Speaking this month we have:
- Richard Wain-Hobson – Cornwall to Cape Town: My First Taste of Adventure
In October 2012, three doctors left their jobs, friends, and local sea shanty group, and set out on an adventure that took them closer to ruin than they had ever been in their lives. Armed with a rusty old land rover and minimal experience, they packed their vehicle and started south. 9 months, 30 countries, 21,792 miles, and 19 punctures later, and they found themselves in Cape Town, elated, amazed that they had actually made it. Along the way they worked in a Ugandan hospital, helped with international research in Malawi, and supported a specialist surgical unit in Ethiopia. Their experiences have shaped them, and for one have led to many more adventures since.
Dr Rich Wain-Hobson is an Accident & Emergency doctor at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. He is developing a specialist interest in Expedition and Tropical Medicine, and regularly accompanies expeditions as the doctor and photographer. Come and hear him tell the story of Cornwall to Cape Town: how three normal people took their first steps into the world of expedition and adventure.
Find out more at www.cornwalltocapetown.com and www.wain-hobson.com
- Z W Bates – Travelling by container ship with the poetry of Louis MacNeice
Z W Bates has always enjoyed the company of words. Her interests include walking with a notebook and travelling with a camera. She lives in south London and is habituated to the Northern Line but in 2013 she decided to do something many of us dream about. She left her job in the corporate world to write a book. Or at least that was the plan.
In fact she wrote two books: one book explored places associated with the Irish poet Louis MacNeice and one book took her readers behind the scenes, seeing the view from her keyboard and sharing her journey. In between being side-tracked by sparrows in her south London garden and England’s cricket team winning the Ashes in that distant memory of summer 2013, she went from the spring sunshine of Texas, past discovering ‘nurslings of wit’ and a memorable staircase, through Icelandic rainbows and rain-washed Ireland and into the quieter waters of research libraries.
In her talk to Globetrotters we will travel with her across the north Atlantic on a containership, the ideal place to start writing a book (or two), away from the usual excuses of displacement activity. Or at least that was the plan.
Find out more at http://www.ypdbooks.com/479_z-w-bates
- By tradition we follow this meeting with a New Year Party post-meeting – everyone is invited to bring food and drink and participate! (We have permission from the church for you to bring wine, but beer, cider and spirits are not allowed.) (R.O.A.R)
London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.
Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.
There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.
If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.