How the Blog Works

How the blog works




The most recent entries or "posts" appear at the top. To find older ones, scroll down. On the right at the bottom of the page are links to older posts, which you can click on to find material posted last year, last month, etc.

Contributions are welcome and can be e-mailed to me at lawrenceyoulten@gmail.com. Content can include 1) announcements about, or introductions to, forthcoming meetings and other events of possible interest to members. 2) Summaries of talks given at Literary Society meetings or at meetings of the Book Group. 3) Announcements of forthcoming TV or radio programmes of possible interest to readers. 4) Reviews of books read recently or in the past.

Ideally, contributions should be submitted as documents in Word format (.doc or .docx files) and pictures in the form of .jpg files but other formats, including .pdf files are acceptable.

Links can be included to give easy access to relevant material on the internet.

Friday 16 October 2015

Next Meeting, 20 November: Patricia Erskine-Hill




Dante’s Divine Comedy in English; Influence and Resonance

I am very grateful to our speaker for providing this brief synopsis of her forthcoming talk

"We start with a brief look at Dante the man, followed by an outline of the Comedy:  the basic story, the extremely intricate construction of the poem and its reception through the seven hundred years since it first appeared. This last is illustrated with some marvellous paintings, frescoes and sketches of the three canticles, starting from the early fifteenth century.


This is followed by a look at Dante’s sources and at how he manipulates texts and ideas to suit his purpose.  Finally, and most importantly, we look at how deeply the Comedy has penetrated Anglophone consciousness.  From the late eighteenth century, our language and our imaginations have been full of Dantean imagery, and this goes right down through the population, from the academic specialist to many who are not even aware of the poem’s origin. 


I hope to convey some of the fun, the beauty and the range of the Comedy for those who have not got around to reading it, and to shed a little light on one particular corner for those who know it well."          

  Image result for dante


Here is a useful link to direct you to lots of information about Dante and his poetry:

Dante website

Thanks to our speaker for providing this.


Thursday 8 October 2015

Sarah Moss: What is the Historical Novel for?

After September's well-attended and much appreciated talk, it was nice to be reminded that appreciation works both ways, as shown by this extract from Sarah's letter of thanks after the event. (Thanks to Richard Thomas for providing this):

".....I had a very good time.  I felt very welcome, .....and found the whole experience more civilised than almost any other literary event I've done.  And you produced an excellent audience....."