Scroll down for Wedmore Festival account

Today was quite a rare day when I had to get up early to arrive at the Christian men’s breakfast in St John’s, Frome. What a lovely time of day to drive. Little traffic, the rising sun, clear blue sky.

There were only a dozen of us at the meeting but that was enough for comradeship and sharing.

It started off in quite a comical fashion because the cook (who was also the secretary) forgot to bring cooking oil so the bacon was almost welded to the saucepan. When I tapped the bacon it made a sound, so crisp it was. I made a joke to everyone that the bacon was dangerous as my wicked sense of humor permits me to do, but everyone took it in good spirit.

Normally we have an outside speaker but this time one of the men, Rob, decided to share their experience of having a heart attack. This involved considerable emotional behavior from him and his son who was in the audience.

It appeared that he was playing golf and reached the 16th hole when he felt something heavy in his chest. He told his playing partner he could not continue and decided to ask them to take him home. His wife did not like the look of  his pale face and he and his wife decided together that he would go to the hospital so they rang 999.

It took an ambulance 40 minutes to arrive. The people on the ambulance were very knowledgeable and gave him some injections whilst tapping away on a computer. He arrived at the hospital to find a full team waiting for him. One of the surgeons put a stent up his arm and into the heart.

Goodness knows how they do that up the arm but I believe it is quite a common occurrence, but the surgeon discovered a blockage in the left artery. This relieved the problem for the moment but then he had to stay in hospital and the following Monday had to have a heart bypass operation.

They explained that the risk of failure was 2% but he said that 2% seemed quite a lot to him at the time and he had to sign a paper that he understood the situation. He came out of the operation with wires and tubes coming out of his body and the next day he was asked to get up and sit in a chair.

He found this challenging due to the paraphernalia surrounding him. He was surrounded by nurses from Kerala in India who were Christians and comforted him in the time of need. A couple of days afterwards he had a severe case of eurythmy which is irregular beating of the heart,. The nurses were very comforting and said it happens to one in every three people and he will get over it -which he did.

He joked that he did get over it or he would not be with us. He cited Psalm 34 as a very comforting mantra to get him through the bad times. He said that it had taken him some time to realize that it was actually happening to him not someone else.

Making a will

Strangely, a few days before the event he had written his will and asked the solicitors to expedite the production and signing of the will. He suggested that every one of us make sure not only that we have our will, but that we have decided details of the funeral, where trust deeds are stored, bank account details,  and what to do by way of disposal of possessions. plus who might be informed and invited to any ceremony.

I said that it makes sense to do this since it is 100% sure that we will all die. I told him that my father has written a note which he kept on his desk which said ‘what to do in the event of my death’

As all English people do, he apologized for losing his composure and becoming emotional. I don’t know why people are ashamed of crying because it is nature’s way of releasing and balancing, as is laughter. Do we apologize for laughing?   

Anyway the speaker suggested that we get in our groups and discuss it but by that time it was 9:30 a.m. and I had to move on to the event that I describe below

Wedmore Festival

We went off to Wedmore which is an unusual and outstanding community-minded village catering for people with – I want to say – an upper class lifestyle. Wedmore is an example of how all villages could be. It has a village store, good pubs, health facilities, a wonderful church, and a population who thinks internationally and on a more philosophical level, and is frankly a level above the average village.

It retains the family community spirit and people look after each other. I’m aware that the above statement is full of generalities but I don’t know how else to put it.

Today starts the nine-day festival, the Wedmore festival, at which they have various talks, films and entertainments. The quality of the speakers is very high. The Festival runs until 18th May 2025. There is a huge art exhibition at Saint Marys Church BS28 4AA. The only way you could get more pictures in would be by hanging them from the ceiling because every bit of wall space was taken.

There were drawings and paintings by local artists very reasonably priced from £25 upwards.  There was a local wood turner called Paul Sweet who did the most amazing things with different types of wood and Francoise bought me a present of one of them which I will reveal to the world on my birthday in June.

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After half an hour wandering around we left, walked around the corner to the village hall there to be greeted by two enthusiastic volunteers welcoming us to a talk by Robert Hardman: Charles the Third, New King, New Court. The blurb goes ‘best selling royal biographer Robert Hardman reveals the events behind the scenes that have colored Charles reign as disclosed in his book Charles the Third.

Robert Hardman is an acclaimed journalist, commentator and biographer who has unrivaled access to the Royal family. He shares an intimate portrait of the new monarch and discusses the future of the monarchy in this talk. He has covered numerous historic events including the coronation of King Charles the third and the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. He has been a columnist and royal correspondent for the Telegraph and has written for the Daily Mail. He has also contributed to BBC and ITV documentaries covering major royal events.

There is a world of difference between reading something in the paper and hearing someone with first hand experience sharing their observations in person. Robert was able to comment on the sense of humor of the royal family, what actually happened at the rehearsals for the coronation of the new king, the last moments of Elizabeth the Queen’s life, the relationship with Harry, the traditional customs that accompany all royal occasions.

Roberts spoke fast and you really had to concentrate to get all the nuances but it was one solid hour followed by questions. I asked a question about inclusivity implying that embracing all faiths – without mentioning Islam – was perhaps a step too far but he said the policy of Charles is to serve all faiths not just the faith i.e. the Church of England

I could have pressed him more but I thought it would be better not to on this occasion.  Normally it’s one person one question so I will not in any sense even try to hug the few minutes allocated to question and answer before we went for our booked meal.

About the audience, I have never seen so many obviously well off and ‘nothing to prove’ cultured men. They all looked like they had had successful lives and were now enjoying the fruits of their retirement. I exchanged comments with the chap sitting behind me about the difference between remnants and remains. When I turned to him as a complete stranger he wasn’t put off in the slightest and talked to me as if he had known me a long time. 

We decided that ‘remains’ is often used to describe the body or parts of a dead person especially when not intact, so it has a somber connotation. ‘Remnants ‘has a broader meaning referring to small parts or portions of something left over after perhaps being destroyed or consumed. For example, the remnants of a fire,  or an artifact being the remnant of a past civilization.

There was one other factor too that shows the high quality of fellowship that exists in Wedmore. I showed up at the talk expecting there to be a list where I would be registered as I arrived so when they asked me for my ticket saying they had no list.  I replied that I hadn’t got one so they said they would trust me and let me in.

I can’t see that happening in many places.

Similarly, I went along to have the extra booked lunch x 2 with the wonderful Suzy and friends and family in a thatched house. We will not asked if we had paid, it was just assumed that everyone had been honest enough to pay before entry and as it happened the number of seats exactly equated to the number of attendees.

We all got a pretty generous glass of wine on arrival. We had an excellent lunch with choices of salmon en croute, lasagna, lovely fresh potatoes and some salad followed by a sweet course followed by coffee.

We had a wonderful conversation around the table of which there were two, one inside and one on the terrace.  Robert very courteously and diplomatically spent half his time on one table and half his time on the other. He came and sat on my right and it was so lovely to hear his reminiscences of times gone by and the ease with which he answered questions.

He told us he became their royal correspondent of the Daily Telegraph in the late 90s. At that time no one was allocated specifically to Royal matters and the editor asked if anyone could ski because he wanted a reporter to cover a royal event in Switzerland so because Robert was a skier he volunteered and ….one thing led to another. 

He knew all the royal family very well and it’s not often you can say that of anyone. He must have been a very trusted person for him to be allowed to share their personal lives.

I was able to tell him that I attended the  coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second at the age of nine in 1953 and I remember sitting on the shoulders of my father on the Embankment near Embankment station. I remember in particular the yellow street gaslights. Strangely, a women who was sitting opposite him at the lunch table wrote a book on the doll house of Queen Mary and gave lectures on the same. She had also danced with Prince Charles. Small world.

It really was so wonderful to be surrounded by intelligent people keen to talk and sharing their experiences from around the world and enjoying their sense of humour. I am at my best when I can tell one-liners.

We reluctantly dragged ourselves away and found a place to have coffee and cake. Yes I was being a bit gluttonous but I wanted to celebrate a high point in my daily round.

Well done Festival organizers for getting such a high quality speaker. If I recall he told me that he had been invited last summer so it shows that you have to book these people well in advance

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