'Broadway comes to Bawdeswell' - Monday 7th June at 7.30pm.
Our thanks to David and Jacquie Gurney for allowing us to use their daughter Juliette’s Wedding Marquee for a very enjoyable and successful fund raising event.   Over 220 tickets were sold and the food and entertainment were well up to expectations.
Our thanks to Susie Turner and Annette Jude for entertaining us and to all who supported this gala event. 

Other News - We have recently been able to pay for repairs to the church roof and guttering and also for professional treatment of the woodworm. We continue our support in other ways by paying their water, electricity and building insurance.  A new Notice Board is on the way and we have just agreed to finance a CCTV camera to monitor the church door so that the church can be left open during the day.

‘The Grand Village Fete & Car Boot Sale’ – Sunday 27th June
We are joining other Groups in the village to bring you this major event and look forward to seeing you there.

‘The Music of George Frederic Handel’ – Saturday July 17th at 7.30pm
An evening concert in the church exploring his music, followed by supper.
Soprano June Harrison, Accompanist James Lilwall, Narrator Roger Hales.
Details are on page 5.

Next Coffee Morning – Saturday  3rd  July 2004, in the church.
FREE & Everyone Welcome.  The Quarterly Draw will take place.
 
 

 “BROADWAY COMES TO BAWDESWELL” 
Monday June 7th
in marquee at Bawdeswell Hall

HANDEL CONCERT & BIRTHDAY SUPPER
 Saturday 17th July

CEILIDH & HARVEST SUPPER 
Saturday 18th September
The Norfolk Wherries

CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL & CONCERT – 
11,12 Dec

Held in the Old Workhouse bar on the first Thursday of the month at 7. 30 pm.

There were so many suggestions this time that we have chosen books for 3 months and they are:-

July---
"The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night Time"  
by Mark Haddon
"The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency"  
by Alexander Mc Call-Smith

August---
"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"   by Carson McCullers "An Evil Cradling"   by Brian Keenan

September---
"Spies"   by Michael Frayn
"The Colour Purple"    by Alice Walker.      

HAPPY READING  !
 

BOOK REVIEW    
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT    
by Erich Maria Remarque
This novel was first published in 1929 and is written in the first person; the narrator is a 19 years old German private soldier who fought in the trenches in the 1st World War.  He and some class mates go straight from school to the Army.  Their group increases during training and becomes united, partly by their common disdain for their instructor but mainly through their experiences and the tragedies they witness and share at the front.
The novel opens with them enjoying double rations; there is a macabre reason for this; only half of the battalion has returned from a recent battle.  Throughout the novel, food is a major concern and by the end of the book, when the war was almost over, there is very little food available.  This concern with their daily bread reminds the reader of their basic humanity and connects us with them.  There is a religious connotation too, I believe. 
This is the story of war as seen by an ordinary soldier.  There is contempt for the inadequacies of the leaders and compassion for the individual soldiers of the other side.  There is one scene where Paul, the narrator, has strayed too far from his own base line and encounters a French soldier in a crater whom he wounds fatally and then witnesses his slow death over several hours.  Paul administers first aid but in spite of his efforts the French man dies.  There is no doubt that this will be a lifelong recurring nightmare.  The book’s preface: “……an attempt to give an account of a generation that was destroyed by the war – even those of it who survived the shelling”, is borne out in this scene.  
The reader can certainly empathise with the narrator when he conveys how awkward and out of touch he feels when at home on leave with people who have no concept of what he has experienced, and it is part of the power of the book that we can identify with Paul’s feeling of alienation because of this, although we are in the group that has not shared the experience first hand, and it is the strength of the writing that achieves this.  The reader is made to realise that the various awful deaths they witnessed and the emotions they need to suppress in order to survive sets them apart from those of us have been saved such experiences.