Nigel is one of our members and our trusted audio-visual guru. After our brief Nov ’22 AGM Nigel will give a talk on Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855) best known for her stories of rural village life published initially in the monthly The Lady’s Magazine and later in successful book form as Our Village. Despite a difficult home life with a father who gambled she achieved fame and literary success.
Nigel is is the founder of The Westerman Yarns, an organisation with a global following that researches, collects and promotes interest in the works of the children’s writer Percy F Westerman (1876-1959) and his contemporaries from the ‘Golden Age’ of adventure writing. His organisation arranges the annual Westerman Seminar, produces the Westerman Yarns newsletter, and regularly takes part in exhibitions, literaure and heritage events around the UK.
Percy F Westerman was the writer of more than 170 books and about 200 short stories and serials published in ‘The Scout’, ‘Chums’, ‘The Captain’, ‘Modern Boy’, ‘Young England’ and ‘The Boys’ Own Paper’. His first book ‘A Lad of Grit’ was published in 1908 and his last ‘Mistaken Identity’, just a few months after his death.
Nigel gave a talk on Westerman entitled ‘Pluck and Daring’ in March 2016.He last spoke to members in 2017 on the life and writing of Dr William Gordon-Stables, who was a regular contributor to both Boy’s Own Paper and Girl’s Own Paper and also wrote 130 adventure books. The title of his last talk was A Dog, a Butler and a Caravan.