Record Number: 30677

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at Frensham. 22nd June 1943
H. R. Smith in the chair
1. The first part of the meeting was spent most happily in the Frensham garden. [...]

2. We adjourned indoors & the minutes of last meeting were read, corrected & signed.

[...]

6. ‘Distant Point’ a translation from the Russian Play by Afinogenev was then read. In this F. E. Pollard was a somewhat timid and bewildered stationmaster, Margaret Dilks his huntin’ shootin’ gold-digging wife, and Elsie Harrod, their very high spirited daughter. The latter two, being no doubt, largely responsible for the timidity & bewilderment of the former. Then there was Kenneth Nicholson as the linesman who wanted to get on, Isabel Taylor as his very beautiful wife who with their small son he feared would cramp his style. S. A. Reynolds was switchman and father-in-law to the linesman. A. B. Dilks was the Telegraph operator – a mixture of poet, musician & inventor. Roger Moore read with keen insight the part of the 2nd linesman who was a drunken sot with a past. Out of the railway coach marooned at this station, came H. R. Smith as a Commander in the Far Eastern Russian army, Muriel Stevens as his wife, & Arnold Joselin as his Aide-de-camp. Rosamund Wallis read the stage directions and battled nobly with the Russian names. The write-up on the cover of this book said that this play shows the Russians laughing at themselves, & this would seem as good a way as any of summing it up.

[signed as a true record by] F. E. Pollard 4. IX. 43. [at the club meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue: see Minute Book, p. 158]'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

22 Jun 1943

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: Frensham, Northcourt Avenue

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Francis E. Pollard

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1872

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Formerly schoolmaster, now occasional lecturer and supply teacher, and supported also by wife's unearned income

Religion:

Quaker or associated with the Friends

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Aleksandr Afinogenov

Title:

Distant Point

Genre:

Drama

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

30677

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Margaret Dilks

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

155–158

Additional Information:

Margaret Dilks was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1940 to 1970. It is inferred from this, and from the handwriting, that she was the author of this set of minutes.

Citation:

Margaret Dilks, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 155–158, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30677, accessed: 03 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

Material by kind permission of the XII Book Club. For further information and permission to quote this source, contact the Reading Experience Database (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php).