Thank you to all who have supported our Zoom Speaker Meetings during the first half of the year. Now we are pleased to say:
In person Speaker Meetings are back!
The following dates have been confirmed and will take place at Aughton Village Hall at 11.15 am on the dates shown.
Thursday 19th August: Carolyn Kirby: Women with Wings – the background to Carolyn’s latest novel.
Carolyn Kirby
Many of you will remember Carolyn Kirby, who spoke to us in 2019 about the background to her first book, The Conviction of Cora Burns. Carolyn will be speaking to us in person on Thursday 19th August, on 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 this year.
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.
Dates for your diary – all in person at AVH:
On Thursday 7th October at 11.15 am writer Martin Lloyd will be joining us. The title of his talk is Passports, Assassins, Traitors and Spies, a dramatic account of how the actions of a group of assassins brought about a change in the passport regulations; how the unmasking of a spy caused a modification in passport design and how, for one man, the passport itself turned into a killer.
The Passport, the History of Man’s Most Travelled Document, that he uncovered the three interesting stories which he will be presenting in his talk, Passports, Assassins, Traitors and Spies.
Thursday 4th November Philip Caine From Barrow to Baghdad (More details nearer the time).
Please keep an eye on newsletters, enews and website for the latest information.
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.