Trouble at t'mill

It's not been a good year at the Kilvert Society.

It's just a small literary society. No, tiny. The youngest member is probably well over 50. Numbers are inevitably falling. There is no plan to expand the membership, and the society is in terminal but cosy decline. 

It's a very sad picture indeed.

Not everyone is happy, as this recent letter shows. I think I must be one of the 'vociferous minority' who want change.

The organisation is 'dynamically conservative'.  I think the definition of that is: 'will fight like mad to stay the same'. Right now, the committee seems to be frozen in the headlights of an alarming present and terrifying future.

Some of us think it might be useful to have a plan. Whoa ! Way too radical.

Anyway, this is the state of play right now:

You can see that the committee is strong on blame, but not so clear about any strategy to move forward.

I should add that Mr Boase is a tireless enthusiast, a brilliant former editor of the Society's journal, whose huge energy is matched only by his passion and integrity. He dared to think that there might be another way, and was crazy enough to think that the society might want to stick to its constitution.

Oh dear.

BBC, Dawn Chorus, Kilvert

Did you hear last Sunday's Dawn Chorus programme on Radio 4 ?

Terrific radio.

May is the month for the dawn chorus. Here the first birds begin just after 0400, and there are more voices than I can recognise or even count.

The dawn chorus always makes me think of Kilvert's fantastic description on 7 May 1870.

And that always make me wonder what else William Plomer cut out of the diary for incomprehensible reasons. 

A couple of years ago I send David Attenborough the Dawn Chorus entry in the diary, thinking that there was just a chance that even an enthusiast such as he might not have come across it.

I was amazed to receive a reply, and delighted to find that he had not been aware of it.