Twyford 2013

A varied programme for our Twyford day started with John Statham's talk on "Animals in First World War Poetry". John had found some extraordinary and moving stories of the trench dogs, their lives and deaths. This was followed by Selwyn North with "Biggles Goes Round the World". Using "Biggles, Charter Pilot", Selwyn described the story, and we had to try to remember in which part of the world the adventure took place. He had a large map, and stuck stickers on it to represent Biggles' whereabouts. This really did cover the world, but we did wonder how the Vandal could cover so much ground! In "Goslings, Widgeons and Clouds", Dermot Lyons tried to identify some pictures, and much thought had gone into his efforts. Then Ross Williams talked on "Book Selling, Book Collecting, and the Recession." He thought that the hikes in postage, particularly the last one that took effect this month, would mean it was no longer worth while selling lower priced books on Ebay for many sellers. There are, however, some sellers who sell very large numbers of books and get much reduced postage, and they are in a better position to take advantage of this change.

After lunch, Sarita Ashar spoke about "Biggles in India and the Orient." Sarita's Father had held a position in India similar to that of Biggles' Father.  She visited Garwhal recently and had returned with some very beautiful photographs and a movie of the area, and showed us atmospheric pictures of the false dawn, and tigers!  (Sarita tells me most of the pictures and movie were taken on an i-phone! although some - of tigers - were from the National Parks.)

Frances-Mary Pratt spoke about "Crazy Aviation", of which there is a lot in the Biggles books! John Lester spoke on "Two Bouts of Adventure" ("Adventure Bound" and "Adventure Unlimited"), and Richard Whittle on "My Favourite Johns Hero", who turned out to be Steeley. Dermot Lyons reminded us that we need to continue supporting BFA. He had also found some copies of the picture of Biggles' centenary that had been a free giveaway with the July 1999 issue of BFA. These are now available for sale, please contact us for details.  Joy Tilley had produced two quizzes, one of which was (as usual!) fiendish!

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