New Ground

Gwen Bell was not fluent in her speech on Margaret Sanger. She broke new ground with her subject, and because of this was interesting, but she had too obviously tried to learn her speech, and had just missed. If she had used notes she might have got on more smoothly.

Paddy Finucane seemed to have got a bit mixed up with Brick Bradford and Jimmy Allen in Reece Smith's version of him, but at least he was disposed of in one instalment. The box Reece was standing on had contained some pretty frothy soap.

Bill Newell, appearing in Air Force uniform, had not had much time to prepare his speech, but made the best of his disadvantage. General Mikhailovitch, too, is an interesting enough character to retain an audience's interest without help from his oral biographer.

There were many well-placed laughs in Jim Winchester's speech on Tom Paine, and it was an enjoyable talk. But it was not quite oratory. He depicted Paine's career clearly and fully, and had the audience with him all the way, but perhaps it is because we know Jim so well that it seemed to us more like a contribution to a discussion than a speech.

Bernie Cullinane led us once more from Log Cabin to White House. Abraham Lincoln was a sombre and awkward man, and Bernie was somewhat the same it was a well-planned speech, but his platform manner could have been more flexible.