Rodney Dingle will launch a series of Lympstone Lectures with a talk on the Dreyfus Affair, a political scandal that rocked France in the 1890s. He will give it in the Village Hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 25th January, and entrance will be £3 (proceeds to the Village Hall Appeal).
Rodney calls his talk A Tale for Our Time, and explains why the sensational events of those years matter to us even now. When the young artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason, the great French novelist Emile Zola launched a campaign to clear his name, with a powerful article headed “J’Accuse!” It is a phrase that has echoed down the years. A Ken Russell film about the affair, Prisoner of Honour, starred the actor Richard Dreyfuss, who claims to be a descendant.
This will be the launch of an occasional series of lectures organized by Harland Walshaw, in which Lympstone people will be invited to talk about their areas of expertise. Lympstone is rich in such people, and the talks will be varied and stimulating. Subjects will include mathematics, stained glass, chocolate…
