11 August 2023

By Göran R Buckhorn

Earlier this year, Irene Hewlett took over as the librarian at the Leander Club Library.

Hewlett has now organised a series of talks about rowing books and books with rowing. The first talk will be on 7 September when Bonnie Garmus will present her best-selling novel Lessons in Chemistry. Hewlett writes about the characters in Garmus’s book:

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing. But, it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel Prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with – of all things – her mind. True chemistry results.

But, like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why, a few years later, Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show, Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, no everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn’t just teaching women to cook – she’s daring them to change the status quo.

Gavin Jamieson, who doesn’t need any introduction for the HTBS readers, will talk about his biography Water’s Gleaming Gold: The Story of Hugh ‘Jumbo’ Edwards – Oarsman, Olympian, Airman on 9 November.

The third talk will be held by Leander’s Andy Trotman, who will talk about Leander’s Bicentenary Book, Leander Club, The First 200 Years, 1818-2018 on 18 January 2024. The book was shortlisted as one of the outstanding illustrated books of the year. This wonderfully illustrated and informative book took many hundreds of hours of painstaking research and work and is a wonderful tribute to Leander’s past and present.

All three talks, which are in aid of the Leander Trust, which gives young people without access to rowing opportunity to get into the sport, will be held in the club’s Dining Room overlooking the River Thames. A finger buffet including honey and mustard glazed sausage rolls, grilled artichokes with marinated olives and sweet chili falafels (among other delicacies) will be served.

Book your spot here.

Everyone is welcome!