The Margery Allingham Society - From The Glue Works

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From The Glue Works

The newsletter of the Margery Allingham Society

No.23 - November 2009

Programme for 2010

The intended programme for 2010 has been agreed by the committee.

In collaboration with the Essex Book Festival there will be a talk by Francis Wheen and Julia Jones on Cheapjack, the book by Philip Allingham about his experiences on the road in the early 1930s. Margery Allingham edited her brother’s book for publication, and it is clear from her diary that she did a great deal of work on it. Julia is planning to republish Cheapjack under the Golden Duck imprint she has established with her partner, Francis Wheen. The date for her talk is Tuesday 23rd March and it will be an afternoon event, preceded by a meeting for lunch at Colchester.

Saturday 17th April is the new date for the postponed programme of items from Margery Allingham’s time at the Regent Street Polytechnic in the early 1920s. We are fortunate to have the generous co-operation of the University of Westminster and, specifically, of Alex Warwick, head of English and Linguistics, and Elaine Penn, the University’s archivist and librarian. Before lunch there will be a guided tour of the Regent Street building by Elaine Penn and the afternoon performance will consist of a performance by some of Alex Warwick’s students of works written by Margery Allingham in her student years, monologues, plays and an extract from Dido and Aeneas. There will also be reminiscences of their time at the Polytechnic of Margery, Youngman Carter and Josefina de Vasconcelos. The occasion will provide a rare, perhaps unique, opportunity to encounter early works by Margery Allingham, performed in the appropriate building by the present-day successors of Margery, Pip and their friends. Please support it if you can.

On Saturday 22nd May the Society will hold its A.G.M. in the morning at the usual venue, the University Women’s Club in Audley Square. The lunch to celebrate the joint birthday of Margery and Albert will follow, this time with Christopher Fowler as our guest. If you don’t yet know his work, make sure that you catch up before next May. He is a gifted and versatile writer and comes very warmly recommended. The Bryant and May series finds especial favour.

Our summer outing next year will take the form of a boat trip along the Essex coast, starting from Maldon. The date for this is Saturday 10th July.

It is some time since we met for a weekend convention and we are hoping to hold one in or around Ipswich on the weekend of 3rd-5th September. It is likely to include talks, a showing of the film of Room to Let, by courtesy of Roger Johnson, the mystery competition Margery set for readers of ‘The Sunday Times’ in 1938 and a trip round her Suffolk locations, actual and fictional (except for Kersey, the scene of our most recent outing). If you might be interested in attending, please put the date in your diary for next year (and for the other events, of course!)

Allingham on offer

The Society has spare copies of some Allingham titles and would like to find good homes for as many as possible. If you are looking for certain titles, please let Lesley know by e-mail or the Chairman by post or phone, and we’ll see what we can do for you.

Margery in Ealing

Members of the Society met recently in Ealing, where Margery was born in 1904. We enjoyed a meal at the Café Rouge and then went in search of Broughton Road, where the Allinghams lived, at number 5. The house was destroyed in the War, but Lesley had provided us with an excellent picture of it, complete with Margery as a very small girl at the gate, so we were able to imagine it. Lesley’s leaflet for the event is well worth having. Do ask her if you would like a copy.

Contacts

Chairman	Hon. Secretary	Membership Secretary
Barry Pike	Jo Hesslewood	Lesley Simpson
42 Scarborough Road	28 Parkfield Avenue	Flat 23 Corfton Lodge
Leytonstone	Amersham	Corfton Road
London	Bucks	London
E11 4AL	HP6 6BE	W5 2HU
020 8556 5243	01494 721012	020 8354 0332
	honsec (at) margeryallingham.org.uk	memsec (at) margeryallingham.org.uk

Greetings from all at the Glueworks.

From The Glue Works: Previous Issues

Current Issue No.22 - August 2009 No.21 - June 2009 No.20 - April 2009 No.19 - Autumn 2008 No.18 - August 2008 No.17 - January 2008 No.16 - November 2007 No.15 - July 2007 No.14 - January 2007 No.13 - Summer 2006 No.12 - February 2006 No.11 - July 2005 No.10 - March 2005 No.9 - Nov/Dec 2004 No.8 - July 2004 No.7 - February 2004 No.6 - August 2003