Ian is a familiar face and voice as historian and cultural commentator. His first book Cooking for Kings, was filmed as the Channel 4 documentary, Regency Banquet, written and presented by Ian, and since this he has been a regular on Radio 4’s Loose Ends, The Today Programme and Broadcasting House, discussing the Sunday papers, and for an extended period was a contributor on The Richard & Judy Show presenting their history of food series, Tasting the Past. He also wrote and presented The Art of Food for BBC Radio 4, appeared with Michel Roux Jr in the History of Patisserie for the BBC, and on the finals of the Great British Bake Off. In Elegance and Decadence with Lucy Worsley and The One Show with Gyles Brandreth he discussed Brummell’s legacy and he has helped create, narrate and present Casanova documentaries for Canadian, German, Italian and French TV.
He has appeared also on CBS Sunday Morning in America, and read his own works on Radio 4's Book of the Week. Casanova, read by Benedict Cumberbatch, was also Radio 4 Book of the Week. Re-released in 2015 it has become an international audiobook bestseller.
VIDEOS
LECTURES AND PUBLIC SPEAKING
Ian has been booked to talk and lecture in venues as diverse as the New York Smithsonian, the V&A, English Heritage’s Festival of History to The National Trust, The British Council and on cruise ships. He was accredited with the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies in 2006 and has given key note addresses at academic conferences but has also compered charity and comedy events and is a regular after-dinner speaker.
'Ian Kelly gave one of the wittiest and most informative talks we have ever had.'
Stephen Calloway, V&A Museum, on ‘Beau Brummell – art and tailoring in Regency London’
'His talk on Brummell was a scandalous delight; it has changed forever the way I’ll think about Georgian England.'
Jane Austen Festival Director on ‘Scandal and Celebrity in Georgian England’
'A lavish feast of a Christmas lecture.'
Curator, Royal Pavillion Brighton on ‘Cooking for Kings’
'Ian Kelly, the Dirk Bogarde or Sam Shepard of the kitchen'
Giles Coren, The Times
TITLES & THEMES INCLUDE:
Samuel Foote – Laughing in the face of adversity: comedy, tragedy and murder in Georgian London
Casanova and the Art of Success
Casanova’s Grand Tour: Travel and Seduction in The Enlightenment
Beau Brummell – sex, scandal and celebrity in Regency England: the origins of modern tailoring and the birth of London’s West End.
Cooking for Kings, the life of Antonin Careme, the First Celebrity Chef: a backstage and kitchen tour of the pleasure palaces of Europe.
All bookings are taken subject to availability.