MARK ADKINS has spent his whole life being fascinated by people’s behaviour. What drives them to think and behave the way they do.
It led him to study Art & Design/History of Art at Chelsea School of Art and the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London), then on to a career in advertising, devising award winning television commercials, press ads and posters for some of the world’s leading brands.
His career included being Creative Director on brands such as Procter & Gamble, Tesco (at the time the world’s biggest advertiser and the world’s biggest retailer respectively) and The BBC, alongside other memorable clients such as Cadbury’s Smash.

He has been lucky enough to have worked with many well-known talents including Stephen Fry, Sir David Suchet and Sir Ridley Scott to name just a few.

Throughout this time, he continued to work on his own art projects, exhibiting in London and the South West. He played a central role in founding an annual arts festival in Taunton and was also a founding director of Go Create promoting art in the community.
His talks, whether about art and creativity, social history or murder (in which he is also well read), aim to be surprising, passionate, informative and above all entertaining for broad spectrum audiences. They can often be tailored to include destination and even cruise ship specific content.

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CANDY ADKINS B.Ed. Has been a mainstream teacher, a Special Needs teacher, a College Lecturer and a business woman, but not necessarily in that order!

She is on the ATA Association Committee dedicated to keeping their WW2 stories alive and is an affiliate member of the RAF Women Officers Association.

When not Travelling around giving inspirational talks to interesting people she is on the TAOS Musical Theatre Committee.
Through her WW2 Women and War talks she has been interviewed on Antiques Road Show, The Today Programme Radio 4, Michael Portillo’s Programme Virgin Radio, BBC New Breakfast, Sky News, BBC South West, ITV West Country, BBC Wales, Q.I., Bargain Hunt, with Podcasts for RAF Histories and Sara Millican Podcast Standard Issue at The Imperial War Museum.
Candy and Mark often share cruise engagements.

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MARK ADKINS PRESENTATIONS

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PICASSO, THE MAN WHO RE-INVENTED ART.
What makes one painter more famous than another? Pablo Picasso became the world’s richest and most famous artist. We take a look at how this passionate, controversial and complex man completely turned art on its head again and again.
(Spain, France/ Europe, USA, Africa)

HENRI MATISSE, THE MAN WHO COLOURED THE WORLD.
Find out how Matisse’s ever inventive, beautiful paintings and colourful cut-outs absolutely transformed art again and again, changing not just art itself, but how we express ourselves today.
(France/ Europe, USA,)

PAUL GAUGUIN - PAINTING IN A POLYNESIAN PARADISE
Gauguin transformed how we looked at the world through his beautiful, colourful paintings of the Tahitian people. He was the first artist to fuse ideas from distant cultures into European art using imagination and invention.
(South Pacific, Panama, France)

WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE?
Discover how we look at, understand and express ourselves through art. What tricks artists from different times and countries have used to drive our opinions, the real meanings behind some famous works and how our current ideas are still being influenced.
(Polynesia, Europe, USA, Central America, Africa, Asia, Mexico)

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT, THE ARCHITECT WHO THOUGHT OUTSIDE THE BOX
Ground-breaking architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed some of the world’s most famous buildings. Discover how his amazing designs revolutionised the spaces in which we now live and work as we take a look at his controversial life, his influences and the stories behind buildings like New York’s Guggenheim and the Falling Water House.
(USA, Europe, Belize)

GALLEONS, FLOGGINGS AND GROG… LIFE AT SEA IN THE 1700s
Discover how life on-board ship during The Age of Sail compares to that enjoyed on YOUR luxury cruise liner! Find out what was served up by the galley, how the drinks package compared, what caused the dreaded scurvy, what entertainment might be expected and what horrors you could face if you stepped out of line!
(All countries including Europe, Caribbean, Asia)

THE EVIL DR CRIPPEN AND THE COAL CELLAR MURDER
To this day the name ‘Dr Crippen’ sends shivers down our spines. But what drove this notorious murderer to his dastardly doings? Find out how revolutionary technology helped track the killer down. How it led to a dramatic chase across the ocean waves. The evidence that led him to the hangman’s noose. So why did everyone seem to like him? And does cold case review reveal a twist at the end of this dark tail?
(UK, USA, Canada)

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CANDY ADKINS PRESENTATIONS

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SPITFIRE GIRL - THE STORY OF A WW2 TRAILBLASER.
Follow the adventures of Jackie Moggridge, pioneering woman pilot of WW2, ATA and WRAF and first British woman Airline Captain who flew 86 types of war plane. Her life is shown in original WW2 photographs as her daughter shares the fun, thrills and dangers she faced, the prejudice she overcame to follow her dreams and the fun, frustrations and pitfalls of flying in a man’s world.
(UK, South Africa, Scotland, France Belgium, New Zealand, America, Israel, Burma, India, Iran)

THE TRUE STORY OF THE FRENCH SPY ODETTE CHURCHILL - CODE NAME LISE.
Learn how WW2 Spies were trained and how Odette, mother of three, survived the Nazis. An insight into the world of espionage. She was the first woman to receive the George Cross, an agent for the UK clandestine Special Ops Exec during WW2. When sentenced to death on two counts of spying she replied “Well you will have to choose which one for I can only die once!” She survived - and this is her story!
(France, UK)

AMY JOHNSON - THE REAL STORY.
Amy’s life was fast, fearless and fated. She was the first woman to risk flying solo from London to Australia followed by hair-raising, record-breaking flights from London to South Africa and then across the Atlantic to the USA. The Americans loved her and she landed to cheering crowds wherever she went. War broke out and she wanted to do her bit but her pioneering life was mysteriously cut short. What really happened when she disappeared in 1941?
(UK, Australia, America, South Africa, Singapore, Bermuda, France, Turkey, India, Iran Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Java, Bali)

SEA MONSTORS, MYTHS AND MYSTERIES.
Many ships have gone missing over the centuries. Discover the various sea monsters blamed for their disappearance and how to avoid an attack. Look at the Norwegian maps that warned where they were thought to hide and discover the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle and the live sea dragons living today.
(Worldwide, Norway, Bermuda, Japan)

ABORIGINAL DOT ART, THE MEANING OF ITS SYMBOLS AND ITS SECRET HISTORY.
The First Australians do not have their own written language. For over 60,000 years, knowledge and traditions have been handed down by word of mouth and by the use of commonly understood symbols. Their art, and the iconography they used, formed an essential and integral part of this.
They read the earth’s surface closely for signs of life, for tracking animals and recognising recent events. Learn why they used this secretive complex form of story- telling - who it was meant for? And from whom was it hidden? Look at what this art work fetches today and the Art Galleries around the world that exhibit it.
(Australia, Polynesia)

Award winning Creative Director, Mark (BA Hons Art and Design) has been presenting creative thinking to audiences throughout his career including to many of the world's leading brands, creative industry bodies and art organisations.

Recently both Mark and Candy have been guest speakers on Fred Olsen, Ambassador and Viking Cruises.