A TALK at Shire Hall, Monmouth will take place on Wednesday 25th May at 7.30pm about romantic poet Samuel Coleridge’s experience of spin, lies, deception and eventual triumph on the island of Malta. Portsmouth University’s Barry Hough will lead the lecture, which will focus on Coleridge’s lesser known role as the Public Secretary on Malta during the critical and dangerous years of 1804 and 1805.

In light of Monmouth’s links with Lord Nelson, the lecture will discuss Coleridge’s propaganda role, and his relationship with the Civil Commissioner Sir Alexander Ball, who was one of Nelson’s Band of Brothers at the Battle of the Nile.

Barry Hough said: “It was Coleridge’s misfortune to have the role of Public Secretary thrust upon him at a time of dangerous political instability on Malta. Simmering popular revolt against British rule threatened British possession of the Maltese islands.

“Finding himself at the heart of what he confidentially described as the wicked machinery of colonial government, Coleridge was instructed to make popular, ill-judged, counter-productive and contradictory policies.

Although he later described his Malta experience working with the Civil Commissioner, Sir Alexander Ball, as the most memorable and instructive period of his life, the excessive burdens of this strategically important role placed him under severe strain.”

The lecture will cover how Coleridge narrowly succeeded in preventing Britain from being forced into a dangerous war with Algiers once Nelson and Ball’s war policy had been rejected by British Ministers, and will discuss how Coleridge’s later writing on truth in government communication conveys a cautionary message to modern politicians.

Tickets are priced at £4, and are available from Monmouth Museum and Chepstow Museum.