History, culture & writing - Keeley Street

Explore History, Culture & Writing

Explore our extraordinary range of History, Culture and Writing courses and lectures. We offer both introductory and specialist in-depth courses to suit all levels of interest and experience, from ‘How to read a film’ and World literature, to Creative non-fiction writing courses and American history and Politics courses.

Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators; many have published, teach in universities or share their expertise in the media. Tutors share their knowledge and passion through presentations, readings, interactive discussion and exercises, analysis, and other activities.

Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit Learning community.

Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.

Courses available both in-person and online

We offer a range of long and short courses allowing you to choose between in-person and online learning.

Learn in the centre of London with our in-person courses. Our purpose-built facilities in Covent Garden mean we are ideally located and easy to get to. 

See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.

All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, we've got the class for you.

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  1. Writing for magazines
    Course start date:  Wed 24 Apr 2024 (and 5 other dates)

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Susan Grossman
    Get inspired to write on this practical course for freelance journalists and bloggers. Learn to carry out research, interview people, pitch and publish stories, and build your presence on social media.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £70.00
    Rating:
    98% of 100
  2. A day in the life of the everyday: the twentieth century circadian novel: Mrs. Dalloway, One Fine Day, The Hours
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Fri 26 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Jenny Stevens
    Novels that fit all their action into just one day (‘circadian novels’) have been penned by some of literature’s most esteemed authors. This course focuses on three novels which use the one-day structure to tell their stories: Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway (1925), Mollie Pater-Downes’s One Fine Day (1947), and Michael Cunningham’s The Hours (1999). It explores how they portray the inner life of characters, at the same time as engaging with broader social issues of the time.
    Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
  3. Visionary experiments: American art of the 1940s and 50s
    Course start date:  Fri 26 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Sarah Jaffray
    Explore American art during and just after World War II. From abstraction expressionism to social justice in photography and printmaking see how the US's unique context created the foundation for experimental and transgressive art.
    Full fee £119.00 Senior fee £95.00 Concession £77.00
  4. Ancient Greek drama: an introduction
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Tue 30 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Maria Contos
    Have a taste of exploring the ancient Athenian stage, and how they still speak to us about the challenges we face today.
    Full fee £109.00 Senior fee £87.00 Concession £71.00
  5. Tutankhamun unveiled
    Course start date:  Tue 30 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Rosalind Janssen
    The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 caused a worldwide sensation, which led to a bout of ‘Tut-mania’. Much overlooked is the political setting: Egypt’s semi-independence from British rule that occurred in the same year. But who was Tutankhamun: how did he live and die? This course unveils the Pharaoh, his wardrobe, curse, blockbuster exhibitions, and enduring legacy.
    Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00
  6. French and Russian literature
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Tue 30 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Richard Niland
    Explore classic texts of 19th century French and Russian literature, discussing literary style, themes, and contexts as a way of developing and sharing responses to celebrated European writing. Among the French writers examined will be Stendhal, Baudelaire, Flaubert and Rimbaud, with our Russians including Pushkin, Lemontov, and Tolstoy.
    Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
  7. The world of Bob Dylan
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Thu 2 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Richard Niland
    This class explores the work of Bob Dylan, examining his song writing, musical style, and persona in the context of American cultural, political, and musical history, exploring how Dylan engages with American culture through his absorption and reworking of multifarious aspects of both historical and modern Americana.
    Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
  8. Get together and read
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Thu 2 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Claire Allen
    Enjoy talking with other people about the things you have read? Want to share great stories, poems and drama? Come along and join the conversation. The group is led by a shared reading practitioner trained by The Reader Organisation.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £50.00
    Rating:
    97% of 100
  9. An introduction to art history: interpreting theory
    Weekend
    Course start date:  Sat 4 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Rachel Sanders
    Explore a variety of art movements, from Romanticism to American Social Realism through an introductory study of the writing of art theorists and commentators who have made a significant contribution to the Art History discipline.
    Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00
  10. Spectacles of the Ancient world
    Course start date:  Thu 9 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Michael Bloomfield
    This course explores some of the most elaborate and powerful displays of the Graeco-Roman world. Designed to entertain, inform, and elicit support, often at times of great political or religious significance, they were unforgettable, and have long exercised an influence on our own understanding of the nature of power.
    Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £71.00 Concession £58.00
  11. Classic drama: Antigone, Measure for Measure, The Country Wife
    Course start date:  Mon 13 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Jenny Stevens
    We will read and discuss three classic plays: Sophocles’ Antigone, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and William Wycherley’s The Country Wife. Focusing closely on structure, language and tone, we will consider how dramatists across time have explored themes such as sexual politics, family relationships and state power through their plays, as well as considering the social, cultural and historical contexts in which they were produced.
    Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00
  12. How to read a film: a beginners' guide to cinema
    Course start date:  Mon 13 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Paul Sutton
    This course will develop your critical appreciation of the cinema by teaching you how to read and understand film texts. We will look at the elements that underpin film form – narrative, mise en scène, cinematography, editing and sound – alongside its historical development. We will consider film style by exploring classical, post-classical and art cinema and we will examine influential critical modes of analysis, such as genre, authorship and spectatorship.
    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00
    Rating:
    87% of 100
  13. The detective in popular modern crime fiction
    Last Few Places
    Course start date:  Tue 14 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Christine Hawkins
    What sells crime novels? Does knowing about the detective's other life make readers appreciate or rate their detective skills more? Why does the figure of the male detective remain so dominant in the genre, especially given that many of the texts are by female authors? We will analyse and the discuss the development of the male detective figure in recent crime fiction, including 'A certain Justice' by P.D. James, 'In the Woods' by Tana French and 'Career of Evil' by Robert Galbraith.
    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00
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