GEORGE Bourne thanked Bill Underwood for his involvement in the arrangements for the funeral of George Dawson at our meeting on 21 July. We are sure that George would have been gratified to see so many fellow members at his funeral and greatly amused to learn that both Bill and George Lewis managed to get lost trying to find their way to Redditch Crematorium.

President Brian Ireland then performed the pleasant duty of formally presenting Alan Smith with his membership badge to the applause of members present.

Our speaker this week was Nicholas Clark, a retired school teacher and superb raconteur from Beckford who has entertained us on fifteen previous occasions about his worldwide travels. The subject of his talk this time was the island of Corsica.

He described Corsica for us, where accompanied by his wife and four small children, he had spent a year as an exchange school teacher. With quiet humour and amusing asides, he took us on a fascinating tour of this, his favourite holiday destination. In between his teaching duties, he managed to fit in countless walks and rambles the length and breadth of the island, which is about half the size of Wales. He even squeezed in his rant of the week, something that we usually enjoy.

We heard about the history, its famous sons - Napoleon and Pasquale Paoli – and the geography and demography of Corsica. And throughout he kept us amused with his story telling skill and ready wit. I wish I’d had a language teacher like him at my school!

Andy Richardson thanked Nicholas on our behalf and said how informative and humourous the talk had been which he had enjoyed immensely.

On 28 July, our own Cliff Blackborrow will encourage us to get to know each other better and then on 4 August we shall hear about life in Poland.

CHRIS DONOUGH