Category: Clubs & Societies

Book Club, Gardening Club, Horticultural Society, Short Mat TN22 Clubs, Variety Club.

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Hadlow Down Book Club Review for July 2022

‘What makes us who we are’

It is rare that everyone really loves a chosen book, but this month we were unanimous in our enjoyment of the Scottish Poet Laureate, Jackie Kaye’s memoir Red Dust Road (2010). Jackie’s birth father was Nigerian, and her mother came from the Highlands of Scotland, but she was the adoptive daughter of Helen and John Kaye, leading figures of the Scottish Communist Party. They gave her a warm loving upbringing but when Jackie herself became pregnant the found the need to find her birth parents became overwhelming. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review for July 2022”

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The Rude Mechanicals – Gods and Dogs

Gods and Dogs, Hadlow Down Cricket Field, Thursday 16th June at 7.30pm

This new comic dystopian allegory is set in 2084 on the fictitious island of Abatina in a world where people are either glamorous celebrities or slobbering dog-like followers of them gripped to their telepafones – with the exception of the Nevnops (Not Very Nice People) as the President, Big Al, calls them. The story follows Tina who enters ‘Marriage Maker’, a ‘telepavision’ gameshow. The idea of the game is if you win you get to marry the super-glamorous footballer, Harry Best, on the Saturday, have a weekend of love, then divorce him on the Monday. ‘All the fun & no ties!’ as the compere, Rich Nobb, puts it. Unfortunately, Tina makes the mistake of falling in love when she wins & doesn’t want to divorce. Doreen, her best friend, has her own opinion, but then she might be a Nevnop & the Mind Police might get to her first & send her to the wolves on the ‘Other Side’ – a dangerous world over ‘the mountain’ where the inhabitants of Abatina, according to Big Al, must not go, with dangerous free-thinkers & wolves that might get them.
Booking details etc.
https://www.therudemechanicaltheatre.co.uk/book-tickets/

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Driftwood Gardens Visit

Those wanting to join the Hadlow Down Horticultural Society car trip to the remarkable Driftwood Gardens on Thursday 16th. June need to let Heather Mines know by Saturday 11th.
May be an image of flower, tree and outdoors
The inclusive price for entrance and reputedly excellent refreshments is £11.50. Please contact Heather at heathermines2@hotmail.com or on 07974204231 to confirm.
All meet at the gardens located at 4, Marine Drive Seaford BN25 2RS at 10.30 am.
An article about the gardens from BBC Gardeners World Magazine can be viewed at
http://www.geoffstonebanks.co.uk/media/gwmay2021.pdf
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Hadlow Down Book Club Review – June 2022

‘I live my life in widening circles/ that reach out across the world’ Rilke

Our book this month was one of the Mann Booker short-listed books, Great Circle (2021), by Maggie Shipstead, also short-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2022. Referred to as ‘a ride of a book’, it was at times exhilarating although the book club’s members sometimes found it to be a rather bumpy ride. It was an ambitious novel on a grand scale, spanning a full century and the entire planet. Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – June 2022”

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Move Some Chairs and Make Someone’s Day!

The Hadlow Down community has a long established reputation for friendliness and geniality.  Although there are always opportunities to  be involved in different ways with various village projects and activities a current opportunity is available to join the group of great people who believe that being a real ‘villager’ is more than just having an address in the area and want to be a part of the village proper by just giving a small amount of time each week to be involved in the reputation.
The TN22 Club is a charitable organisation providing meals and entertainment for older members of the community on Wednesdays in the Village Hall.  An able-bodied person (or persons) is needed to help set out the chairs and tables which usually takes less than one hour in the mornings at 8.30 am. and to put them away again at 2pm or 4pm (alternating weeks) that takes about 30 minutes.
It’s a great way of meeting others who give something to the village of which they are part.   Just turn up at 8.30 am on a Wednesday to get involved

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H D Book Club Review – Anything is Possible

Anything is possible. No one understands how far you can push your body to the limit and I like to play with that’ (Walt Disney)

About three years ago we read My name is Lucy Barton  by Elizabeth Strout (2016), a novel about a now successful writer beginning to come to terms with her deprived and abusive childhood through conversations with her mother as Lucy lies severely ill in hospital. This month’s book Anything is Possible (2017) follows that novel, but is in the form of a series of interconnected stories about characters from Lucy’s rural hometown of Amgash Illinois.
Continue reading “H D Book Club Review – Anything is Possible”

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HS Spring Supper Talk

The Spring Supper Talk
is next Wednesday 13th. April 6.30 pm for 7.00pm
‘From City Courtyard to Seaside Sanctuary’
Speaker: Geoff Stonebanks
Tickets are limited to 40 but there are still some left. Please contact Kathy Cracknell by email or phone 01825 830616 ASAP if you wish to enjoy this village evening of an excellent meal, glass of wine and an extremely interesting illustrated talk on a very special Sussex garden.
£8 each members only.
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Hadlow Down Book Club Review – April

‘A lot of women are really strong, even though they are slaves.’
Celestial Bodies iby Jonka Alharti

Some months ago we read Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger, a detailed factual account of his travels and relationships with the Bedouin tribesmen across the desert and is entirely about the men. Our February book was one that redressed the balance being about three generations of Omani women in a period of transition from patriarchy to living in an oil-rich Gulf state. Celestial Bodies is by Jonka Alharti, published in 2010 and winner of the Man Booker International prize in 2019, the first Omani writer to be translated into English.

Continue reading “Hadlow Down Book Club Review – April”