It’s a small world
Listed on May 24, 2013 in Blogs!With only a couple of blogs this month my neglect seems like an abandonment of duty. The truth is that I’ve been pretty ill with a dreadful chest infection – there’s been a lot of it about – and also I’ve very busy putting the next programme together with my colleague, Denise Borer. Part of the fun and games of programme planning is the tracking down and contacting our public lecture speakers. Throughout the year I make notes of possible candidates for the moment when the blizzard of e-mails fly off from my computer. Anyway, one of the more interesting correspondences has been with Professor Mary Beard of Cambridge University. It was always going to be a big ask for her to travel across the country to Somerset and especially so since she’s now become a household name thanks to her marvellous television appearances. I also wondered about whether she would understand what Dillington was all about. I need not have worried. It seems Mary had known about Dillington since she was a young woman. She told me in her e-mail that she had been a ‘skivvy’ at Attingham Park, Shropshire – a residential centre for adult education which closed in 1971 – and that they all knew of Dillington when she worked there. I nearly fell of my chair with astonishment. The great Professor Beard a skivvy, surely not! Sadly her forward diary is completely full and she will not be coming to Dillington on this occasion. That said, I am sure she will venture west when things quieten down for her. Isn’t it interesting how serendipitous the world is?
