Record Number: 31695

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at 22 Cintra Avenue: 17. IV 40.
F. E. Pollard in the chair
1. Minutes of last read & approved.

[...]

5. As an introduction to our subject of Modern English Humourists, R. H. Robson read a passage analysing the nature of Humour. Discussion followed on the distinction, if any, between wit & humour, & various alleged examples were forthcoming.

6. A. B. Dilks read from Grossmith’s Diary of a Nobody; many entries appealed to members as characteristic of themselves or their friends.

7. In the regretted absence of C. E. Stansfield, F. E. Pollard read T. Thompson’s Blitzkrieg, from the Manchester Guardian, in what purported to be the Lancashire dialect.

8 Howard R. Smith read from A. A. Milne: the reader shared fully in the mirth of the hearers.

9. M. Dilks gave us a passage from Macdonnell’s ‘England, their England’, which must have been salutary for any suffering from insular complacency.

10. Rosamund Wallis’ contribution was from P. G. Wodehouse’s ‘Carry on, Jeeves’; certain methods of being off with the old love & on with the new were characteristically indicated by the writer, effectively rendered by the reader, & clearly appreciated by the company.

11. R. H. Robson’s Saki story supplied further satire on English standards – in this case of music, & the services likely to secure a title.

12. The chapter from Barrie’s ‘Window in Thrums’, read by F. E. Pollard, told how Gavin Birse did his best to be off with the old love, but failed.

13. The idea of a Barrie evening was mooted.

[signed as a true record:] M. Stevens
18-7-40'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

17 Apr 1940

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: 22, Cintra Avenue

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reading Group:

Members of the XII Book Club

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

n/a

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

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

Minutes of the meeting of the XII Book Club held 18 Mar 1940

Genre:

Minutes

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Notebook

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

reading group

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

31695

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

n/a

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

64–6

Additional Information:

n/a

Citation:

[unidentified acting secretary of the XII Book Club] , XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 64–6, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=31695, accessed: 24 November 2024

---

Additional Comments:

The reader cannot be identified.
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).