Book Club

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