Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.

Present: Ian, Jenny (chair & minutes), Jonathan, Michele.

Apologies: Adele, Gill, Harry, John, Kaz, Laura, Lesley, Pip.

Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.

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Members’ Readings

Michele — read a further instalment of her novel in-progress: The Undesirables, set in Southern Africa during the Boer War, 1898-1902. 
The War has ended and Finn has returned to his home in Scotland, where he has the hard task of telling his parents about his new post in South Africa, and his old girlfriend Morag about Anna. Morag takes it badly. Finn’s parents accept the situation, but are determined to be present at the wedding of their only son, assuming Finn marries Anna.
Anna’s ailing mother Jeanette has died, and Anna has buried her in the camp graveyard. She returns to the farm, where everything needs building anew, alas on a smaller scale. Her father loses himself in farm work, knowing that the three women share secrets about camp life he cannot be party to.
Anna cannot settle back into farm life and wants to return to nursing at the hospital where Finn has his post. She eventually finds the opportunity to tell her father, who gives her his blessing.
A deep discussion ensued about the hardships of postwar recovery, not only of the Boers, but of England post-WWII – a Pyrrhic victory for the UK, Ireland post-Cromwell, and Scotland after the Highland Clearances.

Jonathan — read a sonnet: Recycling the Holy, lamenting the open sale in antiques shops of religious regalia and statues. The poem has won 1st prize in a competition set by the SPCSW Author magazine.

Ian — read a further instalment from his uncle’s book, Chota Sahib, recalling when the author was a box-wallah (travelling salesman) in India between 1913-1916. The hero is travelling out to India to take up a post with Gore & Co., Bombay. His cabin-mate turns out to be an alcoholic ship’s doctor with a libertine lifestyle, travelling out east to take up an unenvied posting, else “face The Boot”.

The meeting closed at 12:50 PM.