My speech to Tonbridge Lions....

I was quite overwhelmed with the reception I was given at the Lions monthly dinner last night. I don't mind admitting that I had been more than a little nervous in the days leading up to the event. I had been asked if I would talk on "a subject" by one of the senior members of the Lions. Therein lay the difficulty, "a subject" is a little broad. I ended up talking about what I know best, the book trade; more specifically the theme was based on a subject I posted on Tonbridge blog about a comment by some twenty-something young geeky looking fellow who I encountered whilst handing out flyers for the Tonbridge Book Fair. To the question "Book Fair on Sunday at Tonbridge School?" whilst thrusting a leaflet towards him, he kept his hands in his pockets and said, rather matter of factly, "No thanks I've got the internet!" thus summing up, in six flippant words, one of the fundemental problems facing the book trade at the moment. I'm quite certain that he was wrong in his quick assesessment but I thank him for giving me a great theme on which to base my speech; I may not have been able to do it without him! I did start by apologising that I would ramble on, Ronnie Corbett style but with one important difference: there would be no joke! and indeed I did ramble on about stories of tunnels under the castle in the book called Tonbridge Legends, I rambled on about Aesops Fables, Frank Chapman and other books; I even threw in some of my own poetry for good (or some might say bad) measure. I went on to make a few serious points defending traditional media but also saying that books and the internet can live side by side and compliment each other. On the whole the talk went very well and what was really heartening, apart from the kind words expressed by most people, was that one gentleman was even given the task of doing a mini speech about my speech! I'm really glad, and flattered to have been given the opportunity to speak to the Lions, but also glad it's done! If you want to read my original posting on this subject scroll down to about October or November last year....