5 x 15: Five Leading Thinkers on the Unique Magic of Venice
with
Stephen Baley
Geoff Dyer
Martin Gayford
Francesco da Mosto
Sara Wheeler
Tuesday 15 September 2026
5 x 15 minute Lectures: 7pm – 9pm
Tickets £40
At Royal Geographical Society
1 Kensington Gore
London SW7 2AR
Five leading cultural figures each deliver a fifteen-minute talk exploring Venice through art, literature, history and design.
For centuries, Venice has occupied a unique place in the British imagination. From Turner and Ruskin to Byron, James and Jan Morris, generations of British writers, artists and travellers have fallen under the spell of the floating city, with all its beauty, melancholy, glamour and decay.
In this Venice-themed 5×15, leading writers and cultural figures each deliver a fifteen-minute talk exploring a different facet of Venice through art, literature, history and design
Stephen Baley on architect and designer Carlo Scarpa.
Geoff Dyer on Venice in literature and its surprising similarities with Varanasi.
Martin Gayford on Venice, the City of Pictures.
Francesco da Mosto on his Venetian family history.
Sara Wheeler on travel writer Jan Morris and her life long fascination with Venice.
Stephen Bayley (with Terence Conran) created London’s influential Design Museum. Over nearly fifty years his books, journalism and exhibitions have changed the popular understanding of ‘design.’ His next book is a memoir, Analogue Epilogue: In Search of Lost Things. He is Chairman of The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust.
Geoff Dyer is an award-winning author of four novels and numerous non-fiction books, including The Last Days of Roger Federer, Homework: A Memoir and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science. His books have been translated into twenty-four languages.
Martin Gayford is an art critic, writer and curator. He is the author of Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucian Freud, A Bigger Message: Conversations with David Hockney, How Painting Happens (and why it matters), Venice: City of Pictures and Love Lucian: The Letters of Lucian Freud, 1939 –1954, and acclaimed books on Van Gogh, Constable and Michaelangelo. His latest book, with Tracey Emin, is My Heart is This: Tracey Emin on Painting.
Francesco da Mosto is a writer, architect, historian, film-maker and Venetian citizen. Apart from short spells in Rome, Paris and sailing in the Mediterranean, he has lived in Venice all his life. Francesco presented the BBC TV series Francesco’s Venice, Francesco’s Italy, Francesco’s Mediterranean Voyage and Shakespeare in Italy, and wrote the accompanying bestselling books as well as Francesco’s Kitchen – an intimate guide to the authentic flavours of Venice.
Sara Wheeler is an award-winning and internationally bestselling travel writer and biographer, and a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio; like Jan Morris, she has spent half her working life on the road. Her eleven books include Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica and Cherry: A Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard . She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a contributing editor of the Literary Review. Her latest book is the highly acclaimed Jan Morris: A Life.
This event supports the Acqua Granda Appeal, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the devasting 1966 floods in Venice.
A joint event with 5 x 15
