The Festival of English 2015 opened last week (Tuesday 3 February) at the Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Reading Room with a lecture on Chaucer given by Professor Peter Brown. The lecture is part of an Open Lecture Series highlighting Canterbury and Kent’s prominent literary figures. The series has been organised in partnership with the Cathedral Reading Room and Archives and Templeman Library Special Collections and Archives at the University of Kent. The lecture offered a fascinating insight into the literary history of Kent and Canterbury leading up to Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales which went on to put Canterbury very much on the literary map of England. The Cathedral Library made available several original Chaucer manuscripts which could be viewed by visitors, and similarly Special Collections was also able to offer up several rare facsimile copies of Chaucer’s work. The Open Lecture Series continues on 10 March 2015 with a lecture on Marlowe by Dr Sarah Dustagheer.
2015 is a significant year for the University of Kent and the School of English. English Literature was one of the University of Kent’s founding subjects and, as the university celebrates its 50th anniversary, the school also celebrates the milestone of fifty years at the forefront of local, national and international literary studies. The Festival of English is free and open to all.