Monthly Newsletter; a new feature of the blog: September 2016

In future, I shall include on the blog a monthly newsletter-style post, with announcements about recent and forthcoming meetings, and other topical matters. I'll aim to post each month's issue in the last week of the previous month, so this is the September 2016 inaugural issue.

Contributions are welcome, for example news of forthcoming events or broadcasts. Next month it would be good to have some reviews of literary events at the Rye Arts Festival. Any volunteers?

 Thanks to Hilary Roome for the following announcement:

" Please can you post under events the forthcoming Lit Soc outing to the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury?  This is to see the National Theatre production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time on Thursday 9 March at 2.30pm.  I have block reserved 28 tickets and friends and family are welcome too.

People should let me know if they want a ticket. Cost £26.77, but this will rise a little if fewer people come. At present we are assuming people will make their own way, but a coach could be hired if that is the consensus. Tickets must be paid for by Christmas."

"The Good Terrorist"  On Saturday, 27 August, Channel 4 broadcast a documentary  about John Harris, the subject of Jonty Driver's book "The Man with the Suitcase" reviewed here on the blog last November.

"Murder on the Strike of Five": Recently published, in good time for the centenary of the Russian Revolution next year, this book is by two Winchelsea residents, writing under the pseudonym M P Peacock. Modesty forbids my revealing their true identities, but the book is available from Amazon for £7.99 (paperback) or £2.99 (e-book for Kindle) It is a murder mystery set mostly on a train on the Trans-Siberian Railway, against the background of the political and social upheaval going on in Russia in 1917.

"Some Schools"  Jonty Driver's new book about his experiences as a schoolteacher and headmaster is due out on 1 September, and can be preordered from Amazon. Here is a review by Sir Anthony Seldon, one of Jonty's successors as Master of Wellington College.:

"I followed Jonty's career closely over subsequent years, years he describes with such poignancy in the pages of this book. He writes beautifully about schools, a subject that fascinates all of us, but which is rarely written about well. His range of experience is mind-boggling. After working at Sevenoaks, an independent school, he went to what was then South Humberside to be head of sixth form at a pioneering state school. He subsequently became head of three very different schools: the Island School in Hong Kong, serving predominantly ex-pats, then back to the UK to become Head of Graham Greene's old school, Berkhamsted, and finally, Master of Wellington College. Jonty has written an important book which should be read by all who care about schools. No one else has had such a combined impact on politics, schools and literature. It is a remarkable story."

For further details, click HERE

The Tidal Zone, by Sarah Moss

The recently published novel by one of this year's Literary Society speakers has received a lot of critical attention. A particularly favourable review appeared in The Observer (click here to read it') The Tidal Zone was also discussed on the Radio 4 Saturday evening Arts programme, which you can reach on BBC  Radio iPlayer at the following link (click here)  Make sure your computer's volume control is turned up. The discussion runs for about eight minutes, starting about eight and a half minutes into the programme.

"Why India Matters to Us All" by Sir Mark Tully

On Friday 15 July our meeting was held in the hall of St Thomas'  School in Winchelsea, since it was correctly anticipated that we would have a large audience for this talk. Sir Mark Tully, who was born in India but educated in England, including studying theology at Cambridge, now lives in New Delhi. For many years he was the BBC's "Man in India" and he is well known for his many radio broadcasts, including the popular series, "Something Understood".  His fascinating talk ranged over many aspects of the relationship of Britain and India, including shared history, different attitudes to spirituality and diversity, economic challenges and conflicts between the development of a major country with the desire to restrict man-made climate change. A lively discussion followed Sir Mark's talk, and the large audience appreciated our speaker's fluent and stimulating style.

Jonty Driver Poetry Reading

On Sunday 10th July at 4-00 p.m., in the church of Sr Mary, St Mary in the Marsh, as part of the John Armitage Memorial (JAM) Festival in the Romney Marshes, C.J. (“Jonty”) Driver read his sequence of poems called BEFORE:  22 poems about his African childhood and young manhood, including the five weeks he was held by the security police in solitary confinement in South Africa in 1964.  In between some of the poems in the sequence, Peter Fields played on the violin a variety of pieces - some classical, some folk, some popular.

This recital was a continuation of the very successful recital of 2015, also in St Mary in the Marsh, when Jonty read the sequence of poems called REQUIEM and Peter played a transposition of Bach’s Cello Suite No 2. BEFORE has been published so far only in a South African literary magazine in 2013, though a printed version of the sequence was available at the recital for those who like to read as well as listen.

Here is a link to a review of this event: click here

Easy Peelers, by Gillian Southgate

Here is Gillian Southgate's winning entry for the literary competition published in the July issue of The Oldie. The subject set was "Easy Peelers"

Salome shed her seven veils (a slow seduction never fails)

And Mata Hari’s sultry shape peeled elegantly, like a grape.

But Mother Nature shows the way in putting on the best display.

The snake is a commanding case; it sheds its skin with easy grace;

The caterpillar does the same. The dragonfly of river fame

Presents a stained glass window wing. The frog and lizard also fling

Their skins away, and look like new; the grasshopper can do it too.

 The red deer buck casts off his coat and opens his imperious throat,

The maple with its paperbark will grace the meanest public park.

 The willow strips, the eucalypts peel off without a hint of fuss,

Quite different from the rest of us. Except for politicians.

They appear to do it every day.

CHARLESTON FESTIVAL, FIRLE, 2016 by Gillian Southgate

The Charleston Festival takes place at Firle in East Sussex, and this year features the usual galaxy of star-studded names.  I went on Saturday May 20th, to see Joanna Trollope interviewing Juliet Nicholson, Nicolette Jones interviewing both Flora Fraser and Daisy Hay, and Dame Julia Neuberger interviewing Julian Bell, the painter.

Juliet Nicholson spoke movingly of her relationship with her mother, Phillipa, her grandmother Vita, and (at second-hand) her great-grandmother Pepita, a Spanish flamenco dancer, who had seven children by Lionel Sackville West. She also when prompted, spoke of how reliance on alcohol was a feature of all three of these lives, and indeed of her own at one point. She was a charming, vulnerable speaker. She promoted and signed copies of her book ‘A House full of Daughters’ which was recently the book of the week on Radio 4. Joanna Trollope did a sensitive and magisterially-managed interview which the audience much appreciated.

Flora Fraser and Daisy Hay spoke in turns about their subjects, in Flora Fraser’s case the wife of George Washington, whom he married because she was rich. But he became very fond of her. Daisy Hay similarly spoke about Mary Anne, the wife of Disraeli. She and Disraeli sent letters on a regular basis, which seem to indicate their great fondness for each other. Both writers were promoting their books. Flora Fraser is the daughter of Antonia and Sir Hugh Fraser.  Daisy Hay teaches English at Exeter University and is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. The audience was swelled by a contingent of fans from Charleston, Virginia, during this particular talk.

And Julian Bell has painted the book of Genesis having been struck by the pictorial prose of the King James version, as he read about the Creation, the founding fathers of the Jewish nation, and so on. Julia Neuberger talked about the Jewish faith and some of the stories in the Old Testament Julian had painted – Jacob wrestling with the Angel, The Garden of Eden and others. He exhibits locally at the St. Anne’s Gallery in Lewes. Very interesting, especially to discover that in terms of biblical interpretation, Jews are keen on the letter of the law. A very spirited conversation between these two speakers.

Tickets fly off the shelves for the Festival, so it helps to become a Friend. Otherwise, it’s possible to queue for late tickets or returns or you can book by phone. Most tickets are about £14 each per talk. The environs are lovely, and the atmosphere very relaxed, with the opportunity to buy lunch or to sit at picnic tables and drink champagne, a la Glyndebourne, if the mood takes you.  It makes for the kind of day out Lit.Soc members would very much enjoy.