Record Number: 31601

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at Oakdene, Northcourt Avenue 7.iv.41
S. A. Reynolds in the chair.

1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and signed.

[...]

3. Margaret Dilks read a brief biographical sketch of J. M. Barrie. Her facts were challenged by some members as was her Scots pronunciation by others, but admitting her ignorance she pleaded that the task had been a difficult one as Barrie’s biography by Denis Mackail was not published until the day before this meeting. Barrie’s life was on the whole a lucky one, crowned early with success, his one real dissapointment being the failure of his last play “The Boy David”. But his writings were not those of a man well content with life & the world as it is – for though they are amusing they are also very pointed.

4. It was a very great pleasure to us that Janet Rawlings’ short stay in Reading should coincide with a book-club meeting, & her reading from “My Lady Nicotine” was much enjoyed. It should be mentioned that the passage was not selected by the reader, but by Mr. Pollard. For in an entertaining forward Janet explained that being in doubt as to what to read she took her troubles to F. E. Pollard, as she so often does – with what happy result in this case at least we were able to judge for ourselves.

5. Alice Joselin made some comments on “Peter Pan” which were followed by a reading by Mary Stansfield from “The Little White Bird”., an early book which contains the episode of Peter Pan. In view of the very evident enjoyment with which we devoted the whole of our last meeting to childrens literature, it was strange that so many condemned Peter Pan as too grown up for children and too mawkish for adults. In fact, as she finished the reading, Mary Stansfield pronounced it “Utter Twaddle”.

[...]

[Signed as a true record by] A. G. Joselin
5 May 1941'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

5 May 1941

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: 72, Shinfield Road

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Arnold Joselin

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Margaret Dilks

Title:

Minutes of the meeting of the XII Book Club held 7 April 1941

Genre:

Minutes

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Notebook

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

reading group

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Source Information:

Record ID:

31601

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Margaret Dilks

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

92–96

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, 92–96, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=31601, accessed: 14 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

This is the reading, possibly brief and cursory, implied by the Chair's act of signing these minutes. It probably followed immediately after listening to the public reading of the minutes by the Secretary.
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).