July 15th: deadline for submissions to the newsletter

July 18th: Stroud Show, Stratford Park

July 20th: publication of the newsletter

July 28th: coffee morning at the Old Nelson, Stratford Road

July 30th, 2.30: Lansdown talk: Liam Fleet 'Historic musical instruments'.

Colin Davidson was an editor on the Daily Mail, who also researched blood feuds and interviewed murderers in Yugoslavia, acted as a consultant to newspapers in East Europe after the fall of Communism and served on the code committee of the Press Complaints Council.

He also runs a successful opera appreciation group for the u3a, and was formerly the u3a national adviser on opera.

Liam is a professional bassoonist and oboist and is a fanatic of all things double-reed. He plays with some of the UK's leading Early Music ensembles including the Musical and Amicable Society and Instruments of Time & Truth.  

He also sings bass with the Llandaff Cathedral Choir.

Liam is a passionate educator, and an active teacher of bassoon, oboe, recorder and singing across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

Bourgeois was born in Paris in 1911 and in 1930 studied Mathematics and Geometry at the Sorbonne. These were subjects that she valued for their stability, saying "I got peace of mind, only through the study of rules nobody could change."

She had an intense relationship with her father who was very proud of his gifted daughter, but that relationship was fractured when the father had a very public and passionate affair with the tutor hired to teach the children English. This caused everyone a great deal of distress, especially for Josephine, the mother and was the source of Louise's angst which is played out in her artwork. To add to the trauma, her mother became very ill; Louise had to organise appointments, medication and ensure the day-to-day care needed. Josephine died when Louise was 22 years old.

Her death freed Louise to abandon Maths for Art and after her graduation in 1935 from the Sorbonne, she took up Art at the Ecole des Beaux Arts & Ecole de Louvre and several other academies. In her long lifetime (she died at the age of 98) she produced the most amazing body of work, covering such a wide range of mediums from the drawings and prints to large Installations, sewing and her iconic Spiders, once seen never to be forgotten. In the late 1990s, Bourgeois began using the spider as a central image in her art.

Motherhood is another recurrent theme of Bourgeois's work. It was her mother who encouraged Bourgeois to draw and involved her in the tapestry business. Bourgeois considered her mother to be intellectual and methodical; the continued motif of the spider in her work often represents her mother. The notion of a spider that spins and weaves its web is a direct reference to her parents’ tapestry business and can a metaphor for a mother who repairs things. She saw spiders as being benevolent beings, weavers who created a home for the many offspring, protecting them and repairing the web to keep them safe. So not to be feared but admired.

She has been described as being an Abstract Expressionist, a Surrealist or a Feminist Artist. But she did not want to be associated with any particular movement but acknowledged that her work was personal and came from childhood trauma and her own angst. Art as therapy for herself.

Her small drawing of the Spider in the egg has become a popular Tattoo !

We meet at 9.30am to set up the gazebo and tables then the show officially opens to the public at 11.30am (though a lot of people don't wait so long to have a look around).  We usually take it down about 5.00pm. So if you are able to help, whether with the assembly, the disassembly or talking to people as they pass by, then please contact Dilys Warren.  

Then, a week ago six of us had a wonderful afternoon at Bristol Harbour, paddling past the tall ship Matthew and the SS Great Britain as well as any number of houseboats, party boats, ferries, working boats and a gin palace complete with helipad and helicopter.  Clearly it hasn’t moved since we were there last year! 

First task of today – deliver the car to the garage for service and MOT (a likely large hit to the bank balance) and then onto The Cotswold Link Special Interest Day – theme being ‘from Pen to Reader: The journey of a Book.’

First up is Sue Ablett giving us “Bums on Seats”. Sue took us through the stages of changing a loss-making Evesham Literary Festival into a thriving Evesham Festival of Words, 2026 is its 10th anniversary. This was a thrilling guide in how to be successful.

Next up were two very different authors – Jacqui Rogers on how she conducts her research into Roman Britain and Colin Wade on the joys and perils of self-publishing his crime novels.

Gareth Swain of History Press then gave us a publisher’s perspective – an interesting collective of how a publisher works with an author to gain a satisfying and hopefully lucrative result to an author’s labours.

The last delight of the day and the one that left me feeling elated was Maureen Partington from Fairford u3a Creative Writing group. The group consisted of six ladies all the “other side of eighty” who decided that the time had come to stop practising scales and compose their own sonata – they have published four books, using Amazon’s self -publishing kit ,and the profits from their endeavours get donated to the Cirencester Food bank. The four books were ‘Behind the Grey Hair’, (the changes to women’s lives over time), ‘Thank Goodness it’s not just Me’ (anecdotes of their battles with IT), ‘A Word for all Seasons’, (an anthology of poetry and short stories) and a collaboratively written murder mystery thriller, with each member writing a section leading on from the previous one.

To have achieved so much living and learning all mixed together with lots of raucous laughter, I am sure judging by the sparkle in Maureen’s eyes as she shared these accomplishments with all of us, left me feeling amazed, joyous and hopeful for the future.

That wonderful feeling didn’t last long, the large bill for the car will lead to a large dent in the bank balance but not yet - thank goodness for credit cards! Joan Toon

Also, for prospective writers amongst us, they are running an essay competition; they invite you to take us on on a remarkable real-life journey - of discovery, adventure or transformation - and bring the story to life in fewer than 1000 words.

• Free entry: open to all u3a members

• Deadline: 31 July 2026

• Prize: book bundles for the winner and two runners-up.

To enter, go to https://www.u3a.org.uk/what-we-do/learning/learning-activities/essay-competition-2026

And Katherine has volunteered to kick us off - here goes:

1. How long have you lived in Stroud district?

Not long - I was propelled here from the east coast by my son so he could keep an eye on me.  Really! Well here I am - what a lively, beautiful and exciting place this is.  I love the sense of community and of adventurous out-of-the-box thinking.

2. What was your most enjoyable job before retirement?

The opportunity to bring community leaders in Southend together to build a vision for an active, healthy community - some of it happened. 

3. What would be your dream holiday activity?

Walking again amongst the spring flowers high in the Swiss mountains

4. What’s your favourite piece of music or musician?

Beethoven’s final piano sonata played by Solomon

5. When were/are the best days of your life?

My precious time in Suffolk with my late husband, birdwatching, and walking along the sea shore.

6. What’s the next exciting thing you're planning?

Lots and lots of exploration of this lovely area,  so many walks to find, so many activities to be part of - there is never enough time.

Katherine Kirk

Fancy having a go at answering these questions in a future newsletter? Get in touch with Peter, today!

So do you have a 5 - 10 minute (maximum) party trick, song, poem, very short story, playlet, a few jokes or any other form of short stage entertainment which we might be able to use to put together such a show by members for members?

If you do, or if you think you might, please email Richard Bedford at bookings@stroudu3a.org.uk with your name, email and an idea of your type of “act”. Can be individuals, duets, duos or small groups (e.g. a singing group).

So, with huge apologies, I'd be very grateful if you could contact me once again, and we'll finally get this off the ground.

CLlive Blackmore, clijun69@gmail.com