School of English lecturer Dr Andy Kesson will open a series of lunchtime talks at Canterbury’s newly opened Beaney House of Art and Knowledge later today. This opening lecture, entitled ‘Loving Lyly, or, why does Canterbury not celebrate its most successful writer, John Lyly?’, will discusses the best-selling playwright of Shakespeare’s time and one of England’s first novelists.
Dr Kesson said: ‘If you could go back in time to ask Shakespeare who was the greatest writer of his age, I have no doubt his answer would be “John Lyly”. Through my talk I aim to explain not only why Lyly was the most important writer of the English Renaissance, and the most important writer Canterbury has produced, but also why he has since been neglected in favour of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Jonson.’
Click here for the full story and the schedule of the Beaney ‘bitesize’ talks.