In February 2020 the George Borrow Society produced it’s first newsletter, which we’ve decided to make available to non-members: use the link at the bottom of this page if you’d like a copy.
We’re still experimenting with switching from a substantial printed and posted George Borrow Bulletin, to an electronic PDF emailed out to members. The main reason for this is the major cost of printing and postage meant we had to raise subscriptions to £25 per member, just to cover costs, whereas the electronic version is effectively “free.” Some members would prefer a paper copy, deposited in the British Library, but economics have rather forced our hand. That’s the reason there is no membership fee at the moment. You’re more than welcome to join the Society (for free!) if you have an interest in George Borrow.
We’re aware of a lot of Borrovian material that was never published in the Bulletin, and that many members won’t be aware of. We included a selection in our first newsletter and many members have said how much they enjoyed it. We’ll certainly be continuing with this.
As with the Bulletin, we’d like to include articles, notes or queries written by members: you’ve never had to be an academic to do this, every one of us has something to contribute, that others will enjoy finding out about. In this newsletter we’ve included Mike’s research into Borrow’s Bang-up Coachman.
It was the plan of our late chair Dr. Ann Ridler, to collect and publish the reviews of George Borrow’s works, as they appeared at the time and subsequently. The Bulletin had previously featured a few of these, and we’ve included one in this newsletter, with more to come.
Lastly, it seems that through the newsletter we’re uncovering our Borrovian predecessors. Names such as Harry Loweriston and Casey have probably never featured in Borrovian circles before, and yet both were great admirers of Borrow. Perhaps we’ll have to start researching Borrovians as well as Borrow as we go forward?
The next newsletter will be sent to members late May/early June 2020, and we expect to put it on the website at a later point. If you’d like it emailed to you when available, please join the Society.
Click to download the George Borrow Society Newsletter, February 2020
P.S. If you liked Casey’s article there’s a free eBook by him which you might be interested in: The Burston School Strike