The guest speaker for our September Lunch is OUSV member Peter Acton.
Clouds, Birds, Frogs and Me is a new fictional, humorous autobiography written by Peter from the perspective of the famous ancient Athenian playwright Aristophanes, who coined the phrase 'Νεφελοκοκκυγία' - 'Cloud-cuckoo-land'.
Peter worked for the Boston Consulting Group from 1980 to 1999 and was head of the Melbourne office from 1995 to 1999.
He has a degree in Classics from Oxford, an MBA from Stanford and a PhD in ancient history from the University of Melbourne.
After leaving BCG he worked in the biotech industry, acted as an expert witness in legal cases and sat on several not-for profit boards. He was founding President of the advocacy group Humanities21 and is currently a Director of The Accountability Round Table and Chair of the Industry Advisory Board of the Centre for the Conservation of Cultural Materials at the University of Melbourne.
He has reviewed several books on ancient history for the Australian Book Review and other historical publications and had articles published in specialist business magazines. He has had two books published: Poiesis, a scholarly monograph on manufacturing in classical Athens (published by the Oxford University Press in 2014), and very recently Clouds, Birds, Frogs and Me, a humorous work of historical fiction purporting to be the autobiography of the great comic poet Aristophanes (Pegasus 2025). It was described by Sir Stephen Fry as ‘A joyous revelation’ and ‘A fabulous read’ and nominated as Book of the Year in History Today magazine.
Lunch is at the Kelvin Club (www.kelvinclub.com) where we meet from 12-30 pm onwards. A two-course meal is served at 1 pm and the formal part of the proceedings will conclude around 2-15 pm.
The price for OUSV and CSV members and guests is $75. Drinks may be purchased at the bar in advance. For non-members the price is $85.
Queries: please contact secretary.ousv@gmail.com
secretary.ousv@gmail.com
.png)