Elizabeth Merry, a NADFAS lecturer from England, with present “Travels in Rajasthan with Rudyard Kipling: Palaces and Temples, Monuments and Forts in the Land of the Kings”, to interested members of Mudgee ADFAS and the public at Cudgegong Valley Public School. 

Mrs Merry said as a young reporter working for the Lahore Gazette Kipling took a journey through Rajasthan in 1888, during which he produced some magical and evocative descriptions of the building he saw there.

“Nowadays he is overwhelmingly associated with the world of the Empire and the British Raj in India, But as the son of the Principal of the Bombay Art School, and a talented artist himself, Kipling’s seeing eye and his love of India provide a wonderful way in to the world of the Moguls and Maharajahs,” she said. 

Mrs Merry has over 20 years experience lecturing on a range of subjects including classical art and architecture, aspects of visual arts, and literature. She has worked for various educational, literary, historical, and philosophical societies and institutions, and has given lecture tours to Rome, Cologne, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. 

“I love public speaking and vocal performance, and outside of my paid work I am a regular reader at productions organised by the Thomas Hardy Society and other local events such as concerts, church services and any other occasions where a reader or a speaker is required. I’m mad about the arts and can say without exaggeration that they enrich and influence every day of my life in all sorts of ways,” she said. 

Elizabeth Merry will present “Travels in Rajasthan with Rudyard Kipling” on Friday, September 5, at 6.30pm in the Cudgegong Valley Public School auditorium. Guests are more then welcome to come along for the night and there will be wine and nibbles served after the lecture.