Kathy has worked extensively internationally as a Senior Governance Adviser for the UK government, the UNDP, the Swedish government and other donor in countries across the Caribbean, Africa and in Europe and Mongolia. With this background and her current interests, she is a helpful and informed guide to World Affairs. She worked for six years across the Caribbean from the UK Development office in Barbados. In this role she explored and developed her interest in politics, history and culture of this dynamic part of the world. Her talks on the Caribbean include among a number o varied topics: the history of the English language; the Spanish Empire, St Lucia's Nobel laurates, volcanoes and coral as well as the Pirates of the Caribbean - the real ones!

She is an experienced and lively presenter in informal and formal situations and trained herself to be a Bletchley Park tour guide. Recently she has completed a PhD in Creative Writing/Literature and runs innovative writing workshops for new and experienced writers. These have been attended in UK, Barbados and Zimbabwe.

She has been published with short stories appearing in the anthology ‘Words and Women III’ (Unthank Books); Toasted Cheese Literary online journal; Leaf Books; ‘Noel’s Story’ published by Troubador Publishing – available on Amazon, Apple, Kobo. She is currently completing a collection of short stories set in Zimbabwe.

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TITLES OF CARIBBEAN TALKS & SUMMARIES

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1: Little Britain
How did Barbados become the Crown Jewel in Britain’s economic and industrial growth? We will look at the initial discovery and early settlement of Barbados by indigenous peoples. What did they do? How did they live? Why is Barbados called Barbados? We will move on to the first British landing and how they early pioneers managed to live and turn the island into a money machine.

2: Rule Britannia!
We will examine the island place names and trace the history of the big men who owned and farmed the Barbados plantations. Why sugar?
The talk will include a consideration of three men of Barbados: William Hinds Prescod ; Christopher Codrington and the Church of England; The Drax bothers in the early 1650s to Richard Drax – current British MP for South Dorset and owner of Drax Plantation.

3: Christopher Columbus and The Spanish Main
This talk will look at the rise of the Spanish Empire in the Western Hemisphere and how its treasure ships became a magnet for pirates and privateers. We will look at the difference between pirates and privateers. The talk will examine the 1524 Treaty of Tordesillas, the power of Popes, and see how the New World was carved up between the two great maritime powers at the time: Spain and Portugal.

4: Elizabeth I’s Pirate of the Caribbean
We will take a skip through the lawless times of the 1500s and 1600s as Sir Francis Drake roamed the Caribbean on the lookout for Spanish treasure ships. The talk will cover the pivotal role of Admiral/ Privateer/slave trader John Hawkins (1532-1595) in establishing the British Royal Navy. And we will look at the search for El Dorado – the City of Gold in Guyana.

5: The Discovery Doctrine
This talk will examine what the doctrine of discovery was and how it smoothed the way for Christian to conquer new lands. We will look at how this doctrine emerged during the Age of Discovery, in the late 1400s onwards, when the Spanish and Portuguese were the great navigator nations. The talk will look at the influence of the Popes in these times when to be a Christian was to be Roman Catholic. It will help us to see for example, why Brazilians speak Portuguese, but Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Chileans and Peruvians speak Spanish.

6: Do You Take Sugar? And Rum?
Demerara sugar is a well-known type of soft brown sugar. This talk will look at the magnificent Demerara River and the county of Demerara in Guyana – the only English-speaking country in South America. Sugar cane was brought from the far east, from New Guinea to the Caribbean. We will look at this history and at the exploitation of our sweet tooth. Rum is by-product of these early global trading adventures, and the talk will explain how rum came to be invented.

7: The St Lucian Laureates
St Lucia has a population of 185,556 and has produced two Nobel Prize winners. Britain has a population of 65 million and has produced 99. This means that St Lucia is no.1 in world ranking per capita. The UK is ranked 10; the US is ranked 15. We will look at Sir Arthur Lewis – the economist and Sir Derek Walcott, the poet and consider their St Lucian heritage and the legacy they have left to the Caribbean community.

8: Grenada: Spices, Revolution and Invasion
Grenada has always had a lively history. On October 25th, 1983, this tiny island, the size of the City of Detroit, was invaded under the operational banner: URGENT FURY. We will look at the global background to this event and consider the reasons it happened. The talk will cover the history of Greneda and tell of the way it has been fought over in the pitiless rivalry between the French and English in their fight for control of the Caribbean’s riches. At one point The French used Grenada as a prison island before establishing Devil’s Island off the coast of South America. We will look at happier times and the reason Grenada has a nutmeg on its national flag.

9: The Virgins
Why are these Islands so named? Why are some American and others British? And why were the Danes here and sold their Virgin to the US? We will look at the stormy history of this now peaceful place and learn how they have been peopled by indigenous AmerIndians (Arawaks and Caribs), the Spanish, Africans, Danes, Brits and Americans. This talk will use the Virgin Islands as an example to illustrate the tumultuous history of the Caribbean region.

10: Empire and the English Language
We will look at some of the surprising background of the English language and the debt the English language owes to the Caribbean region. Hamacas were invented by the original Taino and Arawak peoples of the Caribbean islands and came to us via Spanish as hammocks.
You may have heard of a ‘buccaneer’ as another word for a pirate. Do you know it comes from a grill – the boucan – used by the original inhabitants of these islands used to cook meat? The Spaniards named California, thinking it was an island described in an old folktale where women ruled.

11: Coral vs Volcanic
Why does Barbados have its famous white sands? Why is Montserrat erupting? What is Kick ‘em Jenny? The talk will take a wander around the ‘old’ coral islands of Barbados, Antigua, Barbuda, St Martin and Anguilla, as well as Barbados, and contrast these with the newer, livelier volcanic origins of St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Greneda, Martinique, Dominica, Montserrat and the others. We will explore something of the earth’s long history before these places became what we see them as now.

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CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOPS

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Do you know you have a story inside you, waiting to be told? Have you always meant to sit down and write? These workshops are the place to begin.

In all the sessions, Kathy uses a highly participative approach to teaching, offering a supportive and creative environment to give confidence and inspiration. She uses prompts from poetry and well-known novels and uses a variety of techniques to encourage participants to put pen to paper. These include timed writing, structured exercises, free writing and time to share and give and receive feedback. Each workshop will include some elements of character development, plot design and progress, use of dialogue and vivid locations. We will explore what makes a story different to an anecdote and work through this idea.
The number of the workshops in any of series below can be varied to suit the duration of each Cruise.

Title of workshop series

Writing Your Stories
A series of interactive workshops learning how to draw on your imagination and from life experiences. By the end of the series participants will have covered story structure, Point of View in a story and the use of dialogue to bring a story alive.

Telling Your Tales – Building your Memoir
A series of workshops where participants will learn how to write from their own lives. Everybody has a unique life to tell, and we will learn to draw from this. A memoir is not an autobiography, and we will examine the difference. This series will help individuals to choose themes from their life and how to make them interesting and write meaningfully about them.

Creative Characters
This series will concentrate of creating three dimensional characters that your readers will care about. We will have fun placing characters in testing situations and watching what they do. Characters must change in some ways in a story – how will you develop and come through your story. You may surprise yourself!

Making Trouble
All creative fiction involves conflict, challenge and change. There must be trouble in your stories to make them interesting. The conflict may be internal (the self-doubting detective/ the alcoholic psychiatrist) or it can be external. It is often both: the self-doubting detective must solve the crime. This series of workshops will involve placing your characters in situations where decisions must be made, and action taken.

Viking Sky World Cruise segment: Cape Town - Greenwich. April 9th - May 6th 2024. Lectures on South Africa: Literature; Economy; Boer Wars; Cecil Rhodes; Music and Dance; Queen Victoria and Regional Royalty.