Melvyn Bragg delivers Gibraltar Lecture at Blenheim

Writer and broadcaster Barron Melvyn Bragg will deliver the Gibraltar Lecture at the Blenheim Palace Festival of Literature, Film and Music this Saturday 14 October.

The lecture is entitled ‘William Tyndale: A Very Brief History’ and Lord Bragg will be introduced by renowned historian Professor Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch, best known for his 2009 BBC television series and book, The History of Christianity and has in the past participated in the Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival.

Minister for Tourism Gilbert Licudi said it was a great privilege for Gibraltar to have someone of Lord Bragg’s standing delivering the Gibraltar Lecture at Blenheim and to see his acceptance to participate in next year’s Festival.

“We’re very grateful to the Gibunco Group of companies for supporting the Gibraltar Lectures, both at Blenheim and in Oxford. The festival is growing in stature and our commitment as a Government to such a prestigious event is evident, delivering a world class event,” he said.

The lecture at Blenheim is sponsored by the Gibunco Group of Companies.

Lord Bragg will explain what drove William Tyndale to create an English translation of the Bible in 16th-century England and how his work brought about profound change in the world and continues to resonate today.

Tyndale was executed for heresy in 1536, yet the Tyndale Bible was the key to spreading Reformation ideas across the English-speaking world in the following years.

Tyndale’s determination to give the English-speaking people a Bible in their own tongue led to him being called the most dangerous man of Tudor England.

Bragg argues his influence can still be seen today in international diplomacy, new English-based dialects, new versions of the Bible and in the works of some of our greatest writers including Shakespeare, Dickens, the Brontes and Tennyson.

Bragg is a writer and broadcaster best known for his work as editor and presenter for more than 30 years of ITV’s South Bank Show.

His novels include: The Hired Man, Grace and Mary, Now is the Time, Without a City Wall and The Soldier’s Return. Lord Bragg has accepted an invitation to speak at the Gibunco Gibraltar Intentional Literary Festival in 2018.