Nevil Shute Symposium 2018.
The Symposium has been - and gone. It was a most successful event,
very well organised by Laura Schneider, helped by members of the
local Shute book group and the Dartmouth Club of the Upper Valley.
More than 60 people attended over the weekend, including Beall
Fowler and Robert Wester, who have participated in all 10 of our
international events. It The symposium was based at the prestigious
Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire from April 13th to 15th.
It began on Friday evening with a Welcome Reception in the beautiful
Paganucci Lounge where old friendships were renewed, and new ones
made, over drinks and refreshments.
The venue on Saturday and Sunday was a comfortable lecture room in
Moore Hall on the Dartmouthcampus. After a welcome, including from
Heather Mayfield, Nevil Shute's older daughter, there followed
presentations over the two days, both from veterans of these events
and first-time speakers. The presentations covered all aspects of
Shute's work from the literary to the technical with interesting
discussions along the way.
As ever, we were fortified by excellent refreshments throughout the
day including copious quantities of scones, jam and cream! The
Dartmouth Chapter, our host chapter, provided delicious homemade
baked goods.
The Conference banquet on Saturday evening was at Jesse's Steakhouse
just a few miles from campus. Our after dinner speaker was Alan
Lelchuk, an award-winning writer and Dartmouth Professor.
On Sunday, we concluded with our tradition of people reading
extracts from their favourite Shute books. In the closing remarks,
the inevitable question "where next and when," was asked.
Many thanks to all came from far and near and made it such a special
occasion, in particular to Heather, her daughter Jennifer and two
grandsons David and Kiran.
Details of the schedule are on the website
www.nevilshute.org/USweekend.php
FROM Joost Meulenbroek joost.meulenbroek@mac.com
On April 22 we had our third bookreading in the Netherlands. Eight
people came to the gliderfield Terlet, near Arnhem. Three of these
eight were new, and the youngest participant was only 20 years
young. (Marthe, my daughter)
We had a very good time discussing The Chequer Board, with some side
talks about other books, like A Town Like Alice and The Seafarers.
No new date has been set yet, but the general idea was that we
should continue these bookreadings.
From: Mary Lee maryleedecarli@me.com
Date: 1 April 2018 at 14:14:40 BST
Subject: Remembered book
I am 80 years old. Started reading Shute, as did my
mother, in my early teens. I remember one in which a
pacifist camping on English coast meets German invaders.
He is indifferent until one throws one of his books into
his campfire. Was this one of his stories? If so what
was the title ?
Thanks for your time, MLLD
Charles D. dalsecl@prtel.com writes the
following:
I am not definite, but book could be "Mrs. Miniver",
or "The Moon is Down".
From Nick Yarrow Dmydny@gmail.com I wondered if the newsletter readers, in the UK, are aware of the fairly new TV channel Talking Pictures TV. Landfall was on last night and there have been other films of a similar age and theme to Nevil Shute’ books. >From their website at http://talkingpicturestv.co.uk/ FROM Andrew Kwiatowski alrightythen214@gmail.com A quick article on Viking navigation, a familiar topic for us of course from An Old Captivity. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12026567 |