At our W.I. meeting in February, we had the great pleasure of having the author, Peter Murphy, as our speaker.   He has written a series of books (they could be on your TV soon) with the main character Charlie Warden reminiscent of Rumpole of the Bailey.

Peter Murphy was born in 1946. After graduating from Cambridge University he spent a career in the law, as an advocate and teacher, both in England and the United States. His legal work included a number of years in The Hague as defence counsel at the Yugoslavian War Crimes Tribunal. He returned to England in 2007 on his appointment as a judge of the Crown Court.  He lives with his wife, Chris, in Cambridgeshire.

We were totally enthralled as he recounted the course of his career, the ideas behind the plots to his books and hinted at his thoughts on other topical issues.  Peter has written a series of books based on a character called Ben Schroeder with the action placed in the 1960s and early 1970s set against the backdrop of ethics, capital punishment, terrorism and so on, also an American series and the Walden series which are the books which feature his “Rumpole” character.

At the end of the meeting, all the books he had brought with him displayed on the table were completely sold out and we kept him busy signing them all for us.  I am sure many of us will be purchasing other titles from Amazon etc. and maybe there will be a bit of book swapping going on

On the night we also celebrated a special birthday for Shirley Baxter and presented her with a gift and card. We were delighted to hear that we had raised £90 for Sue Ryder in memory of Janet Kemp in lieu of sending Christmas cards to one another.  Also our donations of old spectacles have been gratefully received by Rosie Blencowe for onward transmission to Africa.

Before we meet again for our AGM next month when we will vote in the new committee and also welcome Sally Kingman, our Cambridge Federation Chairman, we have a social get together for lunch to look forward to at The Windmill at Somersham.