Literary History Breaks

2025 Literary History Breaks at The Green Park with Richard Moore

Richard is a lecturer and creative writer, the author of over eighty plays and a number of musical works. He gained his first degree at the University of Cambridge and taught in schools for many years. In 1989 he gained his Ph.D. taking as his subject Christianity and Paganism in Victorian Fiction. He then went on to work as a Deputy Head and Head of English at Queen Ethelburga’s College, near York, before moving in 2000 into University teaching.

Since January 2000 Richard has been a part-time lecturer at Newcastle and Sunderland Universities and has run various courses for adults, particularly at Higham Hall in the Lake District. His particular academic interests are American Drama, the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, Irish Literature, Victorian Music Theatre and the 20th century Theatre of the Absurd.

Time: ‘We are Time’s Subjects’

Time is a very fluid concept. The Ancient Greeks had three different words for it, each with a different nuance, and it well known that in the Victorian period the go-to period for the aesthetically highly tuned was the Greek-Mediaeval! In this course we shall learn something about how Time has been viewed through the generations and also about various fads and fancies associated with it. Meet Benjamin Bathhurst, a Regency diplomat whose disappearance is sometimes explained as vanishing through a time-warp. Meet Archibald Grosvenor whose arguments with ‘Chronos’ depend on an old flame not recognising him after a lapse of fourteen years. And of course Shakespeare who in The Merry Wives of Windsor tells us “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late”.

Literature of the Seasons

The seasons are one of the most prevalent means by which literary texts engage with and represent climate, the environment and traditional life-nature patterns. Particular seasons are associated with particular human activities, emotions, psychological states, and even literary genres. Nowadays, with the problems of global warming and climate change generally, seasonal patterns are being challenged and modified, but this only adds to the significance and interest. And of course there are many questions : has nature or culture or a mixture of both shaped our responses to the four main seasons? Why do so many myths have a seasonal element? What ancient customs accompanied the beginning of each season (for instance firing arrows at the sky at the approach of winter)? Who or what is the Winter King and what are the seasonal implications of the Fisher King story and the Persephone myth?


There is no supplementary charge for single accommodation on any of our activity breaks, and as normal, we can arrange free transport ( on your day of arrival and on your day of departure ) between the hotel and the bus and railway stations.

Details about all of our activity breaks are readily available - either download a copy from this section, ask for them during you stay, or just telephone the hotel and ask us to forward a programme for whatever activity you are interested in.

Richard Moore

Time: ‘We are Time’s Subjects’

From Sunday the 12th of January until the morning of Thursday the 16th of January 2025

Download February 2025 Break Programme

Literature of the Seasons

From Tuesday the 4th of March until the morning of Saturday the 8th of March 2025

Download February 2025 Break Programme