Lea Valley U3A

Leader:    Jean Hobbs                            

It was on a National Trust outing that Len Street asked me if I would consider being the leader for an English Literature group for the Lea Valley U3A. After some effort to find out what would be involved , I agreed. This was in 1994.

We meet once a month except in August: originally in Margaret Binnie's house but now in my house in Thundridge.

We started off with Jane Austen and other 19th century authors but gradually have included books written in the 20th and now the 21st centuries. Each member tries their best to read each book although we always excuse those who on the odd occasion does not finish before the meeting. This may be because of lack of time or because the book is not enjoyed. This rarely  happens but when it has done the person concerned has admitted to more interest after we discuss aspects of the book together, everyone contributing.

The selection of books is done partly by suggestions by members and partly by my trying to keep a balance in our reading. We are still calling the group English Literature despite the widening of our selection. All our books are written in English - no translations - and we aim to have a certain good standard in the writing. Gradually more 20th century books are coming into the modern classics category. In the past we did include some poetry. So we looked at work by Thomas Hardy, W B Yeats and the war poets of 1914-1918 but we have stopped since the poetry group started.

Our first modern novel was Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner and those most recently written were by P D James and William Trevor. We read some books because we have always meant to but have not got round to it -Robinson Crusoe (1719) was one of these. Some have been great favourites - The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. I suspect Doris Lessing's Golden Notebook proved to give the most trouble although Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor our last book has proved to be difficult but rewarding. We have also looked at a selection of modern children's books.

Our meetings start with coffee and biscuits and chat. Then we consider the book. I usually try to give information about the author and we place where the book was written in his/her life. We talk generally about our opinions. We always include reading aloud from certain passages which gives an understanding of the quality of the writing- A J Cronin suffered when we did this.

Hoddesdon Library have supported us for many years in supplying books for the group and one member kindly collects these and returns them each month. At a meeting at the library some time ago people were amazed at the range of books we had read and after attending a meeting run in London for leaders of English Literature U3A groups which was very well  attended, I felt we could be well pleased that so much good reading was going on ,encouraged by the U3A.

We would welcome new members into our happy group.
 

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