Winter 11 Featuring: The Buckingham Palace Awards Ceremony ...

NORTH WEST REGION
Liverpool and Merseyside
Henry Tudor with President Elizabeth Steel
and Michael Shankland, Branch Chairman
It was as if Holbein’s portrait of
Henry VIII had stepped out of its
frame at the Walker Gallery and
caught the train to Ormskirk to regale
our September lunch with tortuous
tales of infidelity. Every inch a King,
he helped swell the Rattle Fund thanks
to the efforts of Betty Benson, Patrick
Waite and the Ormskirk crew. Talking
of the Walker Art Gallery, by the time
you read this members, you will have
seen the ‘Wonders of the Walker’
including Henry VIII, Nelson, the
pre- Raphaelites and part of the
Roscoe Collection. In addition many
of you were deeply moved by
Schubert’s Octet at the Philharmonic
Hall which suggests the lunchtime
concerts could become a new tradition
for the branch.
An established tradition of the branch
is the Christmas lunch which was
graced this year by HH Judge Jon
Roberts whose outrageous stories
make me glad not to have crossed wits
with him in court!
In January we can look forward to (or
dread!) Ken Pye’s ‘Bloody History of
Liverpool’. Survivors may buy a
signed copy of his latest book! Next,
Paul Crossey will take us away from all
that to ‘Settings of Beauty: Italian
Cities of Art’. An experienced
international tour guide, art historian
and musician, Paul has forgotten more
than I ever knew about Italy. While
we’re on the subject of memory loss,
in March, Andrew Curran, a
consultant brain specialist will explain
‘How the brain works and how to keep
it working’. Those members who
attend the ESU mace final at
Liverpool Town Hall will have seen
Andrew’s son awarded the prize for
best speaker.
Later in the year Baron Mike Storey
will try to explain ‘What the Lords do
for us!’ and our own Anthony Quinn
will feature in the Athenaeum/ESU
Literary Lunch reading from Half the
Human Race which is published in
paperback in May. He is keen to
discuss themes from the book with us
so please bring lots of questions.
Six Liverpool members attended the
Branches Conference at Cheltenham
in October. It was encouraging to
meet the new Chairman, Dame Mary
Richardson and Director-General,
Peter Kyle and hear of the huge
changes achieved in such a short time
which has given a genuine surge of
energy to the organisation. It was
affirming to hear comments such as
“members are the soul of the
organisation”; “the membership is the
ESU” and, from Dame Mary, “our
values are held in safety by the
members.”
Michael Shankland, Chairman, Liverpool
branch
SOUTH EAST REGION
Annual Literary Lunch at Chartwell
Hugo Vickers
The Duchess of Windsor was brought
back to uneasy life at our annual
Chartwell Literary Luncheon by Hugo
Vickers, author, lecturer and
acknowledged expert on the Royal
Family. The ascent of Wallis Warfield,
born in a humble cottage in
Pennsylvania, to the inner sanctums of
British Royalty is told in his recent
publication, Behind Closed Doors. The
particular value of his story lies in the
detailed and deeply disturbing account
of her last years; perhaps of more
significance is his study of the real
causes of the abdication and of
whether the Duke was unconsciously
seeking to escape from his destiny.
Our members seized their opportunity
to probe our speaker on many aspects
of this constitutional earthquake, now
75 years ago but still capable of
generating passionate debate.
DIALOGUE 49