SPALDING GENTLEMEN'S SOCIETY

Daniel Snowman, who is to present the lecture on Friday 18th February, is a social and cultural historian. He was born in London, educated at cambridge and Cornell, and at 24 was a lecturer at the University of Sussex. For many years, he worked at the BBC where he was responsible for a wide variety of radio series on cultural and historical topics. He has always had a strong and informed interest in music and musicians, his books on the AmadeusQuartet and Placido Domingo combining close-up portraiture of the artist with the broader brush of the social historian. His latest book, which shares its title with his lecture has been described by one reviewer as "Companionable, crisp, witty, its broad research lightly dispensed..." by another, "A box of delights for operamanes and the cloth-eared curious alike".