Next Meeting

Wed 6th May

Swallows and Amazons

And the Russian Revolution

Dr Martin Radford

CLS Programme for 2026 now available. Please renew your membership for 2026.

Membership Details 2026 £50 p.a. No increase for 2026!

Please see our About page for renewal details.

Visitors/Non-members £8

On the door.

Students £2 on the door.

Meeting Venue

Boxgrove Village Hall,

PO18 OEE

Large free car park and a bus stop at the venue.

Stagecoach Bus Services link below:

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and-offers/south/chichester-services

Details

Wed 6th May

2pm

Swallows and Amazons

And the Russian Revolution

Presented by Dr Martin Radford

This is an account of the extraordinary life of Arthur Ransome before he started writing the ‘Swallows and Amazons’ books. Amongst other adventures he was sued by Oscar Wilde’s lover, worked as a newspaper reporter in St. Petersburg during the Russian Revolution and eloped with Trotsky’s secretary.

See below Photos and reports (Journal/Talks page) from Mar ’26 with Dr Geoffrey Mead on Sussex Literary Landscapes and Feb 26 meeting with author Kevin Maynard on Latin American Writers.

Local Literary News and Events

New book shop in South St. Chichester!

Open Mic Poetry Chichester

For more information please go to the website below.

http://www.sdpf.org.uk/programme/

Guest poets launch each session followed by an open mic. Listeners equally welcome. 7.30pm

JUBILEE HALL, NEW PARK CENTRE, CHICHESTER, PO19 7XY.

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

Carl Sagan

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.The man who never reads lives only one.

George R.R. Martin

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.

Jean Rhys

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

Mary Wortley Montague.

We welcome old and new members and visitors to Boxgrove Village Hall.

Dr Geoffrey Mead with member at our March '26 meeting.

Testimonials

‘I’ve been very honoured to be Patron of The Chichester Literary Society – and, in its earlier incarnation, The West Sussex Literary Society. The committee can always be relied on to produce a lively and varied programme of events, and the quality of the members ensures informed and intelligent discussion. At a time when the very existence of the book seems to be under threat, it is good to know there is at least one place – the CLS – where the love of literature is healthily thriving.’

Simon Brett

Chichester Literary Society

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