John Ford and John Elwood from The Adrian Bell Society gave an affectionate and enjoyable talk on the life of countryman, author and crossword compiler Adrian Bell. In 1920 at the age of 19 after leaving public school and following a farming holiday in Suffolk, Bell turned his back on the promise of a Fleet Street career in journalism to learn to become a farmer, a passion he pursued for the next sixty years.
For further information on Diss U3A please telephone 01379 642674 or visit the the Diss U3A website.
The next meeting will be held at Diss United Reform Church on May 3rd commencing at 10.30am. The guest speaker will be Mark Mitchels who will be giving a talk about the poet John Clare.
Out of his early experiences working with the land and animals came his first book Corduroy, the first of a farming trilogy. So successful was Corduroy that the paperback edition published in 1940 was much prized by servicemen in the war especially those serving overseas who amidst the danger and noise of a war zone found solace and respite in Bell’s writing.
Bell wrote over 20 books about the countryside and in 1950 became a regular contributor to The Eastern Daily Press. Today many of his articles are currently being reprinted and being enjoyed by new readers of the same newspaper.
In the early years in an effort to supplement his farming income Adrian Bell became interested in compiling crossword puzzles and when in 1930 The Times newspaper began losing readers to The Daily Telegraph, Bell’s name was suggested and he became the newspaper’s first compiler and between
1930 and 1978 was credited with setting around 5000 puzzles.
As a young man Bell had wanted to become a poet but this was not to be and although successful he cut an unlikely figure as a gentleman farmer always retaining a little of his lost bohemian past.
For further information on Diss U3A please telephone 01379 642674 or visit the the Diss U3A website.
The next meeting will be held at Diss United Reform Church on May 3rd commencing at 10.30am. The guest speaker will be Mark Mitchels who will be giving a talk about the poet John Clare.
