Past events
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May 2022
Huw Griffith, Jean Hilder and Christopher North on
Ancient and Modern
(or ‘Twice-Told Tales’)
Huw began his talk by explaining that Chaucer's work consisted of a prologue about each of his 29 characters, followed by their tale. His Pilgrims, of whom only three were women, were grouped according to their jobs, and the best known of all is the Wife of Bath. Her experiences of her numerous husbands and her views on the workings of marriage in general make her prologue longer than her tale itself, which Huw then proceeded to summarise.
Jean described Karen Brooks's book novel, The Good Wife of Bath, as a re-creation of the relationship between Chaucer and the Wife of Bath, the whole retold from a feminist point of view.
After this, Christopher continued the theme of Tales Retold by reading Elizabeth Bishop's poem 'Crusoe in England', in which Crusoe recalls his time as a castaway.
Further contributions on the theme were made by Alma, Tim and Alison.
April 2022
Duncan Campbell on
Crime and the News
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We’ll All Be Murdered in Our Beds: the Shocking History of Crime Reporting in Britain is a colourful history of crime reporting since 1700 by bestselling author Duncan Campbell. For our April presentation, Duncan – former crime correspondent for The Guardian – talked, and amused us, about the new edition (2021), which discloses new threats to reporting. Duncan also discussed his new edition (2019) of Underworld: the definitive history of Britain’s organised crime.
March 2022
Local author Hugh Robertson introduced us to his trilogy The Fools' Crowns
Based on the lives of Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Simpson. Hugh explained the difficulties involved in researching, writing and subsequently self-publishing works on such a fascinating subject about which much has already been written. He also touched on the similarities and differences between the situation of his subjects then and that of Harry and Meghan today.
January 2022
Ancient Rome
Prsentation by Sam Laird
Sam began with some background on Roman history, but the main focus was on the 1st Century BC and material written by and about Romans. He also posed the question, "Does the Ancient Romans’ sad transition from democracy to autocracy have anything to teach us today?"
June 2021
Memoirs: An introducion to the new XBC writing competition
Presented by Christopher North
Memoir could be thought of as the lighter version of Autobiography - a fragment in your life. Christopher talked about the various forms of memoir writing and storytelling, making recommendations of all the many forms, and explained what the judges will be looking for.
May 2021
Crime fiction and an introduction to the Peter May Trilogy
Presented by Terry Gifford
To what extent does May suggest that these storm-swept conditions have shaped the characters and culture of the islanders themselves? In October 2020, Terry Gifford undertook an investigation into this question on Lewis and Harris. This is his illustrated report.
April 2021
The pen and the pandemic:
How to survive lockdown in half a dozen books. Presented by Alma Dorndorf.
There’s nothing like a heart-warming, escapist novel to keep your mind off the coronavirus crisis. Fiction cannot cure illness or predict the future, but it certainly helped us survive a lockdown. My friends and I chose six books which delighted, intrigued, amused and transported us and which we enjoyed sharing with you.
March 2021
The World of ...
Presented by Peter Davies.
There are some writers whose name can fit into the phrase "The World of ..." and everyone will know what that means.
Peter talked about a couple of authors who write about real or imagined worlds in ways that make readers know them and desire to return to them again and again, focusing on Iris Murdoch and Graham Greene.