TV broadcaster Jeremy Paxman is presenting a talk on Great Britain’s Great War and how it changed the nation in an event coming to Cambridge.

Ely Standard: Jeremy Paxman when he was editor of the Varsity magazine in Cambridge in 1972.Jeremy Paxman when he was editor of the Varsity magazine in Cambridge in 1972. (Image: Archant)

There is a chance to enjoy a pre show supper and also after the talk, the opportunity to meet Jeremy, who will be signing copies of his books.

The Cambridge graduate will be talking in the week that marks the centenary of the end of World War I on November 11.

Vanessa Burkitt, managing director of Catherine Jones jeweller, sponsoring the talk, said: “Every family in the country was touched by the horrors of the First World War.

“Communities across the country lost a generation. Our city became the First Great Eastern Hospital. The Leys school, Clare and Trinity Colleges provided space for beds as cloisters and halls became wards providing up to 1,700 beds.

“The hospital brought people of Cambridge and the University together to care for the wounded and for those who returned after the Armistice with visible or invisible injuries. They came back to a country and a town that was transformed.”

This reality, repeated across the country, will be the background and context for Jeremy Paxman’s talk.

Jeremy Paxman’s early engagement as a journalist was as editor of the Cambridge university undergraduate paper while at Saint Catharine’s College. A renowned, award-winning BBC journalist, he made his name as a forthright interviewer and documentary maker moving on to become the face of Newsnight.

• The talk is on Thursday November 8 at 6.30pm at Great Saint Mary’s Senate House Hill. Tickets are £15. Concessions £12.

• A pre show supper is at Michaelhouse Café for £12.

• Funds raised will go to the Royal Anglian Regiment Benevolent charity that takes care of the needs of soldiers and former soldiers, their dependents, families and the bereaved.