The series was introduced by our former Principal, Alastair Niven, and continue in the same format today, under our current Chief Executive, Edmund Newell.
We typically host three or four Conversations a year, in Flitcroft, our main conference room, with well-known guest speakers drawn from the arts and culture, the media, politics, academia and public life.
They take the format of an informal interview on stage, between our Chief Executive and the guest speaker, followed by about half-an-hour for audience questions. Refreshments are also provided, and there is often the option of purchasing a combined Conversation and dinner ticket.
Open to all
Cumberland Conversations are open to the public and free to attend, but places must be reserved in advance, as space is limited.
Wherever possible, we make recordings available to the public afterwards, and we often live-stream the events on our Facebook page.
Find out about our forthcoming Cumberland Conversations and other Cumberland Lodge events here.
Guest speakers
2023
Dame Cressida Dick DBE QPM (former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police)
Sophie Pender (founder of The 93% Club and one of Forbes' 30-under-30 for social impact)
Kim Samuel (founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness)
2022
Alastair Niven (former Principle, Cumberland Lodge)
Nahid Shahalimi (Humanitarian author, artist, and activist)
2021 (online during COVID-19 pandemic)
Isabella Naylor-Leyland (Author, The Windsor Diaries)
Sue Carpenter (documentary filmmaker, writer and photographer)
Martin Stanford (news broadcaster)
Leroy Logan MBE (founder of the National Black Police Association)
2020 (online during COVID-19 pandemic)
Baroness Hale (former President of the Supreme Court)
Professor Sir Stanley Wells (Honorary President, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)
Revd Dr Paul Edmondson (Head of Research and Knowledge, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)
2019
Arabella Dorman (war artist)
Sir John Madejski (businessman and philanthropist)
2018
Tony Laithwaite (founder of Laithwaite's Wines)
Adrian Snell (composer, perfomer and music therapist)
Nell Gifford (founder of Gifford's Circus)
2017
Dr Theodore Zeldin (Historian, philosopher and writer)
Dr Martin Parsons (Wartime evacuation expert)
Alexandra Papadakis (Publisher)
2016
Professor Mark Williams (Professor of Clinical Pyschology, University of Oxford)
Geraldine Peers (BBC broadcast journalist)
Roz Savage (International rower)
Michael Wakelin and Rev Angela Tilby (BBC radio)
2015
The Very Revd John Moses, KCVO (former Dean of St Paul's Cathedral)
Lord William Waldegrave (Provost of Eton College, former Conservative Cabinet Minister)
Bill Knight (Portrait photographer)
Professor Sabina Alkire (Director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative)
2014
Lord (Ian) Blair (former head of the Metropolitan Police)
Professor Julie Brown (Musicologist, Royal Holloway University)
Allan Chapman FRAS (Science historian)
2013
Lady Lucinda Lambton and Sir Peregrine Worsthorne (Writers)
Sarah Churchwell (Actress and dancer)
Chief Constable Sara Thornton (formerly Chief Executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency)
Ben Okri OBE, FRSL (Writer)
2012
Edward Cousins (Legal Adviser and Mediator)
Professor Robin Wilson (Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Open University)
Baroness (Emma) Nicholson (Politician and life peer)
Karen Wiseman and Antonia Keaney (Artist and Writer)
2011
Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Johns, GCB KCVO CBE
Alison Skilbeck
David Wood
Mark Lane
Thomas Woodcock CVO DL FSA
2010
Virginia McKenna OBE
Philip Jackson
Nicholas Clee
Lawrence Sail
2009
David Noble and Daniel Pearce-Higgins QC
Canon Roger Royle
Penelope Lively
2008
Major General Sir Sebastian Roberts
Baroness Butler-Sloss
Kathryn Jones and Julia Bagguley
Philip Everett
2007
Elizabeth Elvin
Martin vander Weyer
Rosemary Shirley
Sir Michael Howard
2006
Hugo Vickers
Abdul Raheem Khan, Lisa Appignanesi and Liam Gearon
Lord Gowrie
Brigadier John King
2005
Norman Bettison
Clive Nickolds
2004
The Very Revd Michael Mayne KCVO
Sir Roger Bannister
Andrew Motion
Future events
If you would be interested in joining us as a guest speaker for one of our future Cumberland Conversations, or you would like to suggest a future speaker, please contact us on 01784 497790 or email programmeteam@cumberlandlodge.ac.uk.