The Prince of Wales, Chinese Poems and a Live Broadcast
For the Christmas edition of our Book Club we wanted to do something special, so we pulled out all the stops. We had the usual varied, high standard of choices from our participants covering everything from health and wellbeing to Chinese poetry and climate change, but there was an added element too…
A Live Broadcast
Our December event included an added live broadcast element as it was beamed live from the Waterfront Museum, Swansea from 3pm. Our Book Club broadcast formed part of an afternoon of Digital Support from our tech expert Adrian Scott. Participants were invited to an event at the Waterfront Museum to solve their digital issues. Adrian was able to get people connected online so that they could access all our services and stay in touch with friends and family.
After their online problems were solved participants could sit back, relax and watch the Action For Elders Book Club – DBC – on a big screen at the Waterfront Museum, joining those presenting books online and also those watching at home. It was a truly multi-media event. There was a special prize on offer to one lucky observer, via our Random Number Generator, but more about that later…
The Book Discussed Were…
Betty kicked off our live broadcast with I Sit Still, by popular Tai Chi practitioner Paul Underhill. The book shows how to deal with underlying anxiety, mental restlessness, poor memory and concentration. Jill talked about Harmony by HRH Prince Charles. The Prince has long been a champion of green issues and this thought-provoking book fuses philosophy with ecology and biology. It is co-written by BBC 3 presenter Ian Skelly and Friends of The Earth director & environmentalist Tony Juniper.
Next came a couple of novels. First, Maggie talked about The Black Moon by Winston Graham, an evocative and enthralling tale that is the fifth in Poldark series (which has been hugely popular on BBC TV starring Aidan Turner). Chris gave us the lovely winter tale of a street cat named Bob, a highly intelligent animal who saves Christmas and possibly the life of his owner. Yen Yen from the Chinese in Wales Association took us into the rich world of Chinese culture with a compilation of 300 Poems from the Chinese Tang Dynasty, put together and translated by Bai Li and HaiJun Wei. Finally, Alex talked eloquently about her own book The Circle of Life Plan a workbook designed to help people through life and deal positively with problems physical, spiritual or mental.
Betty Sutherland
I Sit Still by Paul Underhill – Available from the author
BA compilation of 15 essays that show in practical terms how we can use Tai Chi in our everyday lives to alleviate stress and enhance wellbeing.
Jill Rakusen
Harmony – a New Way of Looking at our World by Prince Charles (Harper Collins)
HRH Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales takes a look at our environment, focusing on climate change, agriculture and architecture.
Chris Kemp Philip
A Christmas Gift from Bob by James Bowen (Hodder)
A heart-warming story of how a street cat helped one man learn the meaning of Christmas.
There are five books in the series and the all feature Bob the cat, who incidentally, was a real cat, owned by the author.
Maggie Abbett
The Black Moon – Winston Graham (Pan)
The fifth novel in the Poldark series introduces more characters and sub plots, set among vividly described Cornish locations.
Yen Yen Lai
A Collection of 300 Tang Dynasty Poems – Various – English translation by Wang Wei (Independent)
The Tang Dynasty (AD618-907) was one of most powerful and prosperous dynasties in Chinese history. It was also a great era of arts and cultural development: the writing and popularity of poems was a distinctive feature of the Tang Dynasty.
Alex Martin
Circle of Life Plan by Alex Martin (Independent)
Alex talked about her own book, a self-help workbook to help you though life with advice to help us make the right choices.
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And the Winner Is…
We had not one but two winners at our Christmas special. Eugenie was one of our observers at the Waterfront Museum. Each observer (either at home or in the Museum) was allocated a number. Eugenie was chosen via our Random Number Generator machine and received a Limited Edition Action For Elders Tote bag.
This month’s winner of a £10 Book Token was Alex Martin, who impressed everyone with her impassioned description of her book Circle of Life Plan. It was a close thing though with only two marks separating the winner.
Join us for the next Digital Book Club on Wednesday 19th January.
Future Book club dates
The New Dates are:
- Wednesday 16th February
- Wednesday 16th March
- Wednesday 20th April
If you want to take part in any of our future Digital Book Clubs, please email john.coleman@actionforelders.org.uk
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