The first meeting of the revived, and rejuvenated, Hilaire Belloc Society will take place in Lewes on Saturday the 28th of July...

We are very pleased to announce that the first meeting of the revived, and rejuvenated, Hilaire Belloc Society will take place in Lewes on Saturday the 28th of July at the John Harvey Tavern. Our esteemed, and distinguished, Chairman Mike Hennessy will be giving a presentation on Belloc and Wine. This will be a multi-faceted talk with all sorts of cultural, historical and alcoholic dimensions.

The agenda will be as follows:

1PM - assemble in the meeting room, of the John Harvey Tavern, for lunch (please order your food in advance by contacting the Pub directly - not me!).

2PM - the talk commences followed by questions and answers.

3.30 PM - a walk around Lewes, led by Chris Hare (historical sites and hostelries).

6.00 PM - re-assemble at the John Harvey Tavern for the annual commemorative Hilaire Belloc dinner (65th anniversary) followed by a sing-song (instruments are most welcome).

Please feel free to come along at any stage in the proceedings. If you do intend to join us it would be useful to have some idea of numbers and so please do send a message to thehilairebellocblog@gmail.com
This is not obligatory, but it would be helpful.

The venue location and contact details are as follows:

Address: Bear Yard, Cliffe High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 2AN.
Telephone: 01273 479 880
Parking: There is no parking on site. Argos car park is opposite the pub, however this is for Argos customers.
Please find a map of available parking here: https://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/lewes/
Public Transport: Lewes Train station is a 10 minute walk from the pub, and a town centre bus stop is a 5 minute walk away, located at the front of Waitrose.

Mike in a reflective mood. Do I perceive a superficial resemblance?

Henry Douglas RIP

Dr Grahame Clough, the former Chairman of the Hilaire Belloc Society, has some unwelcome news for us. He writes:

''The sad news to report is that our good friend and originator of The Hilaire Belloc Society, back in 1996, Henry Douglas has passed away. Henry never missed a committee meeting and thank goodness for that because he was the epitome of calmness and was always able to quench even the most heated debates on every subject and would you believe that even included the genius of Buffy the Vampire Slayer versus that of Charlie Chaplin - there were many other obscure subjects that got out of hand but dear old Henry shepherded us into order. The Belloc Society meetings were always held in Guildford and many thought that this because that is where Hilaire Belloc died - that is not true, the real truth is that I did not want to give Henry any excuse! He never knew I had an ulterior motive but although I did I just loved his company. Henry very kindly donated his entire collection of books, by Belloc, to the Hilaire Belloc Society and I am absolutely certain that he will be so pleased that his collection now resides at Kings Land and with his own bookplate. From a personal point of view Henry's journalistic skills were very welcome and are what made The Bellocian newsletter so well received because although perfectly polite he would never shy from telling me that I was wrong and so for that Henry, I will raise a glass of red, toast a very good friend and make sure that this obituary is grammatically incorrect so that I can imagine that last rye smile.''