Posting parcels to the USA

Posting items to the USA

With the changes to duty for items other than letters being posted to the USA, the Society is pausing the posting of anything other the Bulletin – which is sent as a letter and does not attract duty – to members in the USA.  Royal Mail has resumed some postage of parcels to the US but there is a handling fee now, for parcels.  Once we have some clarity on the new postage charges and duties process, the Committee will discuss how we will manage this. We regret that we have had to do this but until we are clear about both process and charges, we will not be accepting orders from the US, apart from membership fees.

Annual Convention at the University of Chichester

Our and Convention for members and their guests commences this Friday at the University of Chichester. Our speakers are: our President, Professor BJ Rahn, Simon and Lucy Brett, Alison Hall, Margaret Hunt, Jem Bloomfield, Liz Eddy-Mulcahy, Patrick Kidd and Jasmine Simeone. We will be going to see ‘Top Hat’ the musical at the Chichester Festival Theatre on Saturday Evening and attending Chichester Cathedral for the Sunday morning service.

The Dorothy L Sayers Annual Lecture given by Jane Casey

We were fortunate to hear author, Jane Casey, deliver the Dorothy L Sayers Annual Lecture at the Essex Book Festival. This event was open to all and was held in Witham Library. Jane gave an excellent lecture on the creation of series characters, referring to her own character, Maeve Kerrigan and to Lord Peter and Harriet Vane. Jane’s most recent novel, The Secret Room is the latest in the Maeve Kerrigan series. A full report of the lecture can be found in our July Bulletin. Non members can request a copy of the Bulletin here

Applications invited to apply to the Inklings Project for fellowships

The Inklings Project is an initiative that aims to help college and university faculty create and teach their own Inklings-related courses, especially courses that focus on the works of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Dorothy Sayers, G. K. Chesterton, and George MacDonald.

Under the University of Notre Dame's McGrath Institute, the Inklings Project is once again requesting applications from faculty at universities and colleges for our fellowship program. Each awardee will be named an Inklings Project Fellow for the AY25-26 academic year and, among other benefits, receive a grant in the amount of $1,500 for creating and teaching an Inklings-related course.

Applications are due July 1st. You can read more about the Inklings Project Fellowship and application requirements in the Call for Proposals. If you would be willing to pass along this opportunity to any faculty whom you think might be interested and/or include it in any upcoming newsletters or email distribution, we would greatly appreciate it. (I am happy to send you an additional small graphic that is made for newsletters and social media if that is helpful.) Those interested in applying can learn more at www.inklingsproject.org/apply.

Winter Zoom Talk

We were delighted to welcome Moira Redmond to speak to us for our Winter Zoom talk on 14th February. Moira runs a blog called ‘Clothes in Books’, with many crime novels of the Golden Age discussed. Moira took us through the DLS novels, discussing Harriet’s, Peter’s and other characters’ clothing. A full report will be forthcoming in the Society’s March Bulletin.

For more about Moira’s blog, see here

Below is the cover from a 1970s omnibus, sent to us by a member.