Events
PLEASE NOTE: Online events appear in purple type.
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Society events (members only)
VWSGB Online
Digging with Her Pen: Gardens in the Work of Virginia Woolf
Wednesday 1 July, 5.30pm BST
A talk by Karina Jakubowicz. Virginia Woolf isn’t known for her gardening. What was achieved at Monks House is chiefly attributed to Leonard, and Virginia’s relationship with Vita Sackville-West has perpetuated the belief that she was, by comparison, the opposite of a horticulturalist. It’s true that she often made blunders with her fictional planting, having tulips bloom in a summer scene and roses flower at Christmas: her loyalty was never to the constraints of soil or season, but to the meanings at the heart of her work. Woolf was a prolific fictional gardener, and when she digs with her pen, she produces the most incredible results, some of which connect with the gardens that featured in her everyday life. This lecture will introduce Woolf’s literary gardens by exploring how they function in her early writing and argue that they ultimately contributed to the evolution of her modernist prose.
Dr Karina Jakubowicz is host of the Virginia Woolf Podcast and author of the Woolf in the World Substack. Karina’s book, Gardens in the Work of Virginia Woolf, is available from Edinburgh University Press.
Tickets £6 from Eventbrite. Members will be emailed with the web link.
Email membershipvwsgb@gmail.com to join the Society, or onlinevwsgb@gmail.com for further information.
Recordings
VWSGB Online speaker events are recorded and loaded to the Society’s YouTube channel. Members can access recordings for talks up to May 2022 using the password supplied to them. (From July 2022 only ticket holders have access to the event recording.)
Recordings of online events to May 2022
Email onlinevwsgb@gmail.com for further information and queries.
Reading Group: The Waves, part 2
Friday 7 August 2026, 6pm BST
Live online only (not recorded)
The August Reading Group will look at Woolf’s enigmatic Modernist masterpiece, The Waves, consisting of interior monologues, or soliloquies, of Bernard, Susan, Louis, Jinny, Neville and Rhoda. Through their words, we for a picture of a seventh protagonist, Percival, who never speaks for himself. To fully explore its lyrical complexity, this novel will be studied over two Reading Groups, of which this is the second.
We are pleased to offer this online reading group FREE to VWSGB members who want to talk about the works of Virginia Woolf and some of her Bloomsbury friends and contemporaries, to find connections, influences and similarities between them. Come prepared to tell us about your experience of reading the work, whether it’s your first or your hundredth time! What themes or motifs did you notice? Did anything surprise, delight, perplex or anger you? What do you think are the best parts, and why?
Email membershipvwsgb@gmail.com to join the Society, or onlinevwsgb@gmail.com for further information about the Reading Group.
Other events
Bloomsbury and the Rise of Modernism
Tuesday 23 June–Tuesday 14 July 2026, 7–8.30pm
Museum Hall, Salisbury Museum, The King’s House, 65 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EN
In an era of turmoil a group of friends challenged traditions in art, literature, morality and gender. From their beginnings in 1905 until the political tensions of the 1930s the Bloomsbury group developed and championed new forms of painting and literature, while their open relationships scandalised polite society. This course with David Brindley traces their achievements and relationships and concentrates on the art of Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Dora Carrington and Roger Fry and the literature of Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster and T. S. Eliot. We will also look at the group’s Wiltshire connections, and discuss their lasting influence.
Cost £75 (£60 concessions), see website for bookings
The Landscape of Life (workshop)
Wednesday 1 July, 10am–12.30pm
Monks House, The Street, Rodmell, East Sussex BN7 3HF
Award-winning author and playwright Jill Hucklesby delivers this writing workshop exploring literary landscapes in the beautiful garden at Monks House with views of Mount Caburn. In this workshop participants will look at extracts from the writing of Virginia Woolf and her fellow Sussex author Hilaire Belloc. These will provide a light framework before participants create new work in their chosen style. The workshop will take place in the serene space of the Monks House garden on one of our closed days. Tickets include a visit to Virginia Woolf’s writing lodge.
Tickets £35, bookings on the Monks House website
Virginia Woolf and the Natural World (online)
Thursday 9–Monday 13 July 2026
Live online
This is the Literature Cambridge Online Virginia Woolf Summer Course 2026. Join us online for five days (3.5 hours per day) of intensive study, with lectures, tutorials, talks, discussions and more.
Lectures
Alison Hennegan, Women and Nature in Jacob’s Room (1922)
Karina Jakubowicz, Gardens in To the Lighthouse (1927)
Kate Eliot, Land and Sea in The Waves (1931)
Trudi Tate, The Weather in History: The Years (1937)
Ellie Mitchell, Earth and Sky in Between the Acts (1941)
Talks
Ann Kennedy Smith on Woolf, Rupert Brooke and the ‘Neo-Pagans’
Harriet Baker on Nature Writing in Virginia Woolf’s Asheham Diary
Claudia Tobin on Monks House Garden
Bonnie Lander Johnson on Vanishing Landscapes: Saffron
Karina Jakubowicz on Gardens in Woolf’s Writings
–Plus readings from Woolf’s works
Fees
£550 VWSGB members
£590 Full price
Book on the Literature Cambridge website
An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind
Monday 27–Tuesday 28 July 2026, 7.30pm
Theatre at the Tabard, 2 Bath Road, London W4 1LW
In this compelling new play, Virginia Woolf delivers a withering critique of patriarchy, laying bare her brilliant, complex mind. Drawing from The Waves, To the Lighthouse, Orlando and A Room of One’s Own, Woolf dips into her own stream of consciousness to reveal her clarity on women and the fissure of her vulnerability. The play celebrates women winning their freedom in literature and championing writers from our past to inspire the voices of our future. Written and performed by Lucy Stevens. Directed by Margarett Perry.
Lucy Stevens is an actor, singer and theatre maker creating new work that tells women’s stories. Her plays have toured throughout the UK and internationally and featured on BBC 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.
Bookbinding (workshop)
Wednesday 29 July 2026, 10am–4pm
Monks House, Rodmell, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 3HF
Virginia Woolf kept personal reading notebooks throughout her lifetime, recording thoughts and research for her literary reviews, essays and fiction. Woolf re-bound many of her reading notebooks herself, using a variety of colourful papers, and making her own handwritten labels. Taking inspiration from Woolf’s reading notebooks you will learn how to make a hardback notebook and with the skills to make this type of notebook again at home, without the need for specialist equipment. No previous bookbinding experience is required, and all materials and equipment will be provided. This full-day workshop will be running on one of our closed days so you will have exclusive access to the garden. Please bring a packed lunch. Light refreshments including tea and coffee will be provided. Places are limited.
Cost £120, bookings on the Monks House website
Virginia Woolf and the Natural World
Sunday 2–Friday 7 August 2026
In person in Cambridge
This is the Literature Cambridge Virginia Woolf Summer Course 2026. Join us in Cambridge for five days of intensive study, with lectures, tutorials, talks, discussions, visits and more. Optional trip to Monks House and Charleston on 8 August: please book this at the same time as the course.
Lectures
Alison Hennegan, Women and Nature in Jacob’s Room (1922)
Karina Jakubowicz, Gardens in To the Lighthouse (1927)
Kate Eliot, Land and Sea in The Waves (1931)
Trudi Tate, The Weather in History: The Years (1937)
Ellie Mitchell, Earth and Sky in Between the Acts (1941)
Talks
Ann Kennedy Smith on Woolf, Rupert Brooke and the ‘Neo-Pagans’
Harriet Baker on Nature Writing in Virginia Woolf’s Asheham Diary
Claudia Tobin on Monks House and garden (TBC)
Bonnie Lander Johnson on Vanishing Landscapes: Saffron
Launch of Karina Jakubowicz’s new book, Gardens in the Work of Virginia Woolf (EUP, 2026)
Other talks and visits to be confirmed shortly.
Fees
£1,200 VWSGB members
£1,300 Full price
Bookings on the Literature Cambridge website
An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind
Thursday 6–Sunday 30 August 2026
The Drawing Room, Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh EH2 2LR
Part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026
In this compelling new play, Virginia Woolf delivers a withering critique of patriarchy, laying bare her brilliant, complex mind. Drawing from The Waves, To the Lighthouse, Orlando and A Room of One’s Own, Woolf dips into her own stream of consciousness to reveal her clarity on women and the fissure of her vulnerability. The play celebrates women winning their freedom in literature and championing writers from our past to inspire the voices of our future. Written and performed by Lucy Stevens. Directed by Margarett Perry.
Lucy Stevens is an actor, singer and theatre maker creating new work that tells women’s stories. Her plays have toured throughout the UK and internationally and featured on BBC 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.
Virginia Woolf and the Hogarth Press
Until Sunday 6 September 2026
Charleston in Firle, East Sussex BN8 6LL
Rediscover Virginia Woolf as a radical printer, publisher and maker through the Hogarth Press, a site of hands-on experimentation and creative independence. Founded in 1917 from Woolf’s living room as an indie printing venture, the press blurred boundaries between art, craft and literature, treating the book itself as an art object. Bringing together hand-printed books, illustrated editions and works conceived through close collaboration between writers and artists.
Exhibition created in partnership with the Gordon Square Society, Antwerp. Curated by Ben Majchrowicz, co-founder of the Gordon Square Society, Belgium, and Stephen Barkway, co-founder of the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain.
Tickets £10/£11 (concessions available), bookings on the Charleston website
‘Time Passes’: Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse at 100 (CFP)
Call for papers, deadline 15 September 2026
Conference Thursday 1–Saturday 3 July 2027
International Conference, Sorbonne Université, Paris
Keynote speakers
Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht University)
Jane Goldman (University of Glasgow)
Catherine Lanone (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle)
Kabe Wilson (Artist in residence, Jesus College, Cambridge)
Suggested topics may include, but are not limited to:
– The novel’s genesis, historical context, and critical reception
– Form and aesthetics:
– History, society, and politics
– Time, memory, and loss
– Philosophy and perception
– Embodiment and the senses
– Gender and domesticity
– Nature and the environment
– Art and visual culture.
Abstracts of 300–400 words together with a short author bio-bibliography (150 words) should be sent to the organisers by 15 September 2026. See the website for further information.
The Standard of Living
Monday 21 September–Saturday 12 December 2026
Theatre Royal Haymarket, 18 Suffolk Street, London SW1Y 4HT
With Rory Kinnear as John Maynard Keynes and Natalia Osipova (Woolf Works) as Lydia Lopokova.
Written by James Graham and directed by Nicholas Hytner, this is the story of rebel economist John Maynard Keynes. Husband to ballerina Lydia Lopokova. Lover to Duncan Grant. Friend to Virginia Woolf. Keynes moves between the corridors of power in Whitehall and the intoxicating freedom of a radical circle of artists, writers and lovers – all determined to live differently. But as markets crash, old systems crumble and Britain teeters on the edge of chaos, one question begins to consume him: What is a good life?
Alive with music, dance, desire and debate, The Standard of Living is a thrilling, funny and deeply moving portrait of a man who dared to imagine something better.
Tickets from £25, available through the Theatre Royal Haymarket website
Bloomsbury in Wiltshire
Salisbury Museum, The King’s House, 65 The Close, Salisbury SP1 2EN
Until Sunday 27 September 2026
At the heart of this exhibition is Ham Spray House, the beloved home of Bloomsbury members Lytton Strachey, Dora Carrington and Ralph and Frances Partridge, who lived there between 1924 and 1960. The exhibition brings together a diverse selection of artworks from both public and private collections. It features paintings and sculptures created by, or depicting, residents of Ham Spray House, alongside works by other prominent Bloomsbury figures such as Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Stephen Tomlin and Roger Fry. There are loans from Charleston, Fitzwilliam Museum, Jerwood Foundation, National Portrait Gallery, Philip Mould & Company, Tate and Williamson Art Gallery.
Visitors will also be able to view three rare films capturing moments from life at Ham Spray, featuring appearances by Dora Carrington, Saxon Sydney Turner, Rachel MacCarthy, Lord David Cecil, Ralph Partridge and Frances Partridge.
Cost: £12 (included in museum admission. For more information, see the website.
To the Lighthouse Study Weekend
Saturday 26–Tuesday 29 September 2026
Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1NG
This four-day immersive reading weekend organised by the London Literary Salon will be led by Toby Brothers and Sarah Snoxall. Over four days the group will read Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse in the environment that inspired it, as we approach the centenary of first publication in May 1927. The book rewards reading and re-reading, revealing new facets of Woolf’s world with every encounter, and the Cornish coastal town of St Ives – where Woolf spent many childhood summers – serves as a prism through which to explore her perspectives on landscape, domesticity and identity, and their relevance to her time and our own. During the long weekend there will also be opportunities to visit Tate St Ives, the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden and, weather permitting, Godrevy Lighthouse. We also hope to be able to look at Talland House, Woolf’s childhood summer home (now privately owned).
Cost £600, plus accommodation, bookings and further information on the website
The Waves Study Weekend
Friday 2–Monday 5 October 2026
Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, Cornwall TR26 1NG
This four-day immersive reading weekend organised by the London Literary Salon will be led by Toby Brothers and Sarah Snoxall. Over four days the group will read what is arguably Virginia Woolf’s most experimental novel, The Waves, in an environment that helped to shape its complex narrative. Although regarded primarily as a London writer, she spent many childhood summers in the Cornish coastal town of St Ives, through which we can explore her perspectives on landscape, domesticity and identity, and their relevance to her time and our own. During the long weekend there will also be opportunities to visit Tate St Ives, the Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden and, weather permitting, Godrevy Lighthouse. We also hope to be able to look at Talland House, Woolf’s childhood summer home (now privately owned).
Cost £600, plus accommodation, bookings and further information on the website
36th Annual International Virginia Woolf Conference: ‘Between the Arts’ (CFP)
Call for papers, deadline 15 October 2026
Conference Wednesday 16–Sunday 20 June 2027
Oslo National Academy of the Arts / University of Oslo, Norway
‘Between the Arts’ brings together scholars, artists and practitioners to explore the creative and intellectual spaces between disciplines, art forms and communities. Inspired by Virginia Woolf, the Bloomsbury group and their collaborative networks, the conference examines the intersections of academic and artistic research. Through presentations, workshops, exhibitions and performances, participants will reflect on collaboration, influence, dialogue, artistic freedom and the democratic value of collective creativity. ‘Between the Arts’ celebrates the relationships and exchanges that shape artistic and scholarly work and asks how new ideas emerge in the spaces between the arts.
Please submit abstracts for papers or creative works to woolf2027@khio.no by 15 October 2026.
For more information, see the conference website.
Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant
Thursday 12 November 2026–Sunday 11 April 2027
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
This major exhibition features the work of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, delving into the extraordinary relationship between the artists, and tracing their remarkable creative partnership that spanned more than fifty years. The exhibition explores Bell and Grant’s legacy as part of the Bloomsbury group, whose commitment to freedom and radical experimentation had a significant influence on the course of art, literature and societal thought in Britain.
The exhibition features more than 250 works, including vivid portraits, still lives, landscape paintings, decorative works on furniture, ceramics, textiles and much more. Duncan Grant’s studio, relocated for the exhibition from Charleston, is an unmissable highlight. As well as emphasising Bell and Grant’s shared creative endeavours, visitors will see how the artists also forged their own paths. This joyful exhibition celebrates their extraordinary artistic partnership, and the enduring impact these two remarkable artists had on British art.
Tickets will be available from the Tate Britain website
Monks House
Rodmell, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 3HF
Visits must be pre-booked (includes National Trust members)
Explore the country retreat of the novelist Virginia Woolf, where she wrote many of most celebrated novels. Leonard and Virginia’s personalities saturate the house and it should feel as if they have just stepped out for a walk. You can explore the house at your own speed and there are room guides on hand to help you to bring the house alive. The beautiful English country garden was designed by Leonard Woolf and has incredible views of the Sussex Downs. Virginia Woolf was greatly influenced by the garden wrote many of her major works in her writing lodge. Her short story ‘The Orchard’ was inspired by the garden. With the tranquility of the Sussex Downs through the window and the garden surrounding her, it was the perfect place to write.
Facilities
There is a small shop selling guidebooks, postcards and some second-hand books. Outdoor privy located in the garden. Dogs are permitted in the garden on a lead, but there are no dog bins at the property. There is a small parking area for cars and bicycles nearby, and the Abergavenny Arms in Rodmell serves tea, coffee and cake when Monks House is open.
Volunteer guides
Would you like to be a volunteer guide at Monks House? Meet other Woolf enthusiasts and work, surrounded by Bloomsbury treasures, in the house where Virginia and Leonard Woolf lived for so many years. Training will be provided. Read more about volunteering for us. If you’re interested, please phone 01273 474760 or email monkshouse@nationaltrust.org.uk
Charleston
Charleston, Firle, East Sussex BN8 6LL
Open Wednesday–Sunday/Bank Holiday Monday, 10am–5pm
Visit Charleston to explore the art and lives of artists Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant and their contemporaries. Almost as soon as they moved to Charleston in 1916, Bell and Grant began to paint. Not just the walls, but on every surface imaginable, transforming the house into a living, breathing work of art. Over the following decades, Charleston became a gathering point for some of the twentieth century’s most radical artists, writers and thinkers known collectively as the Bloomsbury group. It is where they lived out their progressive social and artistic ideals. Today, it continues to be a place that brings people together to engage with art and ideas.
A visitor assistant will accompany you around the house as you explore the individually designed and hand-painted rooms. Entry to the galleries and the house is by timed ticket and pre-booking is recommended. The shop, café and garden are available to visit without purchasing a ticket. For events, see the What’s On page. You can shop online at the Charleston shop web page.
Tickets £26.50 (concessions available; Friends of Charleston free)
Promoting your event
We would be happy to tell members about your Virginia Woolf event, feature it on this page and post about it on our social media pages (Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram) if you are willing to email the following to onlinevwsgb@gmail.com. Please note that we need the full details: if we don’t receive them, we have to do your research ourselves. In a busy period this may not be possible.
For website/member message:
Title of event
Day / date / time
Full address & postcode
Brief description
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Contact email / phone no.
Web address (in full) for more info
–Events are listed in date order and will be deleted when expired, so please make sure all the relevant details appear for each event separately.
For Facebook, as above, plus at least one image. For X/Twitter, please provide a short post no longer than 280 characters (including spaces), and for Instagram, a 100-word paragraph plus image. Please make sure that these include the date of your event and contact details.
Payment (VWSGB events only)
First, book your place at the event by emailing eventsvwsgb@gmail.com
Next, pay for the event by online banking, PayPal, credit/debit card or cheque (sterling only).
1) For online payments, please use the following details.
Bank: Santander
Account Name: Virginia Woolf Society GB
Account No.: 40411044
Sort Code: 09 06 66
2) If you wish to pay by PayPal, please email for details. You may need to add a little extra to cover costs.
3) If you wish to pay by credit/debit card, you can email for a PayPal invoice. You will then be able to pay by Visa/Visa Debit/Visa Electron, Mastercard, Discover, UnionPay, Maestro or American Express.
4) Make out a cheque to ‘Virginia Woolf Society’ and email for details.
Reference: for all payment types, please indicate the event plus your surname (e.g. AGM22 SMITH), so that we can match up the payment with the contact details provided.