The Margery Allingham Society was represented at the annual weekend gathering of the Alliance of Literary Societies, hosted by the George Eliot Foundation in Nuneaton.
In the rather splendid surroundings of the Council Chamber of Nuneaton Town Hall, we heard a lecture by Kathryn Hughes on George Eliot’s early experience as a milkmaid on her father’s tenant farm, which, she proudly told friends, gave her a more muscular right hand than her left owing to the hours churning butter. But when her glove was produced at the climax of the talk it proved to be a size 6 1/2 – the second smallest size produced commercially for Victorian women. Several ingenious solutions to this mysterious conundrum were proposed by members of the audience. Clearly there is here the basis for a plot to puzzle even Albert Campion!
The Society provided a copy of The Case of The Late Pig as one of the prizes in the fundraising raffle and we succeeded in recruiting a new member during the day who joined online through the website while talking with our representatives at the gathering.
