Milton's Poetical Works Photo: courtesy of Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre.
Eye - 11 November 2016
From Broadcasting quiet to a colourful quandary
The pages of history
A remarkable discovery was recently made on the shelves of the library at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
Betty Hagglund, project development officer for the Centre for Postgraduate Quaker Studies at Woodbrooke, unearthed a book of poetry by John Milton.
It is noteworthy for having been given to the Woodbrooke Settlement, along with other books, by members of the Scarborough Summer Settlement in 1901 ‘in grateful recognition of the help rendered to them by John Wilhelm Rowntree’.
Radio silence
An Eye-reader spied a story about silence in the Church Times (28 October). David Winter, former head of religious broadcasting at the BBC, recalled the first broadcast of Quaker worship of Radio 4 nearly forty years ago: ‘The producer was concerned when they told him that the forty minutes might consist of silence, depending on whether or not members were “moved” to speak. Anxious discussions followed. After all, the transmitter switches off for security reasons if there is a prolonged silence. The answer, we decided, was to place a ticking clock near a microphone. Forty minutes of blessed silence, tick-tock, with the occasional helpful reflection: radio had never been like this before.’
Have fun!
Who can lift your spirits when you’re down? Jill Allum, of Beccles Meeting, has an answer: ‘The Tesco delivery man!’
She told Eye: ‘We had a black week. I’d had what the doctor called a mini-stroke (TIA), three actually, and, as she does, she sent me straight to hospital for three-and-a-half hours of tests in the Stroke Ward. I was squeezed into midday, as an emergency. We could have been the only ones there, so much care did they give us.
‘So, we were low and then the Tesco delivery came and the jolly driver bounced up to the door, talking of “Madness” – our poster for the local show. As he left he said: “Have fun!”
‘Those two words became our slogan for the next few days and couldn’t have cheered us more. We decided to buy a TV after twenty years of doing without! We treated ourselves to a meal out – a rare event. We sparkled and wanted everyone round us to sparkle, too! A light had come on in our lives! (or darkness!).’
An early start
Ruth Yates, from Lancashire, shared this snap with Eye. She explained: ‘This is a picture of my first grandson, Wilbur Yates, taken by his mother, Daisy Yates, who decided to start educating him on his family’s religious beliefs.”
A colourful quandary
A palette-based computer predicament has perplexed Andrew Jameson, of Malvern Meeting.
He shared his vexation with Eye: ‘I use email a lot. When I want to remind myself to follow up a particular subject, I right-click and choose a coloured flag to put next to the message.
‘The question is: What colour are Quakers now? There is a choice of red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple. The advice of weighty Friends is needed. Please help! (Grey is not available)…’
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