Report of Diss U3A February meeting

The guest speaker at the February meeting was Tony Diamond who gave a most interesting and illuminating talk on the life and work of writer Rudyard Kipling.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on 6th March at Diss United Reform Church and will be preceded by the AGM which will commence at 9.30am.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website or telephone 01379 642674.

Born in India in 1865 Kipling returned to England aged five and was placed in the care of a cruel and sadistic nanny. The young Kipling quickly learned the best way of avoiding her harsh treatment was to lie, realising early on that if the truth was not acceptable then the only option was to tell lies. When he returned to India a few years later it was this self-taught art of storytelling and the ability to be imaginative and inventive with the truth that brought him early success both as a newspaper correspondent and a writer of popular novels such as “The Jungle Book.” As his fame spread he used this opportunity to highlight causes close to his heart and he began to forge friendships with some of the great historical figures of the late 19th and early 20th century. Much of his work was inspired by the wars and conflicts of that period encompassing the problems in South Africa prior to the Boer War and ending with his fears of the rising popularity of the Nazi Party in the early ‘thirties. In desperate times Kipling’s words could be relied upon to identify and inspire the mood of the nation. In this the 100th anniversary of the start of World War One it is expected that many of Kipling’s poems written about that dreadful conflict will be used in the commemorations due to take place across the country in the coming months. His influence extends into the present day as many of the phrases originally written by him have passed into the English language and are regularly used in everyday conversation and the poem “If” written by him in 1910, remains one of the most popular poems of all time.

The next meeting of Diss U3A will be on 6th March at Diss United Reform Church and will be preceded by the AGM which will commence at 9.30am.

For further information on Diss U3A please visit the website or telephone 01379 642674.

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