Outspoken historian David Starkey is returning to Deal.

He will hold An Evening With session at St Andrew's Church next month.

Dr Starkey spoke to a sell-out audience at the Deal Music and Arts festival in 2018 in a talk titled: King Henry VIII - the First Brexiteer.

This new appearance is as a fundraising event for the church and Dr Starkey will give his time for free.

Parochial church committee member Lionel Ball said: "We feel that we have pulled off somewhat of a coup by managing to get the world famous historian Dr Starkey to give up his time.

"This particular event is sure to be interesting and thought provoking, the content of which is being kept as a surprise for the night.

"We expect it to be a very interactive evening, with plenty of time for a question-and-answer session."

The event was secured thanks to one church member, Muriel Taylor, who is his cousin.

David Starkey, of Barham near Canterbury, is famous for being an outspoken British constitutional historian, eminent scholar and prolific writer.

He specialises in Tudor history has presented many TV and radio programmes and made numerous historic documentaries.

His TV programmes have included The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Monarchy by David Starkey.

He has attracted worldwide attention through his lively and sometimes controversial style.

Last year he landed in deep water when he claimed slavery was not genocide due to the survival of "so many damn blacks."

The historian made the comments during an online interview with Brexit campaigner Darren Grimes for YouTube channel Reasoned UK on June 30, 2020.

In reaction Canterbury Christ Church College wiped out his position as visiting professor and he was also angrily condemned by former Chancellor Sajid Javid who is of Pakistani heritage.

Dr Starkey had been talking to Mr Grimes about the Black Lives Matter movement and the history curriculum.

He had told the host: "Slavery was not genocide, otherwise there wouldn't be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there? An awful lot of them survived.

"The honest teaching of the British Empire is to say quite simply, it is the first key stage of world globalisation.

"It's probably the most important moment in human history and its consequences are still with us.

"As for this idea that slavery is this terrible disease that it dare not speak its name - it only dare not speak its name because we settled it nearly 200 years ago."

Dr Starkey also noted that the "only reason these young black protesters are here is because of slavery" and that "slavery was not the equivalent of the holocaust."

Dr Starkey later apologised saying his inflammatory remarks had been “blundering use of language.”

“It was intended to emphasise, in hindsight with awful clumsiness, the numbers who survived the horrors of the slave trade," he said in July 2020.

"Instead, it came across as a term of racial abuse. I apologise unreservedly for the offence it caused.”

Dr Starkey will appear at St Andrew's Church in West Street from 7.30pm on Friday, October 8.

Organisers warn that tickets, costing £10, are selling fast and are limited to 200.

You can book by emailing noo1939@hotmail.com

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