Members' Exclusive Lecture - Janet Gough on: Divine Light, the Stained Glass of England's Cathedrals

Join author and historian Janet Gough for this exclusive members' lecture, a colourful journey through 900 years of exceptional stained glass in England’s cathedrals. 

Drawing on superb images, this illustrated online talk explores what is arguably one of England’s least-known great art collections: stained glass still in situ across almost 50 cathedrals, and the Royal Peculiars, Westminster Abbey and St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. 

Beginning with the dramatic windows created at Canterbury Cathedral in the aftermath of Thomas Becket’s murder in 1170, Janet traces the story of cathedral glass from the Middle Ages to the present day. Along the way she examines survival and loss at the Reformation, the explosion of creativity in the nineteenth century, the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the innovative, thought-provoking stained glass still being commissioned today. 

The talk, which accompanies Janet’s latest book Divine Light: The Stained Glass of England’s Cathedrals, explores stained glass as art, as storytelling, and as a technical achievement, revealing how the refraction of light through coloured glass became an early form of mass communication - and why its power to inspire endures.