Record Number: 31562

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue 10.3.41
F. E. Pollard in the Chair.
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and signed.
[...]
3. Violet Clough read an exceedingly interesting paper on “Children’s Literature” showing the was it has developed from the “Moral Tales” of Maria Edgeworth published at the beginning of the 19th. Century, to the delightful tales by Beatrix Potter & A. A. Milne which are read today. The one retrogressive step she thought was in the binding of the books, which today seem to come to pieces almost at once. All the mothers present agreed with this, so it is no reflection on the Clough children in particular although it may be on the modern child in general.
4. Readings from children’s literature were then given as follows:
Labour Lost from the Rollo Books. Selected by S. A. Reynolds & read by A. B. Dilks.
“The Fairchild Family” by Mrs. Sherwood read by Mrs. Pollard – this was particularly gruesome.
“Little Women” by Louisa Alcott read by Mary Stansfield.
Divers examples of children[’]s poetry read by Rosamund Wallis, which included an impromptu recitation by Howard Smith of one of Hillair[e] Belloc’s Cautionary Tales.
“Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carrol[l] read by F. E. Pollard.
“Samuel Whiskers” by Beatrix Potter read by Muriel Stevens.
“The Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo” a Just So Story by Rudyard Kipling, read by Howard Smith.
“The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame read by Margaret Dilks.
“The House at Pooh Corner” by A. A. Milne, read by A. B. Dilks.
5. Bruce Dilks sang two of Fraser-Simsons settings of A. A. Milne’s Poems. “Christopher Robin Alone in the Dark” and “Happiness”.

[Signed as a true record of the meeting by] S. A. Reynolds April 7th / 41'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Until: 10 Mar 1941

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Violet Clough

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

Quaker or associated with the Friends

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Maria Edgeworth

Title:

Moral Tales for Young People

Genre:

Fiction, Children's Lit

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

31562

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Margaret Dilks

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

89–91

Additional Information:

Margaret Dilks was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1940 to 1970. It is inferred from this, and from the handwriting, that she was the author of this set of minutes.

Citation:

Margaret Dilks, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 89–91, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=31562, accessed: 21 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

Read in preparation for her paper ‘Children’s Literature’ which she delivered at the meeting.
Material by kind permission of the XII Book Club. For further information and permission to quote this source, contact the Reading Experience Database (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php).