Speaker Meetings are back!
The following dates have been confirmed – these meetings will all take place via Zoom, for Aughton & Ormskirk u3a members, at 11 am on the date shown. Put the dates in your diary and email speakerteam@aughton-ormskirk-u3a.co.uk to register your interest, including a phone number please. I will send you the meeting codes in due course.
If you don’t feel comfortable using Zoom, help is at hand! Follow this link to see what’s available: Zoom Support Page
Note: Some devices have trouble linking directly to your email using links on our website such as the above. In this case, just load your email app and copy or type the address into the To field and carry on with your reservation.
3rd June Fool’s Gold: Musical duo Steve and Carol Robson present ‘Dark Light’.
8th July Carolyn Kirby: Women with Wings – the background to Carolyn’s latest novel.
On Thursday 6th May an appreciative Zoom audience enjoyed a fascinating and informative talk by John Whittles on Red Mason Bees. John told us how for many years farmers had been relying on imported bees to pollinate their fruit crops, due to the low numbers of native species. MasonBees.co.uk was originally a pollination service for farmers and growers, but has now developed into an educational enterprise designed to encourage us all to use our gardens and green spaces to create homes for solitary bees, which represent 90% of the bee population. We heard about the life-cycle of the Red Mason Bee which spans only 6-8 weeks in Springtime, and how the use of simple, specially designed equipment can greatly improve the chances of success, and so increase the declining numbers of bees.You can find out more about these essential insects and their lifecycle on John’s website :masonbees.co.uk.
Carol and Steve Robson
On Thursday 3rd June we will be entertained by Fool’s Gold, alias Carol and Steve Robson. Carol and Steve have been performing their unique shows for some while – long enough to rack up over 1000 performances which have been delivered to audiences all over the UK. Since the pandemic began, they have adapted their performances so that they can be delivered very effectively via Zoom.
Steve and Carol write:
Dark Light is the new Fool’s Gold zoom show for 2021. It has been created as a wholly new show specifically for Zoom using some of the clever functions available to build a fascinating and creative show. This time we have connected the songs to one story: a fascinating mystery based on a wholly true history from 1900 … and it’s amazing how many songs of the time that you will know, smile, and sing!
Many of you will remember Carolyn Kirby, who spoke to us last year about the background to her first book, The Conviction of Cora Burns. Carolyn will be speaking to us via Zoom on Thursday 8th July on
Carolyn Kirby
the subject of the background to her new book, When We Fall. A gripping second world war thriller, When We Fall was chosen by The Times and Sunday Times as one of the ten best historical novels of 2020, and is due to be re-launched in the spring.
Carolyn says: “This illustrated talk tells the story of how I came to write When We Fall through the lives and careers of four female pilots of World War II.
The original inspiration for my novel lay with the amazing airwomen of Air Transport Auxiliary who overcame many barriers to fly warplanes from factories to RAF airfields during the war. My talk will focus on three of these women, including Amy Johnson, highlighting the glamour, excitement and daily dangers they faced in the skies above wartime Britain.
Flying in even more perilous skies was the Polish air force pilot, Janina Lewandowska, the real life character who is at the heart of the fictional story of When We Fall.
Janina was a pioneering aviator and the only female victim of the notorious 1940 massacres of Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet Union at Katyn – the real event that underpins my novel.
Using photographs and visuals, I will explain how, over more than ten years of writing, my novel was shaped by the lives and fates of these remarkable women.”
The talk will be followed by an audience Q & A and a chance to buy a signed copy of the novel.
Full details will be published nearer the time, but in the meantime, if you are interested in watching any of these talks, please email speakerteam@aughton-ormskirk-u3a.co.uk, and I will send you the links in due course.
I will post further updates as and when I am able to confirm them.
Pam Ball
See Pam’s Past Speaker Meetings for info on previous events.
Please email any ideas for Future Speaker Meetings to Pam Ball, our Speaker Meeting Organiser, at:
speakerteam@aughton-ormskirk-u3a.co.uk or phone 07974 749362.