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Join our Ives Adult Services department for an evening conversation with Lord Charles Spencer about The White Ship, about how the sinking of one ship affected the course of European history.
The UK bestseller is now available in the US!
CHARLES SPENCER was born in 1964, and is an author, public speaker, broadcaster and journalist. He is also the 9th Earl Spencer.
Spencer is the author of seven non-fiction books, including three Sunday Times bestsellers: Blenheim, Battle for Europe, which was shortlisted for Historical Book of the Year at the 2005 National Book Awards; Killers of the King – which was the second highest selling History book in the UK in 2014; and The White Ship, published in 2020.
He has been the keynote speaker at hundreds of events in the UK, India, USA, South Africa, France, Australia, Canada, Spain, Portugal and New Zealand.
As a broadcaster, Charles Spencer worked for NBC News as an on-air correspondent from 1986 to 1995, primarily for the TODAY Show, but also for Sunday TODAY, NBC Nightly News and NBC Super Channel - where he wrote and presented the 12-part documentary series, Great Houses of the World.
He has been a reporter for Granada Television, has presented for the History Channel, and has appeared on many occasions as an expert on the BBC.
As a print journalist he has written in the UK for The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, and others. In the United States he has written for Vanity Fair, Veranda, and Nest magazines.
In business, he helped establish Althorp Living History, a handmade, fine furniture line faithfully reproducing pieces from the collection at Althorp.
In charitable and humanitarian affairs, he served as a Trustee of Nelson Mandela’s Children’s Fund from 1998-2005. He is Patron of the Friends of Cynthia Spencer Hospice, the Brain Tumour Trust, and Thomas’s Fund, in England. He is on the board of Whole Child International in the USA.
Charles Spencer was educated at Eton, and at Oxford University, where he earned his MA in Modern History.
He served as a Page of Honour to HM the Queen in the 1970s and has been one of her Deputy Lieutenants for Northamptonshire since 2005.
He has seven children and two stepchildren, and is the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.
Prior to THE WHITE SHIP ‘s publication in the UK in September 2020 (marking the 900th anniversary of this unique maritime disaster), novelist Anthony Horowitz called it “A brilliant read… Game of Thrones but in the real world.” Bill Bryson wrote: “As gripping as any thriller. History doesn't get any better than this.”
THE WHITE SHIP is the riveting true story of the worst shipwreck in British history. It was more disastrous than the sinking of the Titanic, because the loss of The White Ship changed European history forever. King Henry I’s only legitimate heir, William, was among the 300 eminent victims who drowned, so this shipwreck effectively ended the Norman dynasty that had ruled England since William the Conqueror triumphed in 1066. It also unleashed two decades of bloody civil war in England, before ushering in the Plantagenets, who ruled England for more than 300 years.
If the White Ship hadn’t sunk in 1120, the current royal family wouldn’t be on the throne. Going back further, we wouldn’t have had Magna Carta or King John or Richard the Lionheart. These great figures from medieval history might possibly have existed, but they wouldn’t have become kings of England.
Spencer pays particular attention to the Empress Matilda, Henry I’s only legitimate daughter, who he hoped would succeed him, but medieval England proved unready to welcome a strong and independent queen to the throne in her own right.
THE WHITE SHIP received rave reviews, became a national bestseller, and was named one of the best books of the year by publications including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express. Earlier this year, a dive organized by archeologist Roger Michel received international media attention when it exhumed what may be part of the wreckage of THE WHITE SHIP. A further dive is scheduled for early September.
Spencer’s particular skill at narrative history is evident throughout. As Gareth Russell wrote in the Catholic Herald: “It is impossible to be left unmoved by his account of their screams of the dying that whistled over the waters, loud enough to be heard by the townsfolk in Barfleur, or a countess shrieking as the heavy fabrics of her gown dragged her under, and a knight blessing the butcher floating next to him in the water as he himself succumbed to hypothermia.”
AGE GROUP: | Teens (13-17) | Adults (18+) |
EVENT TYPE: | Virtual Program | Literature, Arts, and Culture | Literacy and Language | Education and Lifelong Learning |
TAGS: | zoom | Monarchy | Humanities | History | Europe | BSI | British History | Books Sandwiched In | book discussion | author talk |
The Ives Main Library, designed by renowned architect, Cass Gilbert in 1911, is a cornerstone of the historic New Haven Green. The facility is a community treasure and features unique design details, including several WPA-era murals. Ives is open 54 hours a week, Monday-Saturday, and houses major public service departments for children and teens as well as adult reference, a computer tech center and Ives Squared, a newly renovated space for innovation and entrepreneurship.
2019 Recipient of National Medal for