One of the highlights of Vanbrugh300 was this morning’s discussion of Vanbrugh’s life and work at the Chalke Valley History Festival.  The panel included Ophelia Field who wrote an excellent biography of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough and a study of the Kit-Cat Club; Rory Fraser who is publishing a biography of Vanbrugh; and was chaired by Geoffrey Heath-Taylor, who runs the Country House podcast with Rory.

There is always more to discuss because Vanbrugh lived such an astonishingly multifarious life: wine merchant, East India Company factor, soldier, playwright, architect, theatrical impresario.  We ended with the question why Vanbrugh300 has been such a success.  I gave the prosaic answer – it’s thanks to funding from NLHF and the work of the Georgian Group.  Ophelia gave a more interesting answer – that the diversity of his interests is precisely what has caught people’s imagination.  And then Rory talked about the fact that nobody studies this period of English history.  It’s complicated and remote.  But important.

I may have misrepresented their views because I wasn’t taking notes, but they will appear in due course on the Country House podcast.