David Boag - January Speaker
David is a wildlife photographer and the author/photographer of 18 published books. His first book ‘The Kingfisher’ was published in 1982 and contained many unique photographs illustrating the life of this remarkable bird.
He lectures regularly to a variety of natural history, photographic and general interest audiences. He has often spoken at major conferences for organisations such as the National Trust, the RSPB, British Trust for Ornithology and the Royal Photographic Society.
His work has led him to travel in Europe, Australia, Africa and America.
Over the years he has taught photography to photographic degree and wildlife illustration students and has also taught on online courses, of which he is proudest.
He regularly led African camera safari trips to destinations that included Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
He has been a Cruise Ship Speaker for many years now and his talk was very interesting.
David's website with editing by Maggi Bridgman
Susan Howe - February Speaker
Fun, Fluent, Flippant and E-ffervescent
Inspired by her extraordinarily colourful life and passion for history, Susan Howe is an entertaining speaker in demand all over the UK. She has a phenomenal memory for quirky and unusual facts and her talks reflect her exceptional experiences and her love of history as a living and vibrant subject.
What marks her out as different is the funny, individual, conversational way that she speaks, without notes. Her enthusiasm is contagious.
Living West Sussex and Hants/London
From Susan's website
Brian Freeland - March Speaker
Brian’s theatre career started in 1959, direct from National Service, and has taken him to forty-four different countries including three residencies in the Middle East, eight tours of the Indian sub-continent and two circumnavigations of the globe.
He told us many amusing anecdotes about life on the stage years ago. He was drawn into the career by Peter O'Toole and became a trainee stage manager for Moss Empires, which in the 60s included the London Palladium, the Hippodrome and the Victoria Palace. ATV bought the Palladium and the staff were subjected to fingernail checks. He was once told to remove an elderly 'blue' comedian from the stage, to avoid more embarrassment. He worked with Sybil Thorndyke, Noel Coward and Franco Zefirelli amongst many others.
He has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, Scottish Opera, Sadler’s Wells and London Festival Ballet Companies, Nottingham Playhouse, Manchester Library Theatre and Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop Company.
Approaching retirement he has started to ‘branch out’ - directing, writing scripts, and giving talks.
From Brian's website and editing by Maggi Bridgman
April Speaker - Andrew Negus
We were entertained by 'The Weird, the Wild and the Wonderful' part 6 today. Andrew told us how he and his friend, Malcolm, had hitch hiked from France across Europe, sleeping in barns or in fields and seeing all the wonders of the world such as the Acropolis and Knossos in Crete, the home of the minotaur. They were perpetually short of money but made do with such delicacies as figs picked from the trees. In Venice they had to sleep by a canal under a plastic sheet. In the morning, across the bridge they saw a fruit market. The stall holders discarded leftover fruit, which they gave to the adventurers.
While in Greece they met a man they knew as Big Ed. He owned a battered Ford Zephyr and offered them a lift to India. They accepted albeit rather nervously. At a checkpoint Ed stamped his own log book with an old penny! The Turkish officials let him drive through without comment. They saw the walls of Constantinople and stayed in the New Gullhani Hotel which cost 4d a night to sleep on the roof.
They drove overland to Katmandu, making a detour to Troy, of the wooden horse. They also saw where the Gallipoli landings took place and went to Anzac Cove where there are many graves of Australians and New Zealanders.
They travelled through Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, a journey you couldn't make nowadays.
At last they reached Australia, flying into Darwin which had an international airport but only contained a shack where travellers were processed.
Andrew left there with that 'what have I done?' feeling.
Maggi Bridgman
Judy Theobald worked as a newspaper reporter for 30 years, plus magazine editor and BBC radio presenter as well as having been a police officer, freelance writer and theatrical landlady. Not remotely educational or instructive, the talk (with a few poems thrown in) was a fun stroll through a long life of things not having quite worked out as they were meant to. Everyone in the hall laughed a lot - she really was amusing and full of fun. She was the author of the poems - another string to her bow!
After 26 years in the military, Lt Col Jeremy Prescott went on to start the Sacrifice and Remembrance Charity which was set up to help ex military people who were disabled or suffering from combat stress. They have raised £24,000 so far. This has been achieved through the sale and promotion of the red poppies.
Bobbie won the 2008 fiction prize at the National Academy of Writing and the New Delta review Creative Nonfiction Prize 2010. She has worked as a barmaid, mushroom picker, film extra, maths coach, cabinet minister's private secretary, care assistant and volunteer adult literacy teacher as well as in social research and government policy. Her talk was lively, interesting and full of inspiring quotes from other authors, such as 'We should be continually jumping off cliffs and developing wings on the way down' - Kurt Vonnegut.
Jane is an actress and historian with 30 years of experience bringing history to life in museums, theatres, heritage sites and u3a meeting venues! Her talks are stand alone theatrical performances using original and replica objects and costumes to illustrate the talks.
Passports, Assassins, Traitors and Spies was the title of the talk at June's monthly meeting The speaker, Martin Lloyd, had worked for the HM Immigration Service for 24 years. He now appears on television and gives talks on the radio and to groups. He told stories of how three passports have played their influential role in the course of history: an attempted assassination which altered the regulations for issuing passports; the capture of a spy which caused a worldwide modification to the design of the document and for one person the passport itself which turned into a killer.
By popular demand, Andrew Negus came back to us for a 4th time to tell us about his travels in the Far East. The talk was as full of anecdotes and humour as ever and included some adventures such as meeting some Komodo dragons but avoiding being eaten by them! In addition he saw the largest Buddhist temple in the world - the Lotus on the Lake, built in 800 AD. He visited the live volcano Mount Bromo and was offered boiled eggs from a volcanic pool. While he was in Java he was warned not to put any valuables in his trouser pockets because thieves would come and slash the trouser leg just below the pocket, remove your wallet and you wouldn't feel anything until you noticed blood trickling down your leg! Andrew Negus found a way round this by putting a row of safety pins below the pocket. He was not robbed!
Our November speaker was a lifelong amateur performer on the stage and an author of several novels. He was a very entertaining raconteur and kept us smiling throughout his talk.
Andy Kendall, who runs 'Owls About Town' with his wife, Zsi, in Selsey brought several of his owls to our November meeting and it proved to be a fascinating afternoon. The owls all looked interested in what was going on and various people were allowed to hold the smaller owls, which caused much excitement.
They also run individual experiences and attend fêtes and fairs. Good animal welfare is very important to them - they are all fed on a healthy diet and they travel in purpose built boxes. It is an original way of ensuring that the owls are well cared for while members of the public experience interaction with these wonderful creatures.