A wonderful talk given by Caroline’s sister. Once again digitally. We leant about the fascinating behaviours and dancing displayed by birds.

Tonight’s meeting was once again held via zoom. We all wore or showed our favourite clothes. We heard some wonderful stories about handmade and couture gowns, wedding dresses, vintage jackets, old t-shirts and designer blouses.

A virtual Yoga and Pilates session with Raquel. We set our yoga mats up with our laptops and practised some yoga positions.

Our first virtual meeting after the lockdown started. We had some fun showing and guessing some eggs and wooden spoons that we previously dressed up as characters.

Using scrap fabrics and a bit of stuffing Diana Darrer showed us how to make very beautiful and practical pin cushions.

We had an active session of hula hooping with Maz. We learnt how to correctly control the hula hoop on our waists, and even on our arms!

Here is some extra information from Maz about hula hooping:

HoopTone classes:

https://www.playtone.co.uk/

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hooptone-at-regents-place-tickets-94602477557

Buy your own hoop

https://www.iwanttogotoparadise.com/everything-else/the-ultimate-travel-hoop;9295 (These are the travel hoops we sell. This is an American site, but we have them in the UK too, £35 each + P&P)

Video tutorials by Marawa the Amazing (my troupe leader):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T87faZM0Mng&list=PLNX3-uBhYU-0TPuGUosHSbrufu_zE9PBo

https://www.amazihoops.com/

Photos by Tasha Best.

Christmas party hosed by Louise. We had a best socks/slippers competition, and everyone brought some food and drink to share.

This week we had out Anual Meeting. We would like to say a big thank you to our WI adviser Yvette, who made sure we followed all the protocols.

We have elected some new committee members and are looking forward to what our new year has to bring.

After the administrative part of the evening, we enjoyed a quiz put on by Denise. The winning team won pens as prizes.

Tonight we welcomed Persephone Books founder Nicola Beauman. Nicola told us about how and why she started Persephone Books,  a publishers that reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid-twentieth century (mostly) women writers.

The company was founded in 1998, but really took of in the year 2000, thanks to their publication of “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” by Winifred Watson. It was just luck, thanks to a window display put on by Daunt books in their Marylebone shop. In 2008 “Miss Pettigew Lives for a Day” was made into a fantastic film.

Book cover from the Classic Collection.

What makes Persephone Books so special?

Not only is every title chosen with inspiration and care, but the design and printing process of these books is very well thought through.

Most of the book covers are grey because as Nicola put it “well – we really like grey”. The books from the Classic Collection have illustrated covers.

The books don’t contain blurbs, just quotes and a short biography of the author. Each book also has a beautiful end paper and bookmark which dates back to the publication date of the original book.

The books are printed and bound in Germany using a type of binding called “dispersion binding” which means that the books will lie flat – making it super comfortable to read,

The end paper to “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day” From: http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/

We thoroughly enjoyed our time with Nicola. To find out more about Persephone Books visit their website, or pop into their shop for a cup of tea and a chat: 59 Lamb’s Conduit Street, London WC1N 3NB.