Graham Snowdon When Dennis Ashton last came to speak to us, just over five years ago, his subject was dog sled racing in Alaska, where he also witnessed a superb auroral display which probably gave him the inspiration for his latest talk. Dennis, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, kept us enthralled for an hour with … Read more
Most of our members had read Catherine Bailey’s fascinating book Black Diamonds, the Rise and Fall of an English Dynasty, which maps the history of coal mining in South Yorkshire and the downfall of the Fitzwilliam family. So it was with great anticipation that we gathered at Wentworth Woodhouse – formerly Britain’s largest private residence, … Read more
We all knew how it would finish, of course, but Peter Stubbs kept us enthralled to the very end of the second part of his talk on the War at Sea, 1914 to 1918. Peter briefly recapped on his previous week’s talk, when we left the British Navy and the British public in good spirits … Read more
The title of this talk was in the form of a question which I could have partly answered before the meeting, having watched our Lib Dem councillor Cliff Woodcraft trudging round the neighbourhood in all weathers, at all hours, delivering party political flyers and newsletters. Whatever your political persuasion, there could be no doubting this … Read more
THE Clipper Race, first held in 1996-97 and the brainchild of solo round-the-world yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, is contested by 12 identical yachts, each with a professional skipper but crewed by a combined total of 700 amateur sailors. Martin Greenshields is very much one of the amateurs. Before embarking on this 10,000 nautical mile … Read more
Peter’s talk and slide presentation was more a look at Greek mythology than the Trojan Wars themselves. In fact, he conceded, it is almost certainly a myth that the Trojan Wars ever happened. The jury is still out on whether there is any historical reality behind the wars, and if so how much. The ancient … Read more