Bringing books to life

Martha Lane Fox, co-founder of Lastminute.com, talks about her business and other dot coms, The Geographical Society, Tue 10 Dec

Talks

Lord Byron

Deformity Transformed: Christine Kenyon Jones of King's College, London, discusses the effects of Byron's lameness on his life and work.

National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Lane, WC2 (020-7306 0055). Thur 12 Dec, 1.10pm.

The Christmas Truce, 1914 'Just you think that whilst you were eating your turkey, I was out talking with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before!' So wrote one British soldier home after the Christmas truce in 1914, when fighting on the front line between the Allies and the Germans unofficially stopped, and soldiers shook hands, swapped cigarettes and food, and even played football. Andrew Robertshaw gives a lecture on the Christmas truce of 1914.

National Army Museum, Royal Hospital Road, SW3 (020-7730 0717). Thur 12 Dec, 1pm, £2.50.

Germaine Greer She's always getting angry about something is Dr Greer, so it'll be interesting to observe her build up a head of steam about poetry. This lecture, organised in association with the A.E. Housman Society, concludes the Orange Word writers season.
Apollo Theatre, 31 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1 (020-7494 5540). Wed 11 Dec, 6pm, £5.

In the Shadow of Empire Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire (Harvard) and Stuart Hall, emeritus professor at the Open University discuss the extent to which 'empire' is alive and well in the new political order of globalisation. Chaired by Susan Hiller.

Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1 (020-7887 8888). Thur 12 Dec, 6.30pm, £6, concs £3.

Luce IrigarayThe author of Sexes And Genres Through Languages: Elements Of Sexual Communication gives this talk in French.

French Institute, 17 Queensberry Place, SW7 (020-7073 1350). Wed 11 Dec, 7.15pm.

Is Big Business Destroying the Internet? Bill Thompson is a 'new media' pioneer whose main interests lie in the crossover between technology and culture. He has worked in IT as a programmer, consultant, trainer and is now a writer and journalist. He talks about the influence of business on the uses of the internet. Chaired by Dr Richard Barbrook, writer and lecturer on issues of digital culture, society and politics.

ICA, The Mall, SW1 (020-7930 3647). Mon 9 Dec, 8pm, £6, concs £5, mems £4.

Lord Byron Gallery Talks: The Visual Rhetoric of War Dr Luisa Quatermaine, lecturer at the University Of Exeter gives a talk about the current exhibition, Under Mussolini: Decorative And Propaganda Arts Of The Twenties And Thirties.

Estorick Collection Of Modern Italian Art, 39A Canonbury Square, N1 (020-7704 9522). Sat 7 Dec, 3pm, £3.50, concs £2.50, under-16s/NUS free.

Martha Lane Fox The woman who co-founded Lastminute.com gives a talk about her business and dot coms. Martha is the daughter of the Last Word lecture organiser, Louisa Lane Fox, and this marks the end of 10 years of these talks.