Events- John Gaudet

Lectures:

July21, 2011 -George Mason University Reston Center, VA  "The Iron Snake and the ManEaters of Tsavo."

April 20- May 11, 2010 - George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, “Papyrus, the Plant that Ruled the World.”

June 22, 2010 -George Mason University Loudoun Center, VA  "The Iron Snake and the Man-Eaters of Tsavo."

April 22, 2007 - George Mason University, Fairfax, VA “Railroads in Colonial Africa.”

Readings/Signings (selected):

January 20, 2010 - Potomac Hills Women's Club, Mclean, VA

March 6, 2008 - The Dogwoods Book Club, McLean, VA

November 3, 2007 -The Amer. Assoc. of Univ. Women Author book Luncheon, Fairfax City, VA.

September 12, 2007 - Rotary Club of Vienna, VA

August 1, 2007 - The Duncan Library, Friends Book Club, Alexandria, VA.

June 26, 2007 - The Newcomers Book Club of McLean, VA.

June 1, 2007 - The Literary League, Kensington, MD.

February 21, 2007 - Olsson's Books and Records, DuPont Circle, Washington, DC.

Appearances:

October 1, 2007 - Guest panelist on Channel 69 Comcast Cable TV.  Rich Massabny’s show “P.M. Arlington.”

Events:

April 22, 2007 - The International Day of the Book, Old Town, Kensington, MD.

September 25, 2007 - Fall For The Book Festival, G. Mason Univ., VA (70 authors, 10,000 festival goers in 59 events featuring authors like Elizabeth Berg, Mitch Albom and Rita Mae Brown.)

April 28, 2007 – Papyrus Workshop “The Origin of Books,” at the Words, Art and Poetry Exhibit, Alexandria, VA.

Articles and Stories - John Gaudet and the Web

Loot - A Problem That Is Not Going To Go Away (02/18/2009) Sharon Waxman´s new book (Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World, Time Book, Henry Holt & Co., NY, Hardcover,2008. $30.00) is a winner in more ways than one. As several reviewers have commented, she has brought us new insights on the key personalities involved in the antiquities trade, done her homework in regard to the history and paper trails and best of all she makes the case for why the museum world and responsible governments will have to pay attention. The problem of restitution and return of artifacts is here to stay and it´s not going to disappear into the woodwork.  http://tinyurl.com/ylo9aat

Obama’s Africa in Perspective (04/06/2007) Among many of the controversies swirling around the rising star of the Democratic party, Barack Obama, there is the implication that, as an American of African descent, he knows nothing of the pain and tribulation experienced by the descendents of slave families, especially the survivors of the civil rights struggle of 20th Century USA. True, he and his parental generation were raised in social environments far removed from the ordinary life of the average African, but the heritage they came from was economically and socially not much different from slavery. http://tinyurl.com/yjjnkac

The Man-Eaters Didn’t Die (8,500 views to date - 10/30/2006) In his book, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, Lt. Col. John Patterson describes in detail how he put paid to two famous lions who ravaged the railway camps in 1898 during the construction of the Uganda Railroad, infamously known in London as, “The Lunatic Express,” or to the Africans in Kenya as, “The Iron Snake.” Once the stuffed figures of both lions were ensconced in the Field Museum in Chicago, the story came to an end. As far as the general public was concerned the man-eaters were finished. Well done, Col. Patterson! Nearly 100 years passed before the story again popped up. http://tinyurl.com/ykm6ayc

What do Bill Bryson, the Roosevelts, Churchill and the Queen have in Common? (10/05/ 2006) They’ve all had the experience of riding on a railway completed in 1901 in Kenya. That line variously called the ‘Iron Snake’ by the Africans, the ‘Lunatic Line’ by Victorian tabloids, was later known as the ‘Lunatic Express.’ It is still in use today. The trip from Nairobi to Mombasa, a journey of 13 to 14 hours across a panoramic savannah, was made in comparative luxury in 1907 by Winston Churchill who was impressed with the effort required to build it. The British art of ‘muddling through,’ he said, was seen here in one of its finest expositions “...Through everything – through the forests, through the ravines, through troops of marauding lions, through famine, through war, through five years of excoriating Parliamentary debate, muddled and marched the railway...” http://tinyurl.com/yljnsft