PROF Bill Chambers, this year's president of the Geographical Association, is the next guest of the Huddersfield and Halifax branch of the association with an illustrated talk on the slums that occupy half of Peru's capital city of Lima.
Bill is a crusading leader and for the first time this year is turning the president's annual address to the association (in Derby in April) into a public address - on the the very same subject.
In his year of office he is hoping to lecture at 10 branches (as well as Tierra del Fuego!) and at Huddersfield University on Tuesday, January 25, members and guests will hear a heartfelt talk based on 40 years' study.
Bill first visited the slums of Lima as a VSO volunteer. He says his two years there in a squatter settlement was "an experience which had a lifelong impact on me and my teaching" .
The lecture - Lima's squatter settlements: slums of hope or despair - considers changes in the barriadas of the Peruvian capital between 1964 and 2004 and asks whether they are the cause or the solution to the problems of rural Peru.
Bill cites examples from the families and the communities in which he lived while he analysed the question.
And the good news is that he comes to some surprisingly positive and encouraging conclusions!
Bill is now dean of Widening Participation at Liverpool Hope University College. But he used to teach PE and English at a secondary modern in Neasden where another claim to fame is that he taught Mike Gatting cricket!
The talks begins at 7.15pm on January 25 at the University of Huddersfield, Queensgate Campus, Room W5/10 in the Technology Building.
Visitors are welcome and pay £1 per lecture. For more details ring John Broadbent 01484-650171 or Peter Cunnington 01484-602499.
