Our grateful thanks to David and Jacquie Gurney for opening their house to us on 24th January and entertaining us so warmly.
The occasion marked the first birthday of the Friends of Bawdeswell Church and was greatly enjoyed by everyone.
Thank you everyone who signed up again for the Friends.  The membership has rocketed from 60 to 80 members which means we can increase the number quarterly draw prizes to 10.  That’s pretty good odds!  Do encourage your friends to join.
The next draw is due at the 10.30am Coffee Morning on Saturday 3rd April.

A reminder that Draw Results and Events are posted not just in the Reeve’s Tale but on the Internet at www.bawdeswell.net        Contact: e-mail reevestale at bawdeswell.net

EVENTS 2004

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

(Joint event with the Quiddenham Hospice fundraisers )

GUEST SPEAKER & BIRTHDAY SUPPER
Now Saturday 10th July
(Speaker to be announced)

CEILIDH & HARVEST SUPPER 
Saturday 18th September
The Norfolk Wherries

CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL & CONCERT – 11,12 Dec
 
 
 
 

This is held at 7.30 pm on the first Thursday of the month in The Old  Workhouse Bar.  New members are welcome.
February's meeting was well attended, as usual.  We have decided to choose books for 2 months ahead to allow more time to get hold of the books.

Book Choices : -

                  For March : "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold.
                                                "The Life of Pi"   by Yan Martell.

                   For April : -  "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier.
                                     "Big Stone Gap" by Adriana Trigiana

Book Review – “Restoration” – by Rose Tremain

Our January choice was short listed for the Booker Prize and I found it a very compelling story.

It is set in the time of King Charles II and the rather dubious Robert Merivel abandons his medical studies to attend the court of the King as veterinarian to the King’s dogs.  He soon finds his niche as the ‘King’s fool’.  He is then selected by Charles to marry his royal mistress, Celia and given a title and land in Norfolk.  He quickly settles into his role as Lord of the Manor and upon discovering his ‘wife’s’ beautiful singing voice falls in love with her.  When the King realises what has happened, Merivel is soon ousted.  He then meets up with a friend from student days and goes to help him work in his Quaker lunatic asylum – Whittlesea Hospital.  There he gets involved with one of the inmates, Katharine, and shortly after the death of his friend, he is forced to leave.  Katharine is now heavily pregnant and the pair travel to London to stay with her mother.  Katharine then dies during childbirth and his daughter is sent to a wet nurse.  Merivel finds himself forced to earn a living in plague ridden London, where his life turns full circle and he ends up rescuing the wife of one of Charles’ courtiers who was trapped during the Great Fire and we are reminded of the tragic deaths of Merivel’s parents.  The King learns of his bravery and restores Merivel once again to his former home in Norfolk where he returns with his daughter.

This is the story of one man’s rise and fall and rise again.  It also gives us an insight into the social structure and culture of that era.  It is a bawdy but compelling account of life at that time.  Merivel comes across as sometimes very shallow and vain and, at others, intelligent and daring, but determined to live life to the full.