literary thoughts

19 May
Cheddington was once more the location for the BFWI Literary Lunch. This was the fifth of these annual get-togethers and they are always well attended. The speakers have been varied: we started with a Calendar Girl, then a romantic novelist, a journalist, a modern novelist and this time a biographical author who has just published her first book about Jane Austen. Hazel Jones was a very good speaker mixing humour with historical facts about life and marriage during Jane Austen's lifetime. The food was good and plentiful. I thought I heard a champagne bottle pop and the conversation certainly flowed. So do we continue with these lunches or do we try to think of something else? Next year is a celebratory one for Bucks Federation so the calendar may be full of exciting events.It would be really helpful if members would make their feelings known. We always receive letters of thanks and appreciation but some advice on this issue would be nice too.
20 May
I was asked to judge some of the classes for the local Blind Association. I was really impressed by what some of the writers could achieve in their lives in spite of the sudden onset of their disability. How does one come to terms with not being able to read or watch television or work with one's hands as one had been used to? Some of the handicrafts produced are really marvellous:it is humbling really.
21 May
Did you read that lovely letter in the Daily Telegraph which amid the gloom and doom of cheating politicians, pointed out the crazyness of getting the MPs to draw up a new set of rules for themselves? The correspondent from Wales suggested that it is administered by a "sensible, no-nonsense, incorruptible group of women--the Women's Institute". So there you go, girls!
25 May
I happened to catch the end of a TV programme about the Hairy Bikers on a visit to Denman College. They were making sponge cakes with the tutor who comes to Bucks to teach us for our hygiene certificates.The other spongemakers included some members from Bucks and ex-staff from Denman College. I was jumping up and down saying "Oh look ! There's so-and-so". It looked great fun and I wished I had seen all of the programme.
26 May
Local WI Book Group today and we have been reading a thriller by Peter James called "Dead Simple" which is to be the first in a series. Several of the readers really enjoyed this book and it was well plotted with many a twist and a few red herrings thrown in.It is not my sort of book as some of the violence is sadistic--not at all Agatha Christie like--and I do get fed up of hearing about the eating habits of police officers and their sex lives but I suppose that makes them more believable as people.Anyway besides me and one reader who suffers from claustrophobia and couldn't get past the first chapter, the others enjoyed it.I preferred "White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga which was related by a murderer and had its fair share of gore. Anyone reading this couldn't agree with the idea that India is no longer a Third World country, an opinion that was voiced the other day when discussing choosing a project for ACWW.
27 May
WI committee this evening with lots of plans for the rest of the year. My diary exhausts me to just think about what is to come in June and July.What with barbeques, extra trips out to visit the WI exhibition in High Wycombe, a chance to dress up for a summer posh event and walks and playreading and perhaps a barn dance and a mystery evening, we shall all be dizzy! Don't join the WI if you want a quiet sedate life! When will we find the time to sort out the Government?