the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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Cecil Roberts : And So to Bath

'I am reading a lovely book "And so to Bath" by Cecil Roberts. I must try to get it at home next hols.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding      Print: Book

Edric Cecil Mornington Roberts : 

'Your R.A.F. paper is very good [...].'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      

Cecil Roberts : A Tale of Young Lovers: A Tragedy in Four Acts

'I wonder what you think of my long silence after the receipt of your play ["A Tale of Young Lovers", late May]? I was just fiinishng a novel and putting off looking at the play deliberately. [...] Let me at once congratulate you affectionately on the charm and skill and beauty that is in your work.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Conrad      Print: Book, playscript

Cecil Roberts : And so to Bath

'Meeting held at Frensham, Northcourt Avenue. 13th Sept. 1940
    Howard R. Smith in the Chair.
[...]
7. F. E. Pollard commenced the main business of the evening. This was to consist of readings of passages from books we had read during the year. F. E. was sorry but he was afraid he had read nothing recently which was intellectually suitable for the Club. (Cheers) He would however read from The Mill on the Floss. This proved to be a diverting dissertation on the Commercial Traveller who seems to have altered little since George Eliot’s day except in the article for sale for vacuum cleaners were conspicuous by their absence.
8. “The Seven Chars of Chelsea” by Celia Fremlin was the choice of Dorothea Taylor who warned us that it was an impalatable book. She must have read from the more tasty portions for we were entertained by the Margretian Charic conversation conversation which took place among the other six when the author joined their ranks and by the description of a very tasty cup of tea. Dr Taylor finished with a more serious passage on the difficulty of mistress and maid belonging to two completely different worlds.
9. Muriel Stevens read us a descriptive passage from “The Countryman”. We found that one should live in Corsica to appreciate the punctuality of our G.P.O.
10. Our adventurous evening took an astronomical turn while we heard from Howard Smith of the Herschels at Slough, their 40 foot telescope and the discovery of the planet Uranus. This was from Cecil Robert’s book “And so to Bath.”
11. Violet Clough then brought us nearer home by way of China in several extracts from “Four Part Setting” by Ann Bridges.
12. A. B. Dilks recommended us to read some or all of The Bases of Modern Science by J. W. W. Sullivan, published in the Pelican Series at 6d.
13. Rosamund Wallis found her bookmark more interesting than her book and read us an entertaining but pathetic letter from a refugee now in New York. His subject was the interesting one of the R[h]ythm of Glass Washing in [an] American Hotel.

[signed by:] R. D. L. Moore
Oct. 18. 1940.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith      Print: Book

Cecil Roberts : And so to Bath

'Meeting held at Frensham, Northcourt Avenue. 13th Sept. 1940
Howard R. Smith in the Chair.
[...]
7. F. E. Pollard commenced the main business of the evening. This was to consist of readings of passages from books we had read during the year. F. E. was sorry but he was afraid he had read nothing recently which was intellectually suitable for the Club. (Cheers) He would however read from The Mill on the Floss. This proved to be a diverting dissertation on the Commercial Traveller who seems to have altered little since George Eliot’s day except in the article for sale for vacuum cleaners were conspicuous by their absence.
8. “The Seven Chars of Chelsea” by Celia Fremlin was the choice of Dorothea Taylor who warned us that it was an impalatable book. She must have read from the more tasty portions for we were entertained by the Margretian Charic conversation conversation which took place among the other six when the author joined their ranks and by the description of a very tasty cup of tea. Dr Taylor finished with a more serious passage on the difficulty of mistress and maid belonging to two completely different worlds.
9. Muriel Stevens read us a descriptive passage from “The Countryman”. We found that one should live in Corsica to appreciate the punctuality of our G.P.O.
10. Our adventurous evening took an astronomical turn while we heard from Howard Smith of the Herschels at Slough, their 40 foot telescope and the discovery of the planet Uranus. This was from Cecil Robert’s book “And so to Bath.”
11. Violet Clough then brought us nearer home by way of China in several extracts from “Four Part Setting” by Ann Bridges.
12. A. B. Dilks recommended us to read some or all of The Bases of Modern Science by J. W. W. Sullivan, published in the Pelican Series at 6d.
13. Rosamund Wallis found her bookmark more interesting than her book and read us an entertaining but pathetic letter from a refugee now in New York. His subject was the interesting one of the R[h]ythm of Glass Washing in an American Hotel.

[signed by:] R. D. L. Moore
Oct. 18. 1940.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Howard Smith      Print: Book

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