ARCHIVED TALK REPORTS
2016
6th June: Doug Cross gave us an illustrated talk on our theme of Hero's and Villains, into the rise and fall of Benito Mussolini. It was interesting to see how a child from a Catholic, Socialist family became an atheist, fascist, dictator.
13th June: Mary gave us an incite to Conan Doyle and his alter ego Sherlock Holmes
20th June. John Phillips talked about Izambard Kingdom Brunel and his less well known father Marc Brunel. Such a creative pair of minds! John was enthusiastic and obviously inspired by the subject making his talk informative and entertaining.
27th June. Bruce gave us a well researched and thought provoking talk on the Trials of OZ
4th July. NORA's 100th Birthday! She was born in 1916, so we had speakers talking on 'The Battle of the Somme'; Fashion in Nora's lifetime, from 'flappers to Punk'; John Phillips had produced a CD of Nora's favourite song - so we sang along to 'We'll meet again'! Then Birthday cake and Bucks Fizz!
11th July. A meeting of three halves! The first half was an informative talk by Mamood Jalil on the life and works of Henri Matisse including the Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence. The second half was given by Brenda Middleton our Art Group coordinator on the subject of Art Deco which she clearly loves. The third half was our summer lunch - see Social Events Page.
AUTUMN TERM
5th September. An interesting morning! Members brought poetry and music that had special memories for them. We enjoyed a poem in broad Scot's dialect, Tony Hancock, Jazz, Gilbert and Sullivan, Beethoven, Alexander Armstrong singing 'Summertime', Fascinating Aida, and a beautiful version of a Beatles' song by a member's daughter on violin with her trio. In all two hours of excellent entertainment. A really enjoyable morning!
12th September. Doug managed to be on holiday! So Vera gave us an introduction into this term's theme - THE AMERICAS - and then read out Doug's bit! It was all very well received, so much so that I have decided to research about, and then give a talk about the Alamo and another on the Shakers! (It's addictive once you get into it!)
19th September. This morning we heard about Bill Bryson. How he fell in love with both this country and a lady that was born here! An entertaining talk followed by an episode of the BBC series on 'Notes from a small island'
26th September. John gave us a talk on the life and works of W H Auden, interspersed with readings from his works. It was interesting to hear of Auden's younger days in Solihull, where he loved to watch the trains - possibly inspiration for 'Night Mail!'
3rd October. This morning we had our first talk on our theme of the Americas. Alistair gave a talk on the history of Mexico from the native Coahuiltecan people through the Myans, the Incas, the Spanish, the Mexican Civil War, the Mexico Olympics, up to the present day. WOW!
cliff pueblos
10th October. An outside speaker! Chris Hodrien gave us an illustrated talk about the Anasazi - Ancient Native Americans who occupied Arizona before the time of the Navajo and Hopi Tribes. An interesting civilisation who built towns under overhangs in cliff pueblos and then simply vanished!
17th October. This morning we were treated to three 30 minute illustrated talks by members of our ART GROUP Firstly, Josie talked to us about the Glasgow Boys, pioneering painters between 1880 and 1900. Then Mamdooh spoke about Fauvism - in the style of Les Fauves or Wild Beasts, a group of artists led by Henri Matisse. Finally, Brenda introduced us to how groups of people feature in many great pictures, for example Leonardo's 'Last Supper' shows the twelve Apostles, not in a line, but in groups of three....Enlightening!
October 24th.
Members enjoyed a very different sort of presentation today. To mark the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death , the play reading group treated us to a performance of readings from Shakespeare. The readings were cleverly selected by Lynette Braid so that even if you knew nothing about Shakespeare, by the end of the morning you had a good grasp of the plot of 5 very different plays. The readings were accompanied by music from composers inspired by each play.
October 31st.
This morning Adam gave a talk on his hero Robert Fitzroy who was Captain of the Beagle on Darwin's epic voyage. A gifted man with a temper! A hero of meteorology , who was finally driven to suicide by cutting his own throat! (a good story for Halloween!) The lying statistician who was key in Fitzroy's fall from fashion was Francis Galton, yes, the same man that introduced eugenics. That is enough to make him a villain in my book.
November 7th
Now this is difficult! Why? Because Penny and I gave the talk about her Teacher Exchange year in America!
Needless to say it was outstanding! No, really!
We had the most wonderful year, and it was a pleasure sharing it with the members this morning.
November 14th
Buster Keaton! What a genius. We enjoyed watching him in 'The General'. A historic film made in 1926 which had the most expensive stunt of the silent film era, when a steam locomotive was driven over a burning bridge and crashed into the river below. Today it would be done with smoke and mirrors!
November 21st
This morning we had an excellent and well presented talk by Fiona Joseph (An outside speaker)
Fiona is a Birmingham based author and speaker
Everyone has heard of Cadbury’s chocolate, but what happened to the men and women of Bournville at the time of the first world war? Fiona gave us an entertaining insight into her research for her new novel, 'Comforts for the troops', and how the Cadbury family, with their Quaker faith and the women factory workers supplied comforts to their men at war- even organising a lending library to the men at the front!
28th November
Richard III - hero or villain?
Irene gave us a most interesting talk on the two year reign of Richard III and the years that led up to it. Was he the tyrant depicted by Shakespeare? Did he kill the Princes in the Tower, or was he a good king in difficult times. In the end we voted that he was better than history has painted him. Also, were the Princes actually murdered? Irene showed a painting full of hidden meaning which could show one of them alive and well as a young man. Thanks also go to Vera for helping Irene prepare the PowerPoint presentation. A most enjoyable morning.
5th December
This morning's talk was on the Americas Theme.
John and Janet told us about Peru, its history and people and the amazing Machu Picchu as well as how to eat a Piranha! After coffee we watched a video Janet took showing the places they had talked about. Very interesting, with questions afterwards, it was a surprise how many of our members had been to Peru!
12th December
Monday morning at the movies!
Mamdooh introduced a TV movie called 'Page Eight' which was written and directed by David Hare. Based around MI5, this spooks movie was full of intrigue. With actors like Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon and Rachel Weiss giving a flawless performance we all thoroughly enjoyed it.
19th December
This morning was a cornucopia of delight!
We had a wonderful performance from our Hand Bell ringing Group (See Christmas Handbells Photo), together with carols and members giving readings and performances (See Nativity picture), interspersed with appalling jokes from our compere, Alistair.
A really enjoyable way to end our year. THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE ON THE 9th JANUARY 2017.