Past Events Archive: 2014

6 December 2014: John Cowper Powys's essay, Pair Dadeni or The Cauldron of Rebirth

A discussion led by John Hodgson, Bunhill Meeting House, London

The Society's past Chairman John Hodgson will lead a discussion of John Cowper Powys's essay, Pair Dadeni or The Cauldron of Rebirth (included in JCP's book Obstinate Cymric, published by the Druid Press in 1947).

19 July 2014: The Life, Career and Writings of John Meade Falkner

A Talk by Kenneth Hillier, Dorset County Museum, Dorchester

At the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, a talk on the life, career and writings of John Meade Falkner (1858-1932) presented by Kenneth Hillier, the founder and Secretary of the John Meade Falkner Society. The meeting commences at 10.30am for 11.00am start. Coffee and refreshments will be available. Lunch will be from 13.00 to 14.00 at a local restaurant. The author, poet, businessman and teacher, John Meade Falkner, spent his childhood in Dorchester and Weymouth and was closely acquainted with many of the locations associated with the Powys family, such as the South and West Walks in Dorchester, and Chesil beach, Portland, and the village of Fleet near Weymouth. Falkner’s most famous novel, Moonfleet (1898), is set around Chesil and Fleet. Falkner was a friend of Hardy and a keen collector of medieval books and manuscripts. After a long business career in the armaments industry he was appointed senior reader in palaeography at Durham University. John Meade Falkner was also a poet and author of topographical guides to Oxford, Berkshire and Bath. Falkner’s first novel, The Lost Stradivarius (1895) reveals an interest in the supernatural, the occult and psychological themes that mirror many of JCP’s own interests as well as popular literary tastes of the 1890s. For more information about John Meade Falkner please visit: http://www.johnmeadefalknersociety.co.uk/ The talk will be followed by discussion, lunch and a visit to places associated with Falkner and the Powys family in Weymouth, Chesil and Abbotsbury. 

26 April 2014: The Norfolk Chapters of A Glastonbury Romance

A discussion led by Sonia Lewis, Brandon, Norfolk

Sonia Lewis will lead a discussion of the Norfolk chapters of A Glastonbury Romance: The Will and The River. The meeting will be held in the function room of the Brandon House Hotel, which has pleasant views on to the garden, and is conveniently located just around the corner from Brandon railway station. Brandon is an old market town on the edge of Thetford Forest and Brandon Heath. Discussion will be followed by lunch and a visit to the village of Northwold situated a few miles to the north of Brandon. Northwold has strong Powys family associations - JCP’s maternal grandfather, William Cowper Johnson (1813-1893), the model for Canon Crow in A Glastonbury Romance, was Rector of Northwold from 1880 to 1892, and JCP, Littleton and Theodore often spent their summer holidays at the rectory. There are very evocative descriptions of Northwold in Littleton’s The Joy of It and in JCP’s Autobiography. In his diary, for 3 to 9 August 1929, JCP also recorded a visit to his old childhood haunts in Northwold (helping to provide material for A Glastonbury Romance). Littleton called Northwold “my boyhood’s Earthly Paradise”. JCP recalled summer holidays in Northwold and said: “...what a life that was & how beautiful that house was.” Our visit to Northwold will provide an opportunity to rediscover the places described by Littleton and JCP including the rectory, the round pond in the rose garden, the Wissey, Foulden Bridge, Harrod’s Mill pond, Dye’s Hole and Oxborough Ferry as well as other places of local interest such as the church of St. Andrew’s (which has a memorial to William Cowper Johnson) and the old Manor House. If time permits some members may wish to visit nearby Methwold or Yaxham (where William Cowper Johnson is buried).