Hadlow Down Book Club Review – November 2023
Black Butterflies Priscilla Morris 2023
‘Have you ever heard of such a thing? A human chain to rescue books, a moment of coming together, of resistance.’
Our book this month has particular poignancy in view of what is happening in the world right now. Priscilla Morris’s novel, shortlisted for the Women’s Prize tells the story of the siege of Sarajevo, based on real-life incidents and experiences from her own family.
Zora Kokovic is an artist and Professor of Art at the University of Sarajevo where she lives with her husband Franjo and cares for her 83-year-old mother. As unrest grows, Franjo and her mother leave to stay with her daughter who lives in England, but Zora decides to stay in her beloved city to finish her painting and join them later. She believes that things will soon settle down and that the tanks gathering in the mountains are for their protection.
Despite difficulties, Zora begins to enjoy her solitude and focus on her recent painting. But soon things worsen, as conflict turns into full scale war. Buildings are shelled, people lie dead in the streets; food, water and electricity become scarce and then vanish. Zora is reduced to catching pigeons on her windowsill and cooking them. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – November 2023”
SUMMER BOOK CLUB REVIEW
In August the Book Club always takes a break and members read their own choice of book and bring back recommendations to the group. We certainly had a diverse and interesting selection and I for one can’t wait to start reading some of them.
To start with some vintage World War novels, ‘Death of a Hero’ (1929) was written by Richard Aldington and based on his own first-hand experience of World War 1. It is sometimes considered the greatest of all novels about that War and makes a scalding critique of those pre-war voices that helped to make that global catastrophe inevitable. It is that very anger that made this a fascinating read. Nigel Balchin was a psychologist, a writer and deputy scientific adviser to the Army Council. Like Aldington he writes from first-hand knowledge in ‘Darkness Falls from the Air’ (1942) a vivid account of living through the blitz and ‘Small Back Room’ (1943) a story of the backroom boys. Of their time, they are readable, informative and vivid. Continue reading “SUMMER BOOK CLUB REVIEW”
Race Night Postponed
“Race Night” in aid of Engage TN22 Clubs has been postponed.
The new date for your diaries is Saturday 27th January 2024.
Thank you so much to everyone that has supported the event to date.
If you would like to book tickets and or get involved by sponsoring a race or by buying some horses, please contact
Peter on 01825 830009
H D Hort. Soc. Supper Talk
Hadlow Down Book Club Review – August ’23
Life doesn’t have a narrator – it’s full of lies and half-truths – so we never know anything for sure, not really. I like that” The Temptation of Forgiveness Donna Leon (2018).“
We decided to read something lighter this month, and chose Trace Elements (2020), by Donna Leon. No doubt some of you will be familiar with her long-running series, set in Venice and featuring the Commissario (Detective Superintendent) Guido Brunetti, his wife Paola and his team in the Questura (police headquarters). Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – August ’23”
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Horticultural Society Annual Show Schedule 2023
View or Download the Annual Horticultural Society Show Schedule with Entry Form from here:
Hort. Soc. Schedule 2023
Hadlow Down Drama and Variety Club Programme
Hadlow Down Book Club Review – July
This month we have been reading The Dance Tree by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (2022). Recommended by BBC2’s ‘Between the Covers’, we found it to somewhat of a ‘Marmite’ book.
It is set during the real-life dancing mania of 1518 in Strasbourg when hundreds of women joined in a dance, without stopping despite hunger and bleeding feet, part of a mania that occurred in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It is narrated through the eyes of Lisbet, a farmer’s wife heavily with her thirteenth child, having lost the previous twelve. The whole region is suffering from famine due to the drought and the blistering hot summer. It is also suffering from the oppression of a tyrannical Authority controlled by a corrupt and powerful Church. Lisbet is in a loveless marriage and desperate to bear this baby successfully. She is a lonely figure surrounded by mysteries – what sin was her sister-in-law Agnethe guilty of that she was sent away to a monastery for seven years and has now returned emaciated and with a scarred shaven head? Why is Ida, Lisbet’s best friend behaving so oddly? Why is Sophe her mother-in-law so grim? Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – July”