Southern Group
The first of the autumn ATS regional meetings will be at Penny Aldred’s home in London. The Southern Group, a disciplined lot, is working its way through the novels in order, and will gather at lunchtime on September 13th to discuss August Folly. More details and directions are available from Penny, her contact details are always in the Journal. Whether the meeting will fulfil Richard Tebben’s ideal of: “…no girls, thank heaven, and plenty of really serious discussion of intellectual questions” it’s impossible to predict (but feels unlikely).
Midlands Group
Midlands Group will meet at Prestbury, near Cheltenham, on October 18th to discuss the 1945 novel, Miss Bunting. Its eponymous heroine was introduced to us in Marling Hall and, doubtless, the “omniscient, the all-perfect …elderly ex-governess of high reputation” will provoke some lively discussion. And respectful discussion too, for: “Miss Bunting had that sense of her own worth that only the old governess and the old nannie possess, and many peers, including two marquises and a duke, would sooner have faced a revolutionary mob than Miss Bunting’s voice when she asked to see if their hands were clean”.
AGM
Between the regional meetings falls the Angela Thirkell Society AGM – on Zoom (only) again this year, as outdoor meetings have, in the past, been marred by the weather (see photo*).
The meeting will begin at 2pm on Saturday September 27th. This is your opportunity to find out what the Society has done in the last 12 months, to tell the committee what you think it could be doing, and to offer to do some of it. After the formal business Sophie Henderson will be reading from Peace Breaks Out, in recognition of the 80th anniversaries of VE and VJ Days.
RSVP
Please let the Chairman, Hilary Temple, or Committee Secretary, Sarah Preston, know if you plan to attend. Zoom details and agenda will be circulated before the day.
* The photograph shows an unidentified gathering outside the Council House, Birmingham, pre-dating the Angela Thirkell Society, I’m afraid.
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