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Book Club
We are a friendly group meeting monthly for lively discussion on books chosen by members. We also organise several social events throughout the session.
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Our meetings usually take place on the 1st Monday of each month, 12.00 to 2.00pm (October to April)
Annual subscription: £10
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Contact: Pauline Banks, Secretary
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Meetings
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3Ls Book Club Schedule 2023-2024
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2nd October 2023
Many Different Kinds of Love by Michael Rosen
6th November 2023
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
4th December 2023
Book of Evidence by John Banville
8th January 2024
Poetry
5th February 2024
Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
4th March 2024
Small Things Like these by Claire Keegan
25th March 2024
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
22nd April
AGM
Each meeting begins with a review of the chosen book by a member of the Club followed by a discussion involving all members.
New members welcome, please contact Pauline: Pauline.banks2@btinternet.com
Nancy Clunas 1931-2023
Inaugural President of the 3Ls Book Club
We were sorry to learn that Nancy, our first Book Club president, had passed away in July.
Nancy was an excellent president. We knew her as very well-read and as a skilled reviewer. She also had the ability to deliver a witty riposte in debate and was given to making comic, irreverent, and perfectly-timed asides during our discussions.
She grew up in Clydebank and shared the Socialist beliefs of her parents. She was always a campaigner for the underdog having seen the poverty and suffering of Clydebank families throughout the years and the impact on the community of the devastating air raids during the Clydebank Blitz of 1941. Nancy also wrote articles on subjects of importance to her including on equality for women and on nuclear weapons. She also contributed to many books about Clydebank as she was very knowledgeable about the area’s history and many of the characters who lived there.
In setting up the 3Ls Book Club around 20 years ago, Nancy insisted that the books we read should be ‘challenging’ and that legacy remains today in the nature of the books we collectively choose to read each year. Nancy herself continued to read challenging books and was reading Mikhail Gorbachev’s memoirs in her nineties! As a lover of poetry, she was also keen that one meeting in the year should be devoted to discussing poems and, still today, our January meetings focus on poetry. These poetry meetings are always well-attended by our members who each provide interesting contributions.
We appreciated being invited to attend Nancy’s memorial service in September which took place in Clydebank and was organised by Nancy’s beloved niece and nephew. The service was well-attended by her many friends and family and included the Clydebank Provost - in all his splendid regalia! But the afternoon proved a revelation for us. The family had brought together a collection of photographs of Nancy taken throughout her long life together with the numerous articles she had written and the many books to which she had contributed. Here was Nancy as a youthful CND campaigner - complete with flag! - in a photograph on the front page of a local newspaper. There was Nancy as a contributor to the ground-breaking feminist magazine Spare Rib. And there was Nancy participating as a member of the West Dumbartonshire Women’s History Group. We wondered how this busy woman had the time to be an avid and discerning reader as well!
We are so glad to have had the pleasure of knowing Nancy.
Jean Adams and Janice McCotter


