US Ambassador Woody Johnson and former Foreign Secretary William Hague to appear at Gloucester History Festival

Gloucester History Festival have announced a free virtual event to premiere on Friday 18 September at 8pm, 400 years on from the Mayflower’s voyage.

United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Woody Johnson and former Foreign Secretary, Lord (William) Hague of Richmond join Festival chair and Gloucester MP Richard Graham to explore perspectives on the enduring relationship between the US and the UK.

400 years on from the voyage of the Mayflower, and 75 years after the Bretton Woods agreement gave us today’s global structures, the US/UK relationship still matters greatly. What is at its core, what works best and what are the tensions? Above all how important is it that this relationship continues to thrive?

Every year the Blackfriars Talks programme brings the country’s top historians, authors, comedians, actors and politicians together to share their love of history. This year Gloucester History Festival is pleased to offer a programme of intriguing and compelling conversations presented as free virtual events for the first time from Sunday 13th – Sunday 20th September.

How Special A Relationship? is part of an impressive line up of Blackfriars Talks including an unmissable conversation with Mary Beard, Britain’s best known classicist and leading BBC broadcaster. Michael Wood, one of Britain’s top broadcasters and historians will be unveiling a new exploration of China in a compelling talk whilst Michael Scott, star of BBC1’s Italy’s Invisible Cities will be unlocking classical civilisations and BBC4 broadcaster and Oxford historian Janina Ramirez will be exploring the history of the Medieval world with the women put back in.

All Blackfriars events, including the  How Special A Relationship? premiere, can be booked for free at www.gloucesterhistoryfestival.co.uk/blackfriars-talks/

Gloucester History Festival 2020 is kindly supported by Gloucester City Council, Historic England, Gloucester Civic Trust, Gloucester Heritage Hub, Heritage Lottery Fund, University of Gloucestershire, Waterstones, Ancestry, QAA, The History Press, Davies and Partners Solicitors, King’s Gloucester, The Oldham Foundation, Gabwell Property Developments Ltd and Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.