Member John Clegg delivered his usual exuberant performance with an evening of Charles Dickens at the February meeting which was one of our best attended for many months. Word of John’s popular and entertaining style must have got out as, in addition to the 39 members who braved a wet and blustery evening, there were seven visitors, two of whom have since joined us.
As an actor, John knows how to project his voice so that all could hear and also how to ‘do the voices’ so that the readings from Dickens’s work brought his characters vividly to life. We were in the company of Sam Weller and Mr Pickwick, Mr Micawber and others.
With readings from the semi-autobiographical ‘David Copperfield’, and ‘Bleak House’s first chapter’s vivid description of London on an autumn evening with its mud and fog we knew we were in for an enjoyable evening.
As a young boy he did not join in with his boyhood contemporaries. He was always an observer of people and places. His people-watching stood him in good stead when he came to write his stories, all of which were first published in serial form and always ended on a note of suspense, leaving his readers eager for the next instalment.
He tried many different jobs, including the law and journalism but at heart he was an actor. He was always desperate to be a success. With his novels and, later with his tours at home and abroad, reading his work to an eager audience, he achieved that success. He was happiest when reading and acting out the parts of those wonderful characters he had created.
Thank you John for another very entertaining evening.
