The study day was in two parts. The first part was for beginners, and the second, for improvers.  

• Morning session : ‘How to begin to Solve Cryptic Crosswords’: 11 am until 1 pm

• Afternoon session : 'Improvers': 2.30pm until 4.30pm. 

Location : The Cross Barn, Odiham

All you had to bring was a pen, paper and a packed lunch if you were going to be here for the whole day. Tea and coffee were provided.

We were delighted to welcome Tiffany Stern to the Cross Barn on 13th February. Tiffany is Professor of Shakespeare and Early Drama at the Shakespeare Institute,University of Birmingham.

The morning focussed on Shakespeare’s First Folio, published in 1623 and is the closest thing we have to the plays as he wrote them. We learnt how it was made and even shown some of the error and blunders!

A lot of you will remember that u3a member John Markham appeared on the Antiques Roadshow a few years ago with a tiny notebook dating from around 1630. It was a cause of great excitement among academics that this rare book had come to light and since then, significant research and investigation has been undertaken by Tiffany Stern. In the afternoon session, Tiffany showed us the results of her findings so far. The notebook contains Shakespeare quotations taken directly from The First Folio and in some cases put into the own words of the writer. There was much lively discussion on who the writer might be and the reason for the notebook - the mystery is yet to be solved!

Tiffany was an excellent and humorous speaker and we all agreed that we had learnt a lot without even realising it.

Thanks to John Markham for suggesting that the topic and Tiffany would make a fascinating study day - you were right John!