Lucinda Hawksley is an author, art historian and public speaker, with a special interest in literature and art from the 19th and early 20th centuries and in the history of London. She is also an award-winning travel-writer with a love of the environment: cetaceans are one of my passions and a volunteer speaker for the Whales & Dolphins Conservation Society.

As a great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens, she has grown up with an interest in her family history. For the last decade she been a Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London - she has also recently been made Patron of the Norwegian Pickwick Club!

Lucinda will be speaking about Charles Dickens's Social Conscience. Everyone knows Charles Dickens for his writing, but few people know about his social reform work and just how effective his writing was at bringing about change. Lucinda's talk will reveal how Nicholas Nickleby stopped children from being abused; how Oliver Twist made the queen herself take pity on her subjects; about Dickens's work on the sanitary reform bill and about his project to help "fallen women", bringing in the amusing letters he wrote about his experiences. The talk also looks at the long-term effects of Dickens's writings and how the social reforms he helped to effect still resonate in the world today.

There will be plenty of time for questions.....specific to her talk or her other interests.

Lesley Smith is an Elizabethan historian who has an undoubtable love and enthusiasm for her subject, which can only be an inspiration to those lucky enough to hear her speak about it. Indeed her passion for facts, and interest in the people who experienced them has led to her allegedly being known as "Gin and Tonic" on the history circuit, due to her experimentations with formerly undisclosed, or forgotten, historical methods of living! Her mission - to bring history to the masses rather than just the elite!

Nell Gwynne (aka Lesley Smith) will be speaking to us about her life and the conditions of the time. Nell Gwynne was the mistress of Charles II and for many that is all she is known for - other than for selling oranges! The real Nell Gwynne was a victory for English womanhood, showing great courage and against all the odds she became a star of the London stage and beloved of the King of England. Those of you lucky enough to meet Lesley at Warwick in 2010 in her role as Queen Elizabeth 1 will know what fun awaits.

Guy Pringle started the magazine newBooks which developed from involvement with the library sector in the late 90s and the realisation that there was no magazine talking to and about this community of readers and reading groups which many librarians had been cultivating. Last year it celebrated its 60th issue and 10th anniversary. Newbooks is available in a number of branches of W H Smith and as a reference copy in some public libraries. Guy was originally a secondary school English teacher but had been involved in publishing for many years. Along the way he has spoken to many readers and is well known for talking at length to magazine subscribers who ring up, quizzing them about what they like (or don't like!) about newBooks and, just as importantly, what they've read and enjoyed recently. With the benefit of his experience he is coming to talk to us about INSPIRING books. Members, who recall hearing him speak at the Reading Conference, will verify how entertaining he is.