Lecture & Afternoon Tea | Merry Christmas from Merrie England: the literary traditions of English Christmas With Emeritus Professor Chris Browne

Christmas as we celebrate it today is replete with customs and traditions that go back hundreds of years. Some of these date from pagan times, others have been incorporated into our Christian observances of a more spiritual Christmas.

The history of English Christmas has been well documented and illustrated in the literature over the past 500 years. Although Charles Dickens has often been credited with “inventing” modern Christmas, there is much in the literature of English Christmas that predates Dickens.

Join Chris Browne on a seasonal romp through the traditions of English Christmas as he shares with us some of his favourite examples of Christmas writing from famous and not-so-famous authors.

Emeritus Professor Chris Browne is a retired medical researcher and academic who was born in Hampshire in England, thus sharing a county of birth with Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. He spent much of his childhood in British colonial Africa and the Middle East, before returning to the UK to attend school. Following degrees from the Universities of York and Oxford, and five years in medical research at McGill University in Montreal, he has spent most of his working life in the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University.

Chris became a serious book collector in 1970 and has put together a personal library of around 15,000 books. His main interests are English literature and juvenilia from 1780 to 1940, fine illustrated books and the history of English publishing and printing. He particularly collects books by and about Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Ernest Hemingway and Graham Greene, amongst too many others. He also collects French books and prints, particularly French fashion prints and magazines, French editions of English literature, illustrated French books, and books about the history and culture of Paris.

Since 2016, he has been the Program Director of Melbourne Rare Book Week. Unsurprisingly, his main hobby is reading, although his collecting habit also encompasses Fine Art, French Art Deco glass and pre-WW2 fashion prints.

Join The Friends for another interesting and stimulating presentation. Afternoon tea, to include an array of delicious petit fours and biscuits, will be served on arrival. 

NOTE: Tickets for this event do not include access to our exhibition-house, Fairhall. Guided tours of the current exhibition can be booked separately. 

This event is supported by The Colin Holden Charitable Trust. 

Image: Charles Brock, unpublished illustration (detail).