Looking backwards a little, I would like to remind Friends that the acclaimed actor Ruth Cracknell, who left the stage in May, played a major part in the celebrations to launch our organisation at the beginning of the 1990s, and remained a member until her death.
Those of you who attended the excellent biography conference held by the National Library in September last year will remember Ruth’s account of writing about her husband Eric Phillips in Journey from Venice. Along with her family and her many friends and colleagues, we celebrate her life and her varied contributions to dramatic art in Australia. §§§ The photographs taken during the evening with Christopher Lawrence are still available for viewing in the Friends Lounge and will remain there until the end of July. If you would like to place an order, you may do so through the Friends Office at $3.00 a copy. It was a wonderfully light-hearted function. There was no time for swooning as Christopher eschewed a discussion of music (we all know how erudite he is on the subject!) and instead gave us a hilarious account of his entry into broadcasting. It was a perfect precursor to refreshments in the Friends Lounge. §§§ The first Friends function this month will be a talk entitled ‘Recording History in the Making’ by a senior correspondent with the Australian Financial Review, Geoff Barker. When we contacted him on his cell phone to issue the invitation, we discovered that he was in Dili covering the East Timorese Independence celebrations. A mobile correspondent indeed! Geoff has taped a great number of interviews over his years of reporting on domestic and foreign affairs and plans to present some of them to the National Library’s Oral History collection in the near future. §§§ And don’t forget to meet the author Colin McPhedran, at 5.30 pm on 25 July when he talks about his moving childhood flight from Burma during World War Two—the subject of his recently published book White Butterflies. Bookings for this one, which will allow the audience to enjoy a glass of wine with the author, are essential. Lee Kirwan |
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