The Pharos Lectures are an ongoing series of free public lectures and conversations delivered by the most distinguished public intellectuals. Like their namesake, the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria, they are intended to serve as a beacon and invitation to learning in a darkening age.

Lord Sumption’s forthcoming lecture is titled ‘The New Roundheads: Politics and the Misuse of History’. It will take place on 27th February 2023 from 5:00-6:30pm at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. His address will be followed by an electrifying discussion with the great BBC war correspondent and author, John Simpson, CBE.

Jonathan Sumption is a renowned historian and former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Four instalments of his critically acclaimed history of the Hundred Years’ War have been published between 1990 and 2015, all by Faber & Faber. The fifth and final volume, Triumph and Illusion, will follow in late 2023.

John Simpson CBE is an English foreign correspondent and world affairs editor of BBC News. He has reported from over 120 countries and is the author of many acclaimed works of non-fiction and novels, the most recent of which is Our Friends in Beijing (John Murray, 2021).