Geographical Association

Rob Morris
Geography Department
Shrewsbury School
Ashton Road
Shrewsbury
SY3 7BA

Email: Rob Morris
Shropshire GA Ning

Why does that river flood? A case study of pluvial flooding in Much Wenlock
Wednesday 6 October 2010
Ashton Theatre, Shrewsbury School
Mr Paul Weeden, University of Birmingham

Sustainability, regeneration, and the London 2012 Games
Wednesday 3 November 2010
Alington Hall, Shrewsbury School
Mr Bob Digby, Community Geographer, Geographical Association

Natural Hazards in the Caribbean: Causes and Impacts
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Alington Hall, Shrewsbury School
Dr. Servel Miller, University of Chester

Superpower Geographies
Wednesday 2 February 2011
Alington Hall, Shrewsbury School
Prof. Klaus Dodds, Royal Holloway College

One hundred years of Alpine glaciers responding to climate change
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Alington Hall, Shrewsbury School
Prof. David Collins, University of Salford

The date for this year's Worldwise Quiz is yet to be fixed. Further details should be posted here before the start of next term.

2011 is also the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Shropshire branch and we are hoping to have one or two events in 2011 to celebrate as the branch wasn't active in 2001 for the 50th anniversary.

A group of 6th Form geography students from Shrewsbury School meet Michael Palin © John Snowdon, Shropshire Life Magazine

On Thursday 1 October 2009, Shrewsbury School welcomed former pupil Michael Palin back to his old school, at the joint invitation of the Old Boys Club and the Shropshire Branch of the Geographical Association.

In his talk 'From Shrewsbury to the World - a Debt to Darwin', Michael entertained a sellout audience of over 700 with magnificent and comical accounts of experiences and encounters on his extensive travels as well reminiscing about his days at Shrewsbury in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

He spoke about his trepidation of once again stepping on to the stage in the Alington Hall at Shrewsbury School, where possibly his finest moment at the school took place in winning an Elocution prize in 1961. He amused the audience by also describing his various walk-on parts in school plays that were invariably Shakespeare in those days.

He spoke about the seven BBC TV series he has made with largely the same production crew, describing how it was more of a team effort rather than down to him as an individual. From his first journey in 1988 that followed Phileas Fogg's fictional journey around the world, Michael told the audience he was, in fact, fourth choice for the programme after Alan Whicker, Miles Kington and Noel Edmonds had all turned the BBC's offer down.

He described his perilous journey by dhow from Dubai to Mumbai and how, in his last journey, he had recently tracked down the crew of that boat to Gujurat in North West India. Michael regaled the audience with anecdotes about landing on the ice at the North Pole, travelling through the USSR in the last throes of communism and visiting such diverse places as Mogadan in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, Peshawar on the North West frontier of Pakistan and the South Pole. Along the way he spoke of the people he met; Inuits in Alaska who recognised him from 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', Kalashnikov-toting Pathans from the tribal areas of Pakistan offering him recently taken videos of Osama bin Laden for $20, and former Burmese head-hunters singing 'Onward Christian Soldiers' in their own language.

One of the most amusing stories was how having been greeted by Maori chiefs with a Haka in the South Island of New Zealand, Michael replied with the first verse of the Shrewsbury School song sung in Latin! The song starts around four minutes into the video below:

Behind the humour lay a deep, personal feeling for, and appreciation of, the astonishing beauty and variety in places and people in the world which hold a fascination for him, as for that other great Old Salopian, Darwin, before him. The talk was well received by the audience who were charmed by Michael's style that was part eccentric, part raconteur with some Pythonesque overtones thrown in for good measure.

The proceeds for the evening went to the Field Studies Council Darwin Scholarship, an award for teachers of biology, ecology and geography from overseas to come to Preston Montford to learn how to teach aspects of Field Studies and take this knowledge back to their own countries. The other joint beneficiary was Shrewsbury House, a youth and community centre in Everton in Liverpool that the school has supported in many ways since its formation by a former member of staff at Shrewsbury in 1903.

An interview with Michael conducted by two of the pupils will appear in the Spring 2010 issue of GA Magazine.

The Shropshire Branch of the GA was featured in the October 2008 issue of Shropshire Life magazine. The full page article outlines the activities of the Branch and gives details of past and forthcoming events.

Download: Shropshire Life article (PDF, 541k)

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