Alan Bennett on Settle Rotary Club

Among the pleasures of living in Settle is that you bump into national treasure Alan Bennett from time to time in the local shops and so forth.   It is comforting to know that famous people do mundane things too.

Pat bumped into AB in the check out queue at Booths supermarket recently and told him that the check-out lady had told her that she was taking AB's latest book on holiday with her to read.   "She'll need an excess baggage allowance" he replied.

Sure enough the book is 720 pages deep and covers his life between 2005 and 2015 via his diaries.   Bless, her, daughter Lorna got it for Pat as a Christmas gift.   She's already up to page 217 and our life is punctuated with giggles - often and inevitably relating to Settle.

Here is the entry for 5th July 2010:

" A child in Settle is said to have asked what the Mafia was and his grandfather said, 'It's like Settle Rotary Club, only with guns.'"

Mark Rand
(Past President Settle Rotary Club)