Before I cruised on Queen Mary 2 earlier this year, Cunard was always telling me how brilliant their lecture series was. Well they would say that, wouldn't they? But it was a good excuse for going on board and finding out.
When I was on in June we had a talk by art historian Christine Roussel, who was involved in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and spoke about its history and the restoration project itself.
The talk was fascinating - did you know, for instance, that when raising money for the statue, they had the arm and torch in Madison Square Gardens in New York (50 cents to go up the torch) and the head in Paris (must have looked very odd!), where people could go to the top of the crown? - to a packed and enthralled audience. Her lecture became the talk of the ship for the rest of the cruise.
And then there was film historian Barry Brown, with his talks about some of the screen greats - David Niven, Ingrid Bergman, Alfred Hitchcock - that were all really interesting and came with lots of film clips to keep our attention.
Neither Christine nor Barry are famous names, but theirs were definitely the most interesting talks I have ever attended on a cruise ship, not just because of the subject matter but the way the way they were presented.
So I was interested to see that for its 2010 "Insights" lecture series, Cunard has gone for big hitters - Radio 4's Today programme presenter John Humphrys, broadcaster turned politician and man in white Martin Bell, honorary Brit and author Bill Bryson, comedy script writers Dick Clement and Ian le Frenais, psychosexual therapist Dr Ruth and motor racing broadcaster Murray Walker.
And then there's the really big one, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who will be talking as Queen Mary 2 sails from Port Louis in Mauritius to Cape Town in South Africa in March.
"We are confident our passengers will be transfixed by what he has to say," says Cunard president and managing director Peter Shanks. I am sure they will, and also by what the other speakers listed here have to say as well, but so much of lecturing is all about the way they say it as well.
Is a "name" any better at lecturing than a person who really knows their stuff and is passionate about it as well, as Christine and Barry were? I'd be fascinated to find out.
Jane Archer
