast. She has presented history programmes on BBC1 London, BBC2, Discovery Europe, Channel 4, UKTV History and the History Channel (USA).

Tessa’s talk ‘Romania: Learning to Love Europe’s Wild Child’ takes place at the following times and venues.

Kirkcaldy: Monday 18^th February at 7.30pm. 

School of Midwifery, University of Dundee Fife Campus, 5 Forth Avenue, Kirkcaldy, KY2 5YS. Edinburgh: Wednesday 20th February at 2:15pm.

Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE.

Glasgow: Wednesday 20th February at 7:30pm.

Boyd Orr Building, University of Glasgow, University Ave, Glasgow, G2 4JP.

Tickets are £8 for adults, (redeemable if buying membership) and free for students, under 18s and for RSGS members. Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/

Speaker asks "Do We Really Travel Anymore?"

Dan Kieran, author of The Idle Traveller: The Art of Slow Travel, will speak in Inverness, Stirling and Perth between the 11th and 13th of March

He will discuss the modern approach to travelling. Dan will ask if we really travel any more, or if we just arrive.  Besides extolling the virtues of ‘staycation’ holidaying. Dan argues that we need to bin the brochure, glide rather than fly, embrace disaster, be epic in our travel pursuits, and immerse ourselves in the life-changing experience of true journeying.

Dan Kieran "The Idle Traveller".

Dan avoids flying, preferring to travel slowly to his destination out of the belief that it helps us understand more about ourselves and the places we pass through and visit. 

These talks are part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme.

Dan is Deputy Editor of The Idler, a bi-yearly British magazine. He is a writer, editor, and CEO and co-founder of the crowd-funding publishing platform Unbound. 

He is Editor of Idler Books' Crap Jobs, Crap Holidays (Crap Vacations in the United States), The book of Idle Pleasures, Co-editor of two volumes of Crap Towns, author of I Fought The Law, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and co-author of Three Men In A Float with Ian Vince.

Dan’s talk “The Idle Traveller” will take place at the following times and venues.

Inverness: Monday 11^th Feb at 7:30pm.

The Highland Council Chamber, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness, IV3 5NX.

Perth: Tuesday 12th Feb at 7:30pm. 

Perth Concert Hall, Mill St, Perth, PH1 5HZ.

Stirling: Wednesday 13th Feb at 7:30pm.

Albert Halls, Albert Place, Dumbarton Road, Stirling, FK8 2QL

Tickets are £8 for adults, (redeemable if buying membership) and free for students, under 18s and for RSGS members. Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any of our talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/

Sara Wheeler Steps Where Penguins Fear to Tread with Stories of the Antarctic.

Sara Wheeler, travel writer and biographer will share stories of the Polar Regions in talks in Dundee, Dunfermline and Edinburgh on February 5th to 7th

Sara will uncover the beautiful, brutal reality of the Polar regions, telling stories about her seven months in Antarctica and many visits to the Arctic, including anecdotes, science, and the difference between the two places.

Sara Wheeler in sunnier climes at Leptis Magna, Libya.

Sara spent seven months in Antarctica as the writer in residence of the US National Science Foundation. She wrote the book Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica based on her time there, including spending the night sleeping in the captain’s bunk in Scott’s Hut.

These talks are part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme. The Dundee talk is kindly sponsored by the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers.

  

Dundee: Tuesday 5^th February at 7.30pm.

Dundee University’s Tower Building, Perth Road, Dundee, DD1 4HN. 

Dunfermline: Wednesday 6th February at 7:30pm.

Carnegie Hall, East Port, Dunfermline, KY12 7JA

Edinburgh: Thursday 7th FEbruary at 7:30pm.

Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE

Tickets are £8 for adults, (redeemable if buying membership) and free for students, under 18s and for RSGS members. Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any of our talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/

Missing From the Map: Bruce Gittings shares a Geography of Secret Places.

As part of the RSGS’s popular ‘Inspiring People’ talks programme, Bruce Gittings will be speaking in Aberdeen on February 4th about some of the interesting and intriguing information that is not shown on maps.

Bruce suggests that leaving significant details off the map was not just a feature of Soviet Russia, but is the case in 21st century Britain.  Linking remarkable tales of wartime history with fieldwork in modern landscapes, maps and high resolution aerial imagery, he takes us to some lesser known features of places we may think we know.

Bruce Gittings.

Bruce has an extensive knowledge and understanding of Scotland’s places. He is one of the core team who contribute to the MSc in Geographical Information Science at the University of Edinburgh and he created and maintains the web-based Gazetteer for Scotland, a vast encyclopaedia of Scotland’s geography, people and history, from the Scottish Borders to the Northern Isles.  The first comprehensive gazetteer produced for Scotland since 1885, it includes tourist attractions, industries and historical sites, together with histories of family names and clans, biographies of famous Scots and descriptions of historical events associated with Scotland. 

Bruce’s talk will take place on Monday 4^th February at 7:30pm in the University of Aberdeen’s MacRobert Building, King’s College, Aberdeen, AB24 5UA. Tickets are £8 for adults, (redeemable if buying membership) and free for students, under 18s and for RSGS members. Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any RSGS talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/

Timothy Allen Shares Stunning Images from the BBC's Human Planet

Timothy Allen, the official photographer from the hugely popular BBC series Human Planet, will share his story in talks in Inverness, Perth and Stirling on the 14^th – 16^th January.

Timothy is a professional photographer who spent almost two years shadowing BBC film crews during the production of the landmark television series Human Planet. This talk is a behind-the-scenes look at this awe-inspiring landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today.

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s ‘Inspiring People’ talks programme. These talks have been kindly sponsored by Saffery Champness, BEAR Scotland and Scottish Power.

One of Timothy Allen's stunning images from Human Planet.

At 22, after graduating from Leeds University with a BSc in Zoology he left the UK and spent 3 years travelling around Indonesia which was the catalyst that sparked his passion for photography. In the nineties, after beginning a part-time diploma in photography, Timothy joined an aid convoy to Bosnia in order to shoot his first year reportage project.  Six months later he had dropped out of college, moved to London and begun working for the Sunday Telegraph, later inspiring commissions from all the British broadsheet publications and finally, a 6 year position at The Independent.

In recent years, the focus of Timothy’s work has turned to our planet’s remaining indigenous societies and he currently devotes his time to documenting the diversity of humanity’s cultural heritage. His multi award winning documentaries have taken him to every corner of the globe, from 19 000 ft up in the Himalayas to 40 metres beneath the South China Sea as well as projects within communities in the Arctic, tropical rainforest and remote desert locations.

Inverness: Monday 14^th January at 7.30pm in The Highland Council Chamber, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness, IV3 5NX.

Perth: Tuesday 15th January at 7:30pm in Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, Perth, PH1 5HZ.

Stirling: Wednesday 16th January at 7:30pm in Logie Lecture Theatre, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA.

£8 for adults (redeemable if buying membership) and free for under 18s, students and RSGS members. Tickets are available on the night from the venue. For more information about any of our talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/ or contact fraser.shand@rsgs.org

 

The Talks Programme 2012-13

The Inspiring People 2012-13 talks season is under way. Until the 28th of March we'll be bringing fascinating people and their stories of adventure, travel, science, wildlife and culture from around the world, to 13 locations around Scotland.

From record breaking ocean rowers and round the world adventurers, to tango dancers and archaeologists, we've got something for everyone.

Tickets to each talk in the programme are £8 for adults, or free for students, under 18s and RSGS members. To join the RSGS visit  www.rsgs.org or call 01738 455050.

Check out the programme at the link below
http://www.rsgs.org/events/TalksProgramme.pdf

Matt Dickinson shares his 'Wild Images'

DOCUMENTARY MAKER SHARES HIS ‘WILD IMAGES’
Matt Dickinson speaks for the RSGS in Aberdeen, Dundee and Dunfermline

Award winning expedition documentary maker Matt Dickinson will take his audience on a breathtaking journey of discovery based on his extraordinary filming career, in a talk in Aberdeen, Dundee and Dunfermline on November 5th-7th.

Matt will reveal the thrills and spills, the human highs and lows, that have formed the highlights of his work. 'I have always been fascinated by risk takers' Matt says, 'and the motivation that spurs them on. This talk is an opportunity to explore how explorers react in moments of life and death drama.'

Matt Dickinson is a filmmaker and writer who specializes in the wild places and the indigenous people of the world. He has a passion for adventure that has so far taken him to almost one hundred countries, including expeditions to the Sahara Desert, Greenland, and the jungles of South America.

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme.

He studied anthropology in college before beginning a career in television. After training for four years at the BBC he went freelance in 1988 to produce and direct adventure documentaries for, among others, the BBC, National Geographic Television, the Discovery Channel, and the Arts & Entertainment Network.

His recent film projects have included a sea voyage by yacht to Antarctica, a whitewater rafting film on the Brahmaputra River in India, and an expedition on foot across the inhospitable Namib Desert.

In the pre-monsoon Everest season of 1996, amid the worst weather conditions on record, together with Alan Hinkes, Britain's foremost high-altitude mountaineer, he made a successful ascent of Mount Everest's notorious north side, one of the more technically demanding climbs on the world's highest peak.

Matt Dickinson’s Talk ‘Wild Images’ will take place at the MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen, AB24 5UA, at 7.30pm on November 5^th.  £8 for adults, and free for students, under 18s and RSGS members.  Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any of our talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/

Take a Trip up Highway 89 at RSGS Talk

TAKE A TRIP UP HIGHWAY 89 AT RSGS TALK

Mountaineer Ian Mitchell shares his stories of Cowboys, Indians, Mormons and Mineworkers.

Ian Mitchell will take audiences a journey along Highway 89 in his talks in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth next week. His illustrated lecture features his most recent trip in the Rocky Mountain region.  along Highway 89 from the Mexican to the Canadian borders, through Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, in search of Cowboys and Indians, Pre-Columbian civilizations, Mormons and Mineworkers.

Ian's journey took him through some of the USA's most staggering National Parks including Zion, Yellowstone and Glacier, and also ventured into the backwoods of mountain America, to the Hanksvilles and Pinedales where a tourist is hardly seen. This is portrait of Mountain America at a time of crisis and change in US society.

Ian R Mitchell is a successful writer and mountaineer.  He co-wrote the classic Scottish mountaineering book Mountain Days and Bothy Nights  and A View from the Ridge which won the prestigious Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.  He has been published widely in newspapers and journals and has appeared on radio and television programmes on travel and the outdoors, such as BBC’s Landward, Country File and Country Trax programmes. 

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme.  

Ian Mitchell’s Talk ‘Up the Rocky Mountain Spine’ will take place at the following venues

November 6th:  

Perth: Perth Concert Hall, Mill Street, Perth, PH1 5HZ at 7.30pm.

November 8th:

Glasgow: Renfield St Stephens Church Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JP at 2.15pm 

Edinburgh: Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE  at 7.30pm. 

Tickets are £8 for adults, and free for students, under 18s and RSGS members.  Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any of our talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/