23rd–29th June 2025 - Broad Chalke, Salisbury
” This is an illustration to accompany the talk by Amanda Vickery and Stella Tillyard on Georgian women called Dangerous Liaisons. I saw Professor Vickery last year and I’m looking forward to this talk, She brings up to date these strange, distant times, and crudely, I’ve tried to do the same…”
“Bit obvious, I know, the shadow of the fantastic Jesse Owens, too fast to catch, obliterating the souvenir medal as he goes for one his four Golds…”
This is to illustrate a talk by Guy Walters in the John Aubrey Tent on the opening Tuesday. I haven’t read the synopsis, and rather jumped the gun, unlike Jesse, who, I’m certain has to merit a mention,”
“I want to make the pages in the programme as different from each other as possible. So, I’m attempting to use photography as well as illustration in as many styles as possible. Having already given the image of the Festival a unique twist – important to attract the casual browser in Waterstones, or wherever they may be – I think the pages should reflect the energy and character that the events deserve, without interfering with any clarity of communication. This is for The Crusades by Thomas Asbridge on Tuesday night.”
Illustration by Johnny Bull
“That caption should read, ‘…after an idea by Peter Brookes.’ I really wanted to avoid anything classical looking for Victoria Hislop’s Friday night event, that would collide with Tom’s talks, especially something wretchedly hack, like the Acropolis with a few flames behind it and then maybe putting graffitti on it. Like you’d expect to see on a Dan Brown book cover. I had a flash of guilty inspiration when I thought of the stylish, as well as witty, Peter Brookes, who I think still draws for The Times. I remember he produced a stunning statement on the Falklands, where he tore the the map as a silhouette from the Union Jack. So, I thought, the Greek turmoil could be illustrated by this… but, it’s been burnt out. I know, I know, but I like the image… Sorry, Peter.”
“This looks like a great event: Orlando Figes’ Tuesday nighter, one of the opening talks of the Festival. Researching the subject makes you feel sad and angry. The human statistics of Stalin’s primitive corporate madness, digging and dying pointlessly in conditions that defy any proper understanding. This image was inspired by a grainy photograph taken in the 30s of a mother and child – probably born there – hacking at a frozen bit of ground, wrapped in rags and watched over by one of the uniformed bullies.
It’s a nod to the world’s first giant of typography, Rodchenko, obviously, and I wanted to give it as forlorn and powerful a look as I could. A woodcutty, hard, unsentimental look…”
Illustration by Johnny Bull
“Almost as emblematic as the moustache was the utterly ruined landscape of Berlin in 1945. So with a tough razor and some basic Photoshopping skills I made an image to accompany Professor Ian Kershaw’s talk: The End – Hitler’s Germany 1944-1945″
“George Peabody was one of the great millionaire philanthropists. An illustration for Ian Hislop for his talk on the age of the Do-Gooder. Here he is surveying his good works – the Peabody Buildings – and suffering an autographic pun. One of many little twists I like to give drawings to keep me on my toes and George in his place. I hope Ian Hislop approves. I’m a big fan!”
Illustrator drawing by Johnny Bullss
‘Some of these pictures won’t make the programme, things change, so do I, but it’s a good idea I think, to put some of the best ones I’ve done just in case they lose themselves on my slightly chaotic filing system.”
An illustration drawn on Johnny Bull’s work-stained G5. Once, like him, brand new. Now, unlike him, tired and wanting to go to sleep.
The visual theme we’re establishing this year, and we hope to continue in the future, is distinctively modern as well as colourful. Johnny Bull, our art director, with the help of his neighbour, plundered the dressing-up box in at Broad Chalke Village Hall, and got his daughter, Phoebe and his neighbour’s daughter, Millie, to don Victorian finery and look as though they were being chased a Spitfire.
His account of a bizarre morning: “My daughter dressing up and posing as someone being buzzed by a Spitfire. The cover of this year’s Chalke Valley History Festival brochure shows Phoebe and our neighbour, Millie, dressed as Victorians taking the air and being surprised, maybe terrified, at the sight of a Spitfire howling through the valley on the way back from a sortie, maybe chasing bombers over the Nab Tower. It’s a montage, so they’re not really frightened, just a bit cold… Anyway, here’s Feebs going through the acting paces. Takes after her mother, clever and beautiful. Thank goodness”
The Chalke Valley History Festival has a new roving reporter – Xander Drury, a first-year classics undergraduate at Durham University. We asked Xander to speak to Antony Beevor, one of the Festival’s Patrons, and one of the biggest names in military history. This summer sees the publication of Antony’s magnificent single-volume history of the Second World War and when Xander caught up with him, he wanted to know how he went about researching such an enormous subject… Read more
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