Kevin Brown

A very pleasant evening at Ognisko Restaurant (Polish Hearth) celebrating the launch of “Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions” & 21 years since publication of “Penicillin Man” (which was also marked with meal in the same place in 2004)

Where better to put under the lens “a floating microcosm of Edwardian society”, the subject of “Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions” www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship... than in an historic laboratory?

Fabulous visit to the Alexander Flemming #museum 🏛 at St Mary's Hospital 🏥 @kevin-brown.bsky.social 🙂
Wonderful to go into his actual laboratory 🔬
Pleased the huge contribution of Florey and Chain turning penicillin into a usable drug was prominent 💊
Love ❤ the museum sign 🙂
#medicine #science

Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum presentation

“So fascinating. Kevin made history come alive”. A comment from a visitor to the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum.
That is so much easier if you’re where that history was made

Kevin Brown lecturing to audience, with slide on screen behind him about his books and talks

“An amazing presentation. Loved hearing some history from someone clearly very knowledgeable & passionate about it.”
Gratifying feedback on a recent lecture.

Feedback from recent online talk strangely focused on my voice:
“I could listen to this speaker present on any topic as his voice is very engaging”;
“An amazing presentation & his voice was so soothing & welcoming”;
“I love learning history from people who love it like this!”

Corporate group of men at Birkenau

A historical monument should engage visitors in an informed & imaginative conversation between the past & present to educate & enable understanding of what went on & offer insights of value to the future rather than be an interesting leisure facility or corporate venue

Author & historian Kevin Brown discussing Peñasco’s suit on display in an exhibition with a man pointing at it

In “Titanic: Ship of Lost Illusions” pen-and-sword.co.uk/Titanic-Ship-o… Victor Peñasco’s esmoquin is a symbol of first class hubris; on display it evokes an emotional & poignant connection with the young man it was made for but the historian & book offer a more balanced contextual response

Confiscated possessions of concentration camp victim

Clothing of Titanic victim recovered from salvaged luggage

Personal effects reflecting loss, transformation & survival in museums help visitors make an intensely personal connection with the past, empathy aiding understanding, but their display can seem an intrusive invasion of privacy

Holocaust victims wearing suits superimposed on background of photograph of clothing piled up and overflowing from Kanada warehouse at Auschwitz

When Auschwitz was liberated piles of 348,820 neatly folded suits were found: “Every day, thousands of suits were brought in. Fine woolen suits, evening attire from the most elegant to the simplest, stripped from men who would never wear them again” (Filip Müller, Sonderkommando)

Man in suit looking at suit on display in museum

“A museum should not just be a place for fancy paintings but should be a place where we can communicate our lives through our everyday objects.” (Orhan Pamuk). But what is commonplace for one visitor may be alien to another - & what we need are artefacts to make us think deeper.

Watch Bug Day 2025 proceedings fresh from Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HF4...

I can’t ever say that I’ve got nothing to read …

Contents page, St Mary’s Hospital Gazette, 103/2 (1997)

A Mary’s Man once referred to me as perhaps the most prolific writer in the history of “St Mary’s Hospital Gazette”. Looking at the contents of just one issue (103/2) from 1997, he may well have been right! Four articles, missive from the managing editor & Mary’s news in brief…

John Lumley (1533-1609)

Tomb monument of John, Baron Lumley in Lumley Chapel, Cheam

Tomb monument of Lady Jane Lumley in Lumley Chapel, Cheam

John, Baron Lumley’s library bequeathed to Henry Prince of Wales in 1609 & is now in the British library; his art collection was moved from Nonsuch Palace to Lumley Castle; he endowed the Lumleian lectures “spreading light” in anatomy & surgery; his tomb monument is in Lumley Chapel, Cheam

John Speed, map of Surrey, 1610, view of Nonsuch Palace gardens

Georg Hoefnagel, south front of Nonsuch Palace, 1568

Reliefs on Jane Lumley’s tomb showing her children praying in chapel at Nonsuch Palace

Model of Nonsuch Palace at Whitehouse Museum, Cheam

Nonsuch Palace built by Henry VIII to be unequalled in magnificence in Europe now mere bumps in a field, its splendour commemorated in prints & a sculpture on their mother Jane’s tomb in the Lumley Chapel, Cheam of the children of John, Baron Lumley at prayer in the palace chapel

Octagon Room, Orleans House exterior

Octagon Room, Orleans House interior

Orleans House, Twickenham, now most memorable for its baroque Octagon Room, housed the collections of Henri Duc d’ Aumale which he transferred to Chantilly on his return to France from exile, a loss to Britain but a glory for France

AI representation of 1912 dressing room, morning suit

AI representation of 1912 dressing room, lounge suit

AI representation of 1912 dressing room, evening tailcoat suit

AI representation of 1912 dressing room, dinner jacket

It must have been difficult for a young man about town with an extensive wardrobe to choose what to wear though in 1912 he would have had a multitude of suits, shirts, ties & accessories perfect for every occasion & time of day with a valet to keep him & them in impeccable order

Victor Peñasco in smoking suit,morning suit and lounge suit

“True Dandyism is the result of an artistic temperament working upon a fine body within the wide limits of fashion."
(Max Beerbohm)

Edwardian dandy Victor Peñasco reimagined wearing his suits including ones front of mirrors in classical setting

The young Edwardian dandy like the exquisite of Baudelaire’s time had “no profession other than elegance … no other status, but that of cultivating the idea of beauty in their own persons … must aspire to be sublime without interruption; he must live & sleep before a mirror.”

Dressing room of wealthy young man of 1912 reimagined by AI

The dressing room of the well dressed young man of 1912 like Victor Peñasco, would have made the “hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits & dressing gowns & ties, & his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high” in ‘The Great Gatsby’ of 1925 seem unduly modest

Narcissus tinged with Adonis, Victor Peñasco epitomised the Edwardian dandy defined by his suits until his metamorphosis by death on Titanic simultaneously into a hero in a tuxedo & a stranger’s corpse bought by his family to prove his death; commemorated by his unworn esmoquin

Applause at end of lecture

“O, popular applause! what heart of man is proof against thy sweet, seducing charms?” (William Cowper)

Kevin Brown in Fleming Museum

Bug Day poster

Don’t I get all the glamorous gigs? Bug Day, 2025. And online to boot, not in Canada.

A list of selected guest lectures over the last 25 years only skims the surface of organisations I have spoken to - add on schools and universities visited, church & social clubs, men’s clubs, women’s institutes, JACs, Probus … all just as important as the more prestigious ones

Poxed and Scurvied

Author with copy of Poxed and Scurvied

Explore further the history of health & medicine at sea in “Poxed & Scurvied” www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Poxed-and-Sc... perfect reading for Trafalgar Day 21 October 2025

Seasick Admiral

Author with copy of Seasick Admiral in front of portrait of Nelson

Discover on the 220th anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, the importance of Horatio Nelson’s concern for the health of his seamen in securing naval victory. Read about it in “The Seasick Admiral” www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Seasick-...

Engaging with an audience in exploring the microcosm of social & medical history at sea is an art in itself - & different every time with the varying responses of individuals that may depend on their personal experience & even their mood on a particular day & also on the speaker

Discussion on deck

Discussion over a glass of wine

A glass of wine & interesting conversation on the deck of a ship at the start of a relaxing evening is just the thing for an onboard special interest enrichment lecturer. As dark winter days set in, I can only recall past gigs & look forward to my next booking at sea

Man in suit drinking coffee on balcony overlooking Swiss lake in morning

Man in dinner jacket drinking wine on balcony overlooking Swiss lake in evening

Coffee to set oneself up for the business of the day, wine for that of the evening