Events / Book Tour

Promotional events for the release of Heaven on Earth:

25th February, Church Times Festival, 11.30am (with Peter Stanford and Dean of Winchester).

28th February, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea Libraries, 6.30pm (online event)

14th March, Savile Club, London, 6.30pm

22nd March, Thomas Sutton Lecture, The Charterhouse, London, 6pm

28th March, Oxford Literary Festival, 2pm

Ripon Cathedral Autumn Lecture Series, October 2021.

Please see Emma’s Contact page if you’d like her to talk to your group, school, or institution, and providing as much information on your requirements, location, travel arrangements, etc. Her fee will be made available upon request. 

Upcoming Tours/Study Days:

  • Power & Pilgrims: In the footsteps of Saints at Durham Cathedral, Andante Study Day, October 2022. Book HERE.
  • Minsters and Monasteries: ripon Cathedral and Fountains Abbey, September 2022. Book HERE.
  • Great Cathedrals of the Southwest, Andante Tour, September 2022. Book HERE.
HistFest, British Library, April 2022. Photo credit: Gurpreet Sihat.

Recent Events:

  • Hell: The Devil is in the Deatil, HistFest, British Library (April 2022).
  • Holy Inappropriate or the Holy Grail?: The risqué playground of medieval parish church art and architecture, The Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland (January 2022).
  • Holy Inappropriate? “Secular” uses of the medieval church, Caring for God’s Acre (November 2021).
  • Opening speaker, Ecclesiological Society (October 2021).
  • Ripon Cathedral Autumn Lecture Series (October 2021).
  • Foolish Anticks? Meaning, Movement and the senses in the early reformation parish church, Society for Church Archaeology Annual Conference, Salisbury (September 2021).
  • Uncovering the Naughty Bits of the Medieval Parish Church, City of Westminster Libray & Archives (June 2021).
  • Defender of the Faith? Henry VIII and the Parish Church, Churches Conservation Trust (April 2021).
  • Holy Inappropriate? “Secular” uses of the medieval church, Churches Conservation Trust 2020 Candida Lycett Memorial Lecture (December 2020).
  • ‘The Tudors and the Church’ lecture, Centre for Parish Church Studies (November 2020).
  • Churches Conservation Trust Lunchtime Lectures (2020).
  • ‘Medieval Life & Death’ BBC History special events (2020).
  • The Art of the Lost Conference, Canterbury Cathedral (November 2019).
  • Association of Voluntary Guides to the City of York (September 2019).
  • Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate York (May 2019).
  • BBC History Weekend, York (October 2018).
  • IMC (July 2018)
  • YAYAS, the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society (January 2018)
  • Courtauld Institute of Art, London (June 2017)
  • RHS, University of Chester (April 2017)
  • University College, Oxford (April 2017)
  • University of Huddersfield (April 2017)
  • York Waterstones (October 2016)
  • Storyhouse – Chester Literature Festival (October 2016)
  • White Rose Books, Thirsk (October 2016)
  • Ilkley Literature Festival (October 2016)
  • Ripon International Festival (September 2016)
  • Listed Property Show, Harrogate HIC (March 2016)
  • Masham Local History Group (September 2015)
  • Arkendale WI (February 2015)
  • University of York Autumn Public Lecture Series (December 2014)
  • Bedale Archaeology and History Society (January 2014)
  • Sensing the Sacred: Religion and the Senses, 1300–1800, University of York (June 2013)
  • Religious Men in the Middle Ages, University of Huddersfield (July 2012)
  • Medieval Research Group, University of Leeds (Mar 2012) (invited speaker)
  • Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland (Mar 2012)
  • Institute for Historical Research (Jan 2012)
  • European Reformation Research Group (2011)
  • British Archaeological Association Annual Conference, Newcastle and Northumberland (2010)

Selected Special Lecture Invitations:

  • ‘”Sensing” the Past: Uncovering the Experience of Late Medieval Pilgrimage’, Medieval Research Group, University of Leeds (2012)
  • ‘The architecture of the church in Northeast England’, North Eastern Catholic Society (2014).
  • ‘Unlock The Secrets of Your Home’, Bedale Hall; Mercer Art Gallery (2014)
  • ‘The Secrets behind your Front Door: discovering the history of your home’, NYCRO Local and Family History Day (2014)
  • ‘The Medieval Cult of Durham Cathedral Priory’, Friends of Durham Cathedral (2014)
  • ‘Pilgrimage in the North’, Durham WHS Public Lecture Series 2012–13, invited by Dr Sarah Semple to speak alongside eminent scholars inc. Dame Professor Rosemary Cramp, Professor Chris Gerrard, and Dr Dave Petts (2013).
  • ‘The Beauty of Stained Glass’, Mini Archaeology Series, Life Science Centre, Newcastle (2011).
  • (And coordinator of stained glass exhibition) – Community Medieval Day, St. Margaret’s Church, Durham (2010).
  • ‘The monumental and the private: the sensory experience of medieval pilgrimage art and architecture’, New Approaches to Medieval Religious Cultures, German Historical Institute and Birmingham University (2010)

Possible Titles for Talks include:

  • Monks Behaving Badly
  • Faulty Towers or Heaven on Earth? How to Build a Cathedral
  • More TV, vicar? Oh my! The clergy and Church through history.
  • How Naughty was the Past?: The hidden depths of the art and architecture of the medieval church
  • Making “Sense” of the English Medieval Church
  • Those Walls Can Talk!: How the seemingly insignificant objects of our daily lives are vital tools to understanding our past.
  • Windows to the Soul: Architectural Representations in Stained Glass
  • House Detective: How to Research Your Home
  • Pilgrimage, Cult of the Saints and the Medieval Church
  • In Faith’s Footsteps: The Pilgrim Routes of Britain
  • The History, Art, and Architecture of England’s Cathedrals
  • The History and Inhabitants of Kiplin Hall, North Yorkshire
  • The Beauty of Medieval Stained Glass
  • The Treasures of the English Parish Church
  • Did Henry really “Break” the Church? Devotion in the parish church in sixteenth-century England