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.

Tuesday 29 November 2016

December 2016 Newsletter

MP Peacock in the Bookshop with the Wine Bottle.
Crime Writing: Upcoming free event


An open brainstorming session on 21st Century Detective Fiction

6.00pm, Saturday 3rd December 2016, Rye Bookshop



The Reverend Ronald Knox wrote his famous Ten Commandments of detective fiction in 1929:

"No ghosts, no secret passages, no identical twins and no Chinamen. No hidden clues, no last minute criminal arrivals, no obscure science or poisons. No murderous detectives. No dissembling assistants."

The golden age of detective fiction - Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham - followed his rules, most of the time, for very good reason.

Do these rules still work almost 90 years later? We live in a different world of DNA testing, mobile phones and the internet.

Should they be updated to reflect modern times? Do they still retain some element of literary merit?

Next Saturday, 3rd December at the Rye Bookshop, Maddy Coelho and Paul Youlten, better known as MP Peacock, author of Murder on the Strike of Five, (for details see September Newsletter below dated 25 August) will be leading the investigation into 'Should we rewrite the rules of detective fiction?' 

Come and help draft the new commandments.

 Former Headmaster in the Art Gallery with the Book 

Smarden Art Gallery on Thursday 15th December, 6-8 p.m. 

Jonty Driver will be reading from and answering questions about his new book, SOME SCHOOLS (available from the Rye Bookshop). There will be drinks and small eats, and a chance to see what is available in the gallery too.

Short Stories:  At its last meeting the Book Group had a lively discussion about the short story genre. We discussed two short stories by Katherine Mansfield, introduced by Gill Southgate. By chance, there was an article by Elizabeth Day on writing short stories, in the Daily Telegraph last week, prompted by the recent death of a master of the short story, William Trevor. Here is a link to the start of the article, and if you want to read the rest I can send you a cutting, kindly provided by Alan McKinna: CLICK HERE

Comic Writing: There's another interesting piece on a different literary topic, namely the work of    P G Wodehouse, in the Daily Telegraph of 29 November. This was prompted by the news that Wodehouse's literary archive has been acquired by the British Library, with the implications for the rehabilitation of this perhaps under-rated and unfairly demonised author. CLICK HERE to read the whole article. 

Tuesday 1 November 2016

November Meeting, Friday 18th 7:00 for 7:30, Lower Court Hall.

The Life and Work of E F Benson, by Allan Downend

The talk will look at Fred Benson by; placing him within his family; following his education and early work; discussing his writing career; mentioning some of his friends and circle and finishing with his time in Rye. There will be some readings from his books. 

 E. F. Benson.jpg
  
Our Speaker 
Most of Allan Downend's career was as Area Librarian for Chiswick and then after a major re-organisation he became a Heritage and Tourism Officer and did the restoration of Hogarth's House for the Tercentenary; exhibited permanently for the first time the local collection of paintings together with the restoration of several rooms at Boston Manor; conserved a local collection of C18th and early C19th books, organised Book Fairs, and began the bid to restore the museum and mansions in Gunnersbury Park. After early retirement he was Curator at Rye castle Museum until 2007. In 1985. together with others, he founded the E.F.Benson Society and ever since has been the Society's Secretary.