A Summer of Trollopian Gatherings
This summer was full of Trollope Society events, bringing members together in London and Belgium, from the 150th anniversary of The Way We Live Now dinner at the Reform Club and the visit to Kensal Green Cemetery to a memorable trip to Brussels and Bruges.
The Way We Live Now 150th Anniversary Dinner
In July, the Trollope Society and the Thackeray Society, the Reform Club’s Arts, History and Culture Society, held a joint dinner at the Reform Club to mark 150 years since The Way We Live Now. More than a hundred guests attended, including Vice Presidents Gyles Brandreth and Susan Hampshire.
Professor Dinah Birch spoke on ‘Trollope as Prophet: The Way We Live Now (1875)’. She explored how the novel’s satire of greed, corruption and speculative excess still resonates today. Dr Nicholas Shrimpton gave the Toast to the Two Societies, and Gyles Brandreth responded with characteristic wit.
- Both Professor Birch’s lecture and Dr Shrimpton’s Toast are published in the latest issue of Trollopiana, number 132.
- Photographs from the dinner are on the Society’s Flickr page.
Photos copyright James Basire
Kensal Green Cemetery Visit
On 1 August, members met for lunch at The William, Harrow Road, then proceeded to a guided tour of Kensal Green Cemetery, where Trollope is buried. The tour led by Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery included the graves of Trollope, Thackeray, Wilkie Collins and other notable Victorian writers. At Trollope’s grave, flowers were laid and the Chair of the Society read the final words of the Autobiography:
“Now I stretch out my hand, and from the further shore I bid adieu to all who have cared to read any among the many words that I have written.”
It was a reflective, moving occasion, connecting us with Trollope’s memory in one of London’s most historic resting places.
Brussels and Bruges Trip
From 29 August to 2 September, twenty-five members joined the Society’s literary tour to Brussels and Bruges, retracing the Trollope family’s Belgian years. During the visit, Frederik Van Dam lectured on Trollope’s Belgian Connections, and Dr Charlotte Mathieson joined by Zoom to speak on Mobility and Travel in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. In Bruges, the group visited Assebroek Cemetery to pay respects at the graves of Trollope’s father and brother. They then visited the Trollope family’s former house for a discussion led by Gilly Wilford on The Noble Jilt and Can You Forgive Her?. The Noble Jilt, a play set in Bruges that was never performed, provided the basis for Trollope’s later novel Can You Forgive Her?, in which he reworked and expanded the original plot many years later.
On Sunday there was a seminar on Phineas Finn, a boat trip through Bruges’s canals, and a walk along the coast at Blankenburg to the site of Phineas Finn’s duel with Lord Chiltern. A farewell dinner rounded off a richly varied programme. Participants praised the organisation and variety of the programme, commenting that it was an enjoyable and memorable few days in excellent company.
Looking Ahead
As autumn draws in, the Society’s calendar remains full. On 13 October the Ayala’s Angel Big Read begins: Zoom meetings every second Monday from 8.00 pm UK time will cover chapters 1–13 (starting 13 October), then 14–26, 27–39, 40–52, and 53–64 (ending 8 December).
The London Reading Group will meet on 8 October 2025 at 6.30 pm to discuss Can You Forgive Her? in the Committee Room, St Peter’s Eaton Square, just ten minutes’ walk from Victoria Station.
Meanwhile, the Cambridge Reading Group will meet on Sunday 26th October at 2.30 pm at the Friends’ Meeting House, Hartington Grove, Cambridge, to discuss The Claverings.
Other key dates to note are the AGM and Annual Lecture at the Reform Club on 22 October and the wreath-laying at Westminster Abbey on 8 December.
Main photo: Barbara Schwepcke, Susan Hampshire, Gyles Brandreth, Dominic Edwardes, Michèle Brandreth. Photography by James Basire